Sunset publishes “Estate Settlement Report Card”

March 4, 2026/Business, Finance, Products/

“If you are a funeral director and don’t know about Sunset yet you are probably missing out on a tool that your families would thank you for. . . ”

Last week MarketWatch published an article (that is stopped by a paywall from accessing) about Sunset’s first ever “Estate Settlement Report Card“. That article is titled “Most banks fail miserably in helping grieving families make this vital financial move“.

Sunset’s proprietary system helps people who have had deaths in the family find assets that they may not know about and close out those, and other known accounts, . . . .at no cost to the family.

The MarketWatch article came out on the heels of the Sunset “Report Card” reporting on how well 100 different banking and financial institutions respond to grieving families and their inquiries about the assets of a deceased loved one. Here’s a quote from the Executive Summary of the “Report Card”:

“Most institutions are falling short. The results reveal significant room for improvement across the industry. While brokerages and retirement providers generally outperformed traditional banks, even top performers have opportunities to better serve grieving families. The institutions that excelled shared common traits: dedicated estate services teams, streamlined digital processes, and clear communication. We hope this report encourages all financial institutions to prioritize the estate settlement experience.”

Here’s a copy of the Sunset announcement about their 2025 Estate Settlement Report Card that can lead to a click-thru to the full report as authored by Sunset.

According to the Report Card, “Every year, more than 3 million American families lose a loved one. What follows isn’t just grief. It’s an avalanche of phone calls, paperwork, and dead ends as they try to close bank accounts, claim life insurance, and transfer retirement funds.”

Some of Sunset’s findings in this report are interesting. . .for instance

“55% of institutions still don’t let families start the estate process online. In 2025, families are being told to drive to a branch, sometimes in another state, just to notify a bank that someone has died.

“Regional banks performed the worst, averaging a D+.”

“Staff training is the industry’s biggest weakness. We routinely encountered representatives who had never handled an estate case, gave contradictory instructions, or couldn’t answer basic questions about their own institution’s process.”

About Sunset — According to the Estate Settlement Report Card, “Sunset is a Y Combinator-backed software company and the only software tool that can find financial accounts and other assets after a death. Sunset is 100% free to use, and after asset discovery can automate the process of notifying asset-holding financial institutions, opening estate bank accounts, and other inheritance processing.”

Click here to access the Sunset website

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take: If you are a funeral director or funeral home and don’t use Sunset you are missing out on a tool that can give extreme satisfaction to your client families. Just being a person that tells a person about Sunset can prove to be a very positive public relations move, especially if the family finds hidden or forgotten assets And, in some families those assets you help them uncover may help them pay the funeral bill or provide funds for preneed accounts of survivors.

I also know that it sounds too good to be true about the “no-cost” feature of using Sunset. However, Sunset receives their revenue from banks where assets are parked until they are available to the family. Sunset’s website explains it this way, “Just like any bank, we make money from interest yielded while money sits in the estate bank account.”

I’ve been fortunate at Funeral Director Daily to have somewhat of an inside track on Sunset and its evolution almost from the start. Their founder and CEO, Stephen Walter, may be one of the nicest people in Death Care. We connected and Sunset became a sponsor of Funeral Director Daily while the company was still in their infancy.

And, here is what one of my friends in funeral service recently e-mailed me . . .”I was on the Sunset Software App yesterday and was reminded that you introduced Stephen to me. I think this is the BEST app I’ve seen so far for the ‘Estate Settlement’ side of the business. Super Clean and so easy to navigate.”

Here’s a portion of CEO Walter’s message in the Estate Settlement Report Card:

“. . . I’ve been there myself. I was overwhelmed not just by grief, but
by the sheer volume of phone calls, paperwork, and dead ends. I
spent hours on hold, repeated my story to countless
representatives, and hit wall after wall. It felt like the
institutions holding my loved one’s assets had never considered
that someday, someone would need to close these accounts.

That experience changed me. It’s why I started Sunset, and it’s
why my entire team comes to work every single day with one
mission: to make the inheritance process easier, more
transparent, and more humane for every family.

This report card is personal to us. We’ve worked directly with
thousands of families over the past year, and we’ve seen
firsthand which institutions treat grieving families with dignity
and which ones make an already painful process even harder.
We believe you deserve to know what to expect before you pick
up the phone or walk into a branch.

To the institutions in this report: we see you. We’re grading you
not to shame you, but to push you to do better. Families deserve
better. And to the families reading this: we’re here for you. You
don’t have to do this alone.”