As his mom grew older, Howard Tischler knew he would need to start dedicating more time to her care. He traveled down to South Carolina about once a month, set-up on-site care and more to care for her physical and emotional well-being.
But what Tischler didn't expecting was that, as his mom aged, he would have to watch after her financial well-being, too.
"It started with a telemarketer calling her and selling her an auto loan policy when she was almost 80 years old, she didn't own a car, didn't have a driver's license and was legally blind," Tischler said. "From there, she got onto a suckers list and other telemarketers called her and sold what I would call 'inappropriate product.'"
Within a year and a half, his mom had lost her entire lifetime of savings, or a bit more than a $100,000, to telemarketer scams and infomercials. She fell behind on bills, all while convincing her family that everything was under control. "As people sold her things she didn't need, she started to fall behind, and eventually I went to visit her and saw her credit card bills," he said.
After Tischler's mother passed away in 2011, he started digging into what happened and how.
"I contacted the elder abuse unit in Manhattan, and I was fortunate enough that the head of that organization called me back and she educated me on what happened here," he said. "We came to the conclusion that technology could really help with this problem."
That research and conversation lead him to his current endeavor: EverSafe.
Based in Columbia, Md., EverSafe is an online financial management service aimed at the aging population. It allows you to keep tabs on what you're spending, what your investments look like — and as an added bonus, it gives close family members and friends access to your finances, as well. EverSafe analyzes your financial behavior, and whenever it sees abnormal activity — such as spending a lot on infomercial products, draining your bank account, making several checks out to a stranger, etc. — the platform alerts you and everyone who has access to your profile.
In all, EverSafe is monitoring your credit card data, bank account data, investment accounts, daily credit reports, black market deals data and Post Office information to create full profile of you and your financial activities. Prices range from $7.49 per month to $22.99 per month.
"It really is a service," Tischler said. "It is not a piece of software that you install on your computer. It is a service that you access, but it is also an app that you can access on your Android or smartphone device."
In June, EverSafe was one of eight startups selected for JPMorgan Chase and the Center for Financial Services Innovation's Financial Solutions Lab Spring 2017 cohort, out of a pool of over 300 applicants. As part of the program the startup will receive $250,000 in capital, along with networking, advisory opportunities and other resources.
"They have a deep understanding of the consumer," said Colleen Briggs, the executive director of Community Innovation at JPMorgan Chase, in an interview. "They are committed to improving the life of these consumers. They're personally motivated. We think that’s really critical."
EverSafe operates both a consumer model of the product for personal use and a business-to-business model, where a corporation can bulk order the product for several of their consumers and enroll them in the platform. That opens up the possibility of a nursing home making the technology available to their residents, for instance.
"We're the only ones who are looking at what's happening in particular with the financial transactions of an aging individual" Tischler said. "There are companies out there that are trying to get more people to get more money into their investments, and we're trying to protect what they have."
While at the Financial Solutions Lab, Tischler hopes to take his product to the next level. In 2016, they doubled their customer base, although specific numbers were not provided, and EverSafe's team of 10 want to continue to build themselves as the product for seniors. They're assessing new data points to add to their analysis, like real estate investments, and honestly, they're just working to keep up with all of the financial data out there, Tischler said.
"We're constantly looking at new types of patterns that might indicate that there's a problem out there, as well as adding new data to what we're doing," he said. "Anything that might be indicative that there is a particular problem that could be brewing out there as early on as possible."
Images courtesy of JPMorgan Chase and the Center for Financial Services Innovation's Financial Services Lab
A previous version of this article misstated how many startups won the award and JPMorgan Chase's relationship with the Financial Solutions Lab. Eight startups are a part of the new cohort through the lab, which is run in joint partnership with JPMorgan Chase and the Center for Financial Services Innovation. The story has been updated to reflect that change.
