A Tempe estate planning startup has emerged from stealth mode with the announcement of a $16 million seed funding round that is expected to open the way for further growth.
The company, Wealth, was founded last year by Rei Carvalho, Rafael Loureiro and Tim White, who enlisted experts in trust and estate law, personal financial management and data security to design and develop a platform that offers a new way to do estate planning.
Through the platform, the company said, members can create, manage and visualize their estate plans in a way that cuts through what has been seen as a complex and inaccessible process for average people.
The funding round was led by Menlo Park, California-based Anthos Capital which was joined by Bela Juju Ventures. Anthos had previously worked with Carvalho when he was CEO of another company he started: Chandler-based fraud prevention startup Emailage Corp. That company was eventually bought in early 2020 by RELX PLC, the parent company of the Atlanta-based global data and advanced analytics provider LexisNexis Risk Solutions.
The company is continuing to improve its integrated ecosystem of proprietary legal documents, third-party application programming interfaces, and a bank-level-encrypted digital vault.
“The majority of the funding will go to R&D so we can bring the most thoughtful, comprehensive, easy to use and secure product to market,” Loureiro told the Business Journal. “We also will use the new financing to continue assembling a great team of engineers, experts in trust and estate law, personal financial management, and data security.”
Loureiro said Wealth already has 50 people and will grow to 70 by the end of the year. It currently has four openings listed on its jobs page.
Looking to expand services
Anthos Managing Partner Paul Farr said Anthos is glad to be renewing a former partnership and highlighted Wealth’s potential to bring what has often been seen as something confusing or for the wealthy to more consumers.
“Wealth is democratizing elements of personal finance that are important for consumers,” Farr said in a statement. “We are proud to invest behind this incredible team again, after working together successfully at Emailage, and are excited to help support their mission.”
The goal is to bring widespread change to a system Carvalho described as outdated.
“By focusing on technology and strategic partnerships, we have built an ecosystem that challenges the archaic estate planning industry to progress beyond the 3-ring binders, and move towards Web3,” Carvalho said in a statement. “Life isn’t static, and neither is estate planning. Taking care of your family and having a plan for your assets is an ongoing job that requires a dynamic ecosystem to live, breathe, and evolve in lock-step with your life.”
To reach more consumers, Wealth plans to connect with human resources teams and organizations that would be interested in making its platform available as a benefit for workers and members.
Putting an emphasis on estate-planning education is also a key part of the company’s mission. Loureiro said Wealth commissioned a study that surveyed 10,000 American adults ages 30-55 and discovered that only 32% of respondents had a will in place and that most admitted to knowing little or nothing about estate planning.
Making its platform comprehensive, accessible for everyone and educational is Wealth’s way of changing that, he said.
“Everyone needs a plan, they may just not know it yet,“ Loureiro said in a statement.
