ReadyWhen with Jessie Vaid | E228

Planning ahead to make estate administration easy.

On today's Fintech Impact, Jason Pereira will speak with Jessie Vaid, the creator, and CEO of ReadyWhen. ReadyWhen is a digital legacy manager that assists you in putting all of your essential information in one place so that when the worst comes, your family will have a head start in settling your affairs, as well as other kinds of beneficial tools and use cases while you are still living. Jessie is trying to be an educator in the platform of knowing what needs to go into there and beyond all that information there. When he goes into a conversation, people don't realize there are masked digital footprints that they have a lot of the time.

Episode Highlights:

  • 01:30: Building this solution was to be able to provide peace of mind for your loved ones and your executors when you pass away. The premise behind it is that you build your state as you are alive, so that when the time does come that all the information that is required to settle your state is in one central location, says Jessie.

  • 01:52: When we talk about all your asset information, all your legal documents. Health information that may be required. Your digital footprint today and most importantly, shared with the individuals that would need that information upon your passing. 

  • 04:21: Jessie has been providing legal documentation from estate planning to real estate documents since 2004. Her background is a notary public in British Columbia. In British Columbia, what we do is we practice a facet of law that is primarily focused on real estate transactions and also estate planning.

  • 05:56 Jessie started mapping out what she thought she would need to build the solution. At that point, she started discussion with her co-founder Sachin Bella and at that time he had unfortunately lost both of his parents and so he is actually gone through the loss and he knew the issues and problems surrounding being that executor in that probate process.

  • 06.02: In 2019 we got together and worked with a local company Applied Digital Gotham who supported us from day one and helped us build a working prototype and we took that overtype and we shared it amongst colleagues of mine also accountants, financial planners and the individual that would possibly be using our platform and they really were able to relate with the solution.

  • 08:48: Jessie thinks we have learned a lot in the last almost two years now. We identified some of the pitfalls and issues of building and providing a solution. Once we got the product to market, the feedback was very consistent amongst professionals. 

  • 09:13: Jessie says that their business model is B2B and B2C. They do not try to sell, you know, one license at a time. They have that option through our website. But they know that they need to get to the large corporations. Jessie needs to get the MG's and they need to get the buying from the professionals until they become that whole sold name within Canada.

  • 09:50: Once we started getting the product out to educate the professionals on our solution, it was very consistent in helping them understand the value of this product. Especially someone that has been through the process of being an executor. We can provide you a solution with everything there, says Jessie. 

  • 10:23: The solution of what we envision and what we executed when we got to market has been very consistent in that, professionals know that they themselves would like the solution because of our functionality that allows a financial advisor or a legal professional or an accountant to be a part of their clients team so that they can also be involved in ensuring that their accounts are up to date, explains Jessie. 

  • 13:13: We have also purchased with our software a product through Salesforce which is called marketing cloud and it really nudges you in the right direction. In our software we do not get to see the information that you have uploaded, but we know what things you filled in and what things you haven't filled out, says Jessie. 

  • 13:15: If you have many team members, we want to nudge you to add your executor to it, we want you to add your spouse to it. We also have a feature called Ready mode and Ready mode is after you pass away, the information that someone would need. Which would include things like Funeral arrangements, immediate actions, etc, says Jessie. 

  • 14:13: It also includes the ability to leave notes to loved ones, pictures to loved ones, and also videos to love ones. It also provides with having that ability to have that final message that taped in and released only upon your passing to your children or to your spouse.

  • 15:30: Everything is digital. What about all your digital accounts that you may have? What about your rewards points? What about those Aeroplan points? What about those credit card rewards points if you don't use them or if you don't transfer them? They are just going to disappear.

  • 18:53: With Prosper by sunlight, not only on them getting their product out to market, but then being an integral part of that solution. What the offering currently is as you register for prosper by sunlight, which is a free tool, you will receive a ready account which has a $50 value attributed to it.

  • 20:28: We have built a solid platform that houses all that information. The next thing is getting that information into the product. So we are focusing on our tools for professionals and also the product itself that actually has that information frictionlessly flowing into Ready When so that the user when they come into the product, those documents are already there, says Jessie.

  • 23:03: The reality is if you are not there for the hardest times of the client's life, you are not earning it. 

  • 28:33: The biggest challenge for Jessie is getting this product out, getting the professionals to understand it and ensuring that it's getting into the hands of Canadians. With our partnership, with PROSPER by sunlight, we are headed in the right direction and definitely making steps into ensuring that Canadians understand the value of a solution Ready When, says Jessie.

  • 29:23: COVID was a really galvanizing moment for this and thousands of people go through the same experience in a short period of time, they are all going to have a difficult time. The Ready When Platform would have helped a lot of people. 

3 Key Points

  1. In 2020 is when we. got the prototype built and in late 2020 is when we actually released our MVP. In 2021 we were primarily getting the word out and getting users into this system, says Jessie.

  2. Jessie explains what kind of features they have applied to the software to enable it to serve its purpose beyond that of just a basic document storage.

  3. Prosper by sunlight is a new digital platform that they have released whereby they are focusing on the individual that wants a hybrid digital solution, also being able to speak to an advisor and get guidance and direction from the real life person on the other side. This solution focuses on wealth insurance and Wellness.

Tweetable Quotes

  • "I have been doing this for almost 20 years, you would be amazed at how much information is not being shared between partners and not because they don't want to share it, but they're just so busy." – Jessie

  • "We have always created state planning documents, may it be wills, power attorneys, representation agreements for health. We have always provided those documents, created them for our clients and we've given them across my desk to my clients." – Jessie

  • I have lost my spouse. I'm an executor. I don't even know what this is. I agreed to be the executor, but I had no idea. What the job was going to entail and what do I do now? It was like there has to be a better way of collecting this information and disseminating this information amongst those that would require it." – Jessie

  • "We wanted to build a solution, to provide Canadians peace of mind knowing that if you pass away, everything would be in one central location and I think that is the motif  of what we did." – Jessie

  • "Our goal now is to really work on ensuring that the information is easily flowing into ready when." - Jessie

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