Isaiah Miller
UFID: 80191457
Forming An Opportunity Belief
5/26/2020
People going through major life transitions where assets must be liquidated are unable to quickly and efficiently get through the transitions due to the logistical complexities of each transition.
The who: People going through major life transitions like probate, assisted living, and divorce.
The what: They are unable to quickly and efficiently get through the transition.
The why: Logistical complexities of each transition (legal, time & energy, confusion).
I have to clarify that the major life transitions that I am focused on are only those where there is a high likelihood that assets will be moving around. These include probate, assisted living, and divorce. I have interviewed people with this understanding.
I found that there are other transitions that also have this need, like going overseas in the military or imprisonment, but these are less common and also harder to navigate and address. In most of these cases, the personal and real property are the only complexities. I also found that not everyone going through the major life transitions that I mentioned feel overwhelming stress or confusion. Some people are great coordinators, and have time to do thorough research and due diligence. In these cases, they coordinate all of the service providers themselves, and find the best solution for each of their needs through their own research. The people that really need the help are those with little time or bandwidth to deal with every step of the process by themselves, and those that would rather save the time and energy to shorten the process using someone else's network and knowledge.
Some transitions are more complex and stressful than others. For instance, if someone dies testate (has a will), with major assets in a living trust, and the beneficiaries already have a fantastic realtor, financial advisor, and estate-planning attorney, their transition will be much less stressful than someone that dies intestate with no network. With that said, only 25% of adults have a will, and 13% living trusts. Additionally, it is not as easy to plan for a divorce, or transition into assisted-living, and there are various complexities in these transitions as well. Sometimes the estate is under $75 thousand dollars and can be settled through summary judgement. This can be less complex than otherwise. Sometimes those going through transitions have no assets at stake, so there is much less stress relating to the liquidation of assets.
The above information was gathered through the interviews conducted. Some people are very busy and don't want to spend much time dealing with the process of each transition. Some people don't want any help, and want to reinvent the wheel and figure it all out themselves. A meaningful majority of people understand the value in helping eliminate confusion and stress during these times, especially without any type of fee charged to the client directly.
Hi Isaiah
ReplyDeleteRegarding your hypothesis, I think you need to specify what would be the service or product that your firm would provide to the public. I agree with the fact that there are complex circumstances that require managerial skills that people do not possess. That need could potentially be addressed by either a lawyer with a contract or an Asset Manager but each circumstance is different, for instance, a divorce is a very complex situation where the agreement is not necessarily an ingredient then you won't be able to have an Asset Manager to handle it.
Good luck with your project and keep safe.
Hi,
DeleteAsset managers and attorneys are only part of the solution to many of these peoples' problems. The attorney is one spoke of the wheel, and an asset manager is another potential spoke.
This business is a service that acts as the hub of the wheel, connecting those going through each of these transitions with the right resources and solutions to make it easier for them.
For example, in a probate, the attorney is usually responsible for about a quarter of the tasks. The other three quarters is who's responsibility? Yours, if you are the personal representative.
Most people are only PR's once, and so they have no idea what they need to do, and how. The attorney excels in legal matters, but what about the personal property? What happens to the real estate, when, and how? Doug, who still lives at the decedents home and who is a complete loser without a job, what happens to him? What has to happen and in what order?
This business helps those people make sense of the situation, and can either take some of, or the entire burden of all of those examples off of their plate. This way, instead of the PR needing to find a realtor or homebuyer, an estate sale or liquidation company, a cleanout company, a cleaning company, vacant home insurance (because their old policy is no longer effective if home is vacant 30 days or more, many lawyers don't know that), etc. etc. etc., it can all be done for them, with no money out of their pocket.
Hope that sheds some light on the service. It is a little hard to understand without knowledge of the intricacies of each of these complex transitions.
Hi Isaiah! I think your opportunity has the potential to be a great business. I think that people in these stages of life definitely need help in aiding them in transition. Of course, people initially only think about when people die, but you mentioned so many occasions that people may need assistance. And the prototypical customer is really broad, which means you have more potential customers. The only thing I wish you would’ve mentioned is briefly explain how you plan to tackle this opportunity. Overall great job!
ReplyDeleteHello Isaiah, I really like that you are continuing to expand on your idea from a previous post to help people go through life transitions. The interviews you conducted brought out a bunch of really useful information that I think will help you to continue developing the idea as well. Really good post and I am excited to see what ideas you bring up next.
ReplyDelete