Brief

Prismm launches at TechCrunch Disrupt to keep inherited money inside banks

Prismm, founded by sisters Martha Underwood and Shella Sylla, demonstrated its estate‑planning platform on the Startup Battlefield stage.

By Felo News Desk · Published Wed, 14 Oct 2026 22:33:12 GMT

Prismm, a fintech startup founded in 2020 by sisters Martha Underwood and Shella Sylla, presented its product on the Startup Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 on October 14, according to TechCrunch.

What happened

The company showcased a platform that embeds beneficiary designations and estate‑planning tools directly into bank accounts from the moment they are opened. The system lets account holders pre‑authorize family members to access assets and documents after death, enabling remote, digital transfers even across state lines.

What the reports add

TechCrunch notes that the founders were motivated by personal experience: their father’s 2017 hospitalization after Hurricane Irma left the family unable to locate critical financial paperwork. Underwood later observed, while working at a bank during the COVID‑19 pandemic, that families struggling after a death faced entirely manual processes. The article adds that existing market solutions are consumer‑focused, requiring users to gather documents themselves, which the founders say disproportionately burdens women, who often act as caregivers.

What was said

In an interview, Underwood told TechCrunch, “It’s still very much all manual. And that’s when we said, ‘We can digitize this process.’ We were like, ‘We can solve it because we see that there’s other families that are going to have this issue.’” She also said, “What’s on the market is consumer‑based. When you’re asking the consumer to do something with everything else on their list, that’s going to be the last thing they do, especially women.”

How it came about

The idea for Prismm originated from the sisters’ 2017 experience with their father’s accident in Miami and solidified three years later when Underwood witnessed bereaved families scramble for account information during the pandemic. Their combined decades in banking and finance led them to develop a solution that integrates wealth‑growth platforms with transition tools, aiming to keep families’ money within the same bank after a death.

Key facts

• Prismm debuted its estate‑planning platform at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. (techcrunch.com)
• Founders are sisters Martha Underwood and Shella Sylla, who started the company in 2020. (techcrunch.com)
• The platform allows pre‑authorized beneficiaries to access assets digitally after an account holder dies. (techcrunch.com)
• Underwood cited personal experience with her father's 2017 accident and pandemic‑era bank work as inspiration. (techcrunch.com)

Sources

• [1] techcrunch.com — originally reported as “Prismm helps banks keep inherited money in-house”