Why We Built Kaira
Why We Built Kaira
When someone dies, the grief hits first. Then the paperwork.
Within 72 hours, the calls start. Social Security needs to know. The bank wants a death certificate. The mortgage company asks for letters testamentary that the probate court hasn't issued yet. The funeral home needs decisions about things you've never thought about. And nobody tells you about the others.
We built Kaira because we went through this ourselves.
The problem nobody warns you about
Death comes with logistics. Not a few loose ends — a full administrative project that takes months, costs thousands, and varies dramatically based on which state you're in, what the deceased owned, and whether they left a will.
Most families discover this in real time. They Google "what to do when someone dies" and get a 10-item checklist that was written for no state in particular. It says "notify the bank" without mentioning that joint accounts behave differently than individual accounts, that each bank has its own estate department with its own forms, and that some accounts freeze the moment a death certificate is presented while others don't.
They search "how does probate work" and get an article that doesn't distinguish between Texas (where independent administration means you might never step foot in a courthouse) and Massachusetts (where the Probate and Family Court has specific filing fees, forms, and timelines).
The information exists. It's scattered across state statutes, bank websites, government agencies, and funeral home FAQs. No one has assembled it into a single, personalized sequence of actions.
What's wrong with existing solutions
There are funeral planning apps. There are estate planning platforms. There are checklists. We studied all of them. Here's what we found:
Generic checklists don't account for your state. Probate timelines, tax obligations, and filing requirements vary wildly across all 50 states. A checklist that doesn't know your state is a checklist that can't tell you what actually matters.
Most tools are information, not action. They tell you "contact Social Security" without telling you the number to call, the form you need, the deadline you're working against, and the documents you'll need in hand before you dial.
Nothing is personalized. Whether your loved one was a veteran, whether they owned property, whether they had minor children, whether they were receiving Medicaid — each of these changes the task list. A one-size-fits-all guide can't handle this.
The two audiences are completely different. Someone whose parent just died needs a different starting point than someone planning ahead at age 60. Most products treat these as the same user. They aren't.
How Kaira works
Kaira starts by asking a few questions about your situation. Your state. Your relationship to the person who died. What they owned. Whether there's a will. Whether they were a veteran. Whether there are minor children.
From those answers, it builds a personalized timeline of 30 to 50 tasks, organized by deadline: what needs to happen today, this week, this month, and in the coming months. Each task includes the specific forms, phone numbers, and documents you'll need. Each is cited to the relevant state statute or federal regulation.
It helps you compare funeral homes with the right questions to ask. It walks you through writing an obituary that sounds like the person, not a template. It gives you step-by-step instructions for closing accounts at specific institutions — Chase, Bank of America, Fidelity, Social Security, and more. It lets you delegate tasks to family members so one person doesn't carry everything. And it includes pre-written letters, checklists, and a downloadable emergency packet so you're not starting from scratch.
One payment, $79.99. No subscription. No upsells.
Why this didn't exist before
Every state's probate code, tax rules, and filing requirements are publicly documented. But nobody had assembled them into a single, personalized sequence of actions. The information was there — scattered across government websites, state statutes, and funeral home FAQs. We spent months researching all 50 states, building content for each, and citing every statute.
Millions of families are caring for aging parents right now. They will face this. Many will face it without anyone to tell them what to expect, what to ask, or what they're entitled to.
The average family spends $7,848 on a funeral alone, often under time pressure, without comparison data. The cost of not knowing what's negotiable, what's required by law versus what's optional, and what benefits you can claim — that cost is real and avoidable.
What we believe
We believe that navigating the logistics of death shouldn't require a law degree or a financial advisor. Families deserve specific, actionable guidance that accounts for their state, their situation, and their timeline.
We believe the answer isn't more information. It's the right information, in the right order, at the right time.
That's what Kaira does. If you're going through this now, or if you want to be ready before you need to be, this is what we built for you.