We are reminded that there are only two certainties in life… "death and taxes.”
Why do people say this? Because it is true.
Which also means that bringing closure to a loved one’s financial life is a necessary and universal need. However, because this subject spans complex tax, legal and financial domains, few families have affordable access to the resources needed to properly, much less easily, complete the process.
For estates of $1 to 3mm+ net worth, there are plenty of resources such as banks, estate attorneys and trust companies. But this leaves everyone else underserved and with little resources… which is ~97% of families.
Historically, families have spent an average of 513 hours and $14,225 on this complicated 9-12 month journey, stumbling through a confusing and bureaucratic process.
Given the amount of innovation we’ve seen across the fiduciary & legal industries over recent years, we’ve come to believe that’s pretty unbelievable, and quite frankly... unacceptable.
Enough is ENOUGH.
And with that...
I’m proud to announce that I’m joining the Atticus team as COO & Chief Revenue Officer!
👋 Hi, we’re Atticus and we’re transforming the future of Probate & Estate Settlement
A few years ago Atticus started as an idea with a simple mission— to simplify the process of helping families navigate probate and settle an estate after the loss of a loved one.
Everyone leaves a legacy. We’re on a mission to modernize the way families financially navigate life after the death of a loved one,”
— Ben Hopf, CEO
Fast forward to today, and the team has launched multiple consumer products & institutional platforms across USA & Canada nationally. It has helped families settle more than 5,000 estates. It’s been recognized by Fast Company as a World Changing Idea. And it continues to support a growing network of more than 60,000 families & advisors monthly across its suite of products, guidance and offerings.
Having known Ben for more than +10 years, and seeing the start of something great, I deeply resonated with the mission and purpose from day one. With over +30 years of selling fiduciary software/services and networking with wealth management professionals, I certainly know the industry need is tremendous.
And that the timing couldn’t be more perfect.
So here I am— excited to roll up my sleeves and be starting again with a dynamic software company for a few reasons:
- An incredible and dedicated team
- The mission/product for families
- The mission/product for advisors
- The roadmap ahead— we’ve got a lot of fun stuff being built!
1. An incredible team... that wants to make a difference
It takes a dedicated, well-oiled team to achieve something bold. But it also takes passion, proven experience and material “know-how.” And that’s exactly what the Atticus team has assembled.
- Unique domain expertise from the nation’s only school with graduate & undergraduate level programs in probate & estate settlement
- Built by the same team that designed, built & launched the TurboTax mobile app
- Founding team has senior-level experience leading companies from startup to Fortune 100, incl: TurboTax, Mint, ServiceNow, Allbirds, Bank of America & Wells Fargo
- COO has 30+ years serving in executive Banking/wealth management provider leadership roles
- Backed by strategic industry-investors with strong domain knowledge and working relationships across downstream partners for distribution & scaling
In meeting the full team, I've consistently been impressed with how focused & passionate everyone is, and how determined they are to make a difference for our clients!
2. The mission for consumers & families
Families deserve more help than the industry is currently able to offer— and we are immensely excited to be building better help.
Atticus is the first ever DIY probate, estate settlement and inheritance app. Atticus helps the 97% of underserved surviving family members navigate the unavoidable process of bringing a close to the financial life after the loss of a loved one. Following a couple years of unprecedented loss (due to the pandemic), the timely launch of Atticus across the US and Canada has brought affordability and a much needed level of financial empowerment to families during a time when they’ve needed it most.
Using Atticus, families are able to self-navigate individualized step-by-step guidance, consider local laws, access necessary forms, helpful tips and use automated tools & reporting designed to harmonize families and engage advisors while working through the formal process of closing an estate.
Not to mention our growing suite of helpful resources like:
- Atticus Learn Hub
- Magazine of seasonal stories & articles
- Executor’s Glossary of Terms - Empowering/Promoting Financial & Fiduciary Literacy
- Largest repository of Probate Forms in North America
- National Directory of Probate Clerks & Probate Courts
Personally, it brings me great joy and energy to wake up everyday and be a part of building a platform that can truly help millions of families save some money and navigate an unavoidable, frustrating process during one of the most emotionally-challenged life events we all face.
3. The mission for institutions & advisors
But the industry is sorely in need of innovation for advisors as well.
Currently, financial institutions struggle to profitably service the mass-market audience through probate & estate settlement conversations due to the liability, time/manual processes involved, uniqueness of each family and profitability constraints associated with face-to-face advisory approach. Yet advisors are looking for transformative ways to:
- Improve customer experience
- Expand service offerings
- Engage with new customer channels
By partnering with financial institutions & advisors to offer a DIY consumer platform, Atticus bridges the current service gap by equipping the industry with a scalable product offering for all clients, not just the high net worth. This helps those institutions gain & retain more business as Atticus provides point-of-need opportunities to transform unavoidable life events into enduring relationships with surviving spouses and next-gen heirs following the loss of a loved one.
In short, Atticus enables advisors to transform unavoidable life events into enduring new relationships with surviving family members.
4. Our momentum & the road ahead
And while we’re incredibly proud of the level of automation & value that our humble & hard-working team has achieved, we’re far from finished. Like most ideas, the early vision becomes the simple tip of an unexposed iceberg of opportunity.
On that note, our team is in the midst of testing, refining & preparing for the release of some very exciting new features & products that are soon to go live. **spoiler alert**
That being so, I’m admittedly excited to be heads down with the team during my first few weeks of onboarding, but am also reserving some time to stay connected with industry friends throughout the transition. After all, it’s my passion for hearing your needs & using that feedback to inform our product roadmap that fuels my excitement in joining Atticus.
If you’re curious to learn more about how we can help your firm grow & retain more assets under management and expand client relationships, drop me a note or let’s connect over a demo. Talk Soon!
Patrick Alyward
COO & Chief Revenue Officer
Atticus
About Atticus
Atticus is a fintech based company committed to empowering families through the unavoidable process of bringing a close to the financial life of a loved one. It’s groundbreaking probate & estate settlement product is a comprehensive, all-in-one platform combining personalized guidance with intuitive, easy-to-use tools that allows families and their advisors to save time and money by navigating the estate settlement and inheritance process together.
Atticus is available nationally across the United States and Canada and is backed by a passionate team of industry experts including tax, legal, financial and fiduciary professionals.
