Carefull is a digital services company that was created to help the estimated 45 million Americans who are financial caregivers—people who are responsible for a loved one’s daily money matters. Financial caregivers ensure bills get paid, look for ways to cut costs to stretch limited incomes, negotiate with insurers, guard against fraud and often pay for their loved one’s care out of their own pockets.
The Carefull team recognized that financial caregivers needed an easier way to stay on top of everything they need to manage and to protect their loved one’s finances. So they created an app to make the financial caregiving process easier:
- It sets up your loved one’s financial picture and identifies what money is coming in and going out.
- It monitors those accounts and will alert you to possible late payments, changes in spending and unusual transactions.
- It allows you to create a circle of family members or others who help with your loved one’s care so you can coordinate and communicate easier about money matters.
- It provides tips on topics ranging from protecting against scams, to getting the legal authority to manage your loved one’s finances, to helping your loved one save money.
Carefull does this in a way that gives you time back and makes family discussions less stressful; all to prevent small issues from becoming big problems.
How will the Carefull digital technology service help or simplify the life of the caregiver?
- Carefull allows the family caregiver to set up a complete financial picture of their elder. Knowing what comes in, what goes out, what goes out to whom and when gives the caregiver a way to get their hands around the entire financial picture.
- Carefull monitors transactions in accounts to alert the financial caregiver if there is a potential mistake like, “I thought I was giving the charity ten dollars, not ten dollars a month.” A clear pattern of transactions allows Carefull to flag something that is not a typical service or pattern and alert you to potential fraud.
How does it work?
- Carefull is currently in beta and accepting testers in this early phase. You must have an iPhone right now but Android capability will be available in early 2021.
- There is no charge through the end of the 2020, but there will be a monthly subscription fee in the future.
Why now for this solution?
The founder of Carefull, Max Goldman, became personally familiar with the stress and challenges that define the role of a financial caregiver, but technology still had to catch up with the need. Companies like Carefull that analyze financial information need the ability to securely connect to many different banks and financial institutions, which can be challenging and complex to build from scratch. However, over the past few years, new innovations in the world of financial technology have made it possible for companies like Carefull to build these connections in a way that ensures complete privacy and security and keeps families in control of this sensitive information.
In addition, the number of caregivers grew exponentially between 2015 and 2020 and will continue to do so for years to come. Unfortunately, many families don’t have the resources to bring in professional help, so the family caregiver is taking on a bigger role. Max and his team believe that services like Carefull can help lighten the load for caregivers and provide a solution to this problem that is poised to become increasingly widespread and urgent in the coming years.
Carefull Founder:
Max Goldman is the CEO and co-founder of Carefull, a company creating digital services that help caregivers monitor, manage and protect the daily money matters of aging parents. When he was a teenager, Max fell in love with the possibilities of the Internet and never looked back. Since then, he’s had the opportunity to work in technology venture capital, manage products at Google and start up three other companies. Directr, his most recent company, was acquired by YouTube. Max holds degrees from NYU and Columbia Business School.
Hank designs easy-to-use tools to save caregivers time and money. We help caregivers by scheduling recurring care tasks on their behalf, including hot meal delivery, grocery delivery, and transportation. Working with trusted providers such as DoorDash, Instacart, Uber and Lyft (to name a few), we provide these services across all 50 states. We will also be launching prescription delivery soon.
Hank’s bill splitting feature encourages a more equitable distribution of care costs by allowing caregivers, recipients and other family members to split the costs of scheduled tasks.
Users can schedule unlimited tasks by filling out a survey. You then receive a custom care plan. Simply approve the tasks you want to schedule. We can automate any order to the delivery cadence that best suits your needs. You can also schedule tasks via a text message.
How will the Hank technology solution help or simplify the life of the caregiver?
We build tools to help people live their best lives by eliminating the tedium of routine chores and allowing more time for the important things – family, friends, hobbies and whatever else brings a sense of fulfillment.
How does it work?
Our tools are designed to support caregivers and empower recipients to take an active role in their own care by scheduling and fulfilling essential tasks on your behalf.
- Share your care preferences with us: favorite foods, dietary restrictions, mobility needs, etc.
- The information you provide is used to create a plan to meet all needs. A care concierge will reach out with your personalized care plan.
- The plan is adjusted until it meets your needs. Then sit back and Hank handles the rest, updating you with texts and emails along the way.
Hank currently costs $19.99/month for unlimited tasks. The first month is free.
Why now for this solution?
We started Hank after seeing how family caregivers are often busy and underappreciated and how so few of the tools out there serve their needs. We are current and future caregivers who know the challenges in caring for our aging loved ones and believe that through technology there should be easier ways to provide exceptional, personal care. Our aim is to ease the burden of caregiving and empower all generations to be a part of that process. Our ultimate goal is to become an all-in-one tool for aging in place.
Hank Founders:
“We are a team of dreamers and doers working with and for caregivers to build the tools that they need to take care of their loved ones while maintaining balance in their own lives.”
Hank is currently a four-member team of millennials. It was co-founded by Brian Park, a UPenn Wharton graduate and tech veteran (ClassPass, Codecademy), and Andrew Hong, a Pomona graduate and former Sr. Product Designer at MLB. Brian first came about the idea for Hank when he witnessed his mother encounter numerous challenges as the primary caregiver to his grandmother. Hank started as a passion project for him and quickly turned into a full operation! Our Head of Engineering is Jack Ratner and Taylor Williams is our Marketing Operations Associate.
LyfLynks provides the LYN platform to provide immediate access to a broad range of diverse services for family caregivers. The LYN platform consists of a smartphone application, a human-staffed Member Care Center and an extensive curated vendor network all wrapped into one and able to respond to almost any challenge a family caregiver faces. LYN actively engages with caregivers to arrange for a variety of services ranging from transportation, home companion and housekeeping to lawn care and even medical appointment scheduling.
How will the LYN platform help or simplify the life of a caregiver?
LYN helps to bring all the aspects of care together at the click of a button on your smartphone and provides direct access to real people whose sole purpose is to help.
LYN is a command and control center for the family caregiver – a one-stop shop for information, help and assistance in caregiving. LYN enables families to track, coordinate and monitor a wide variety of caregiving tasks, events and schedules, through reminders and alerts. Feeling alone in your journey? LYN facilitates communication between all the family members on the platform, which in turn can encourage their participation in the caregiving efforts.
How does it work
Membership to LyfLynks is free for the first 60 days following enrollment. Following this 60-day promotional period you will be invited to continue your membership for a monthly fee of $39.99. There are no long-term commitments involved.
The subscription fee provides access to the LYN platform including the Member Care Center, the LYN smartphone application and LyfLynks’ curated vendor network. For less than the cost of your gym membership, you now have a personal assistant ready to respond to your caregiving challenges and assist in supporting your loved one’s well-being and independence.
Services and products ordered by members through LYN are paid through LyfLynks and then billed to the member’s credit card. This helps members keep track of caregiving costs and enables LyfLynks to use the purchasing power afforded by all of its members to ensure the quality and fair pricing of vendor services and goods.
LyfLynks is currently available via the Apple and Android stores. Just search for “LYN by LyfLynks” and download LYN to your smartphone. Keep in mind that you will be asked to provide a credit card in order to pay for any services like transportation, companion services, etc. that you order via LYN. If you decide to stay with LYN beyond the first 60 days, you will be charged the monthly $39.99 fee on this credit card.
Why now for this solution?
With over 40 million family caregivers in the U.S. today, family caregivers remain one of the most under-served populations in the U.S. and one of the most under-leveraged resources for staunching the emerging costs associated with our aging population (over 50% of the almost $1 trillion spent annually on healthcare in the U.S.).
Family caregivers have long struggled to balance the demands on their time between caring for aging loved ones, caring for children and working outside the home. This has significantly impacted their own health and financial well-being. The advent of COVID-19 and its associated geographic separation and isolation has only exacerbated these ill effects. Even with the growing number of available support solutions, the family caregiver is the primary resource for identifying and vetting eldercare services prior to their introduction into their loved one’s home.
Over the past ten years, platforms have dramatically transformed a number of industries. Applying the platform approach that combines emerging in-home technologies with compassionate human-centric interactions allows LyfLynks to address the needs of a rapidly growing aging demographic.
LyfLynk Founders
Don Vetal is a 25-year veteran of the Assistance industry. He has held a variety of C-level positions in the three largest Assistance Firms on the planet, AXA Assistance, United Healthcare and most recently as President of General Global Assistance Health and Travel in North America. If you recognize “Don’t leave home without us” or “Membership has its privilege”, then you know a little about what Don has been up to during his career. Through 24-hour call centers located around the world and global provider networks, Don’s companies responded to travelers’ needs ranging from medical air evacuations to cash delivery, translation services and restaurant reservations (virtually anything, anytime, anywhere). They have even delivered Darth Vader’s mask to a gentleman in Las Vegas and dog tuxedos for a wedding in Provence.
Dave Vetal, Don’s brother, possesses 25 years of operational and business development experience. Dave has held several senior positions on multiple large-scale federal contracts, including directing the activities of multiple critical service centers for United States Department of Justice attorneys and case teams. He managed teams in excess of 350 employees and was a critical leader supporting several high-visibility programs, including the DOJ September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, the Columbia Space Shuttle Accident Investigation Board and FEMA’s Hurricane Katrina Donations Hotline.