A decade ago, Amy Baryshnik’s father grabbed her hand on his way into brain surgery and asked her to make decisions if anything happened to him. A Harvard MBA with a high-powered finance career, she was the natural choice for her dad’s request. But she says it was an immense amount of pressure to be put in charge of making any future decisions.
Thankfully her dad recovered from surgery and she never had to make any of those decisions, but it highlighted a huge gap for her: despite the fact that her dad was a retired tax lawyer who had worked on estate plans for countless clients, it was something he had never prioritized for himself, which meant Baryshnik was in the dark on what her dad would have wanted.
Since the early days of her career, Baryshnik had been keen to start her own business one day (entrepreneurship runs in her family - her brother Mike Katchen founded fintech Wealthsimple). She spent years working for high-growth companies like Canadian retailer Knix, learning from the founders and soaking up lessons on how to operate a business. When she turned 40, she realized it was time to bet on herself so she took the leap into entrepreneurship, taking inspiration from that hospital hallway to inform her mission.
And that mission was all about getting info out of our heads and down on (virtual) paper.
When a loved one dies or becomes incapacitated, we can’t access their passwords, a list of their assets, or their funeral wishes unless they’ve written them down. Baryshnik’s business, Estate Kit, launched in June 2026 to collect all the information a family would need to make decisions or wrap up someone’s life.
Think of Estate Kit as a digital binder - it stores everything in three categories: first, what exists. A person’s assets and liabilities, their online accounts and where to find passwords, and any other details that would save their loved ones from scouring tax returns, mail, and email to figure out what they owned. This also includes copies of their will and power of attorney documents, and they’ve partnered with Willful to help customers easily get them done.
Second, key contacts like beneficiaries, financial advisors, executors, and others. She describes this as a modern-day Rolodex of the people who matter in your life. Finally, instructions: tackling the why behind the decisions. Is there a loan to a family member that should be forgiven? What about what should happen with your business? And what type of celebration of life do you want?
“What I’ve heard consistently over and over again, particularly from families that have had breakdowns in their relationships after a loved one passed away, is so much of the time it’s not about the money, it’s about a lack of understanding of the why,” she says.
Baryshnik is determined her kids won’t have to go on that paper chase in the future. She and her husband have three boys, and like any parent, they want to create a positive legacy for them. In addition to providing a way for them to record their own estate plans and wishes, Estate Kit plays into that legacy in two ways: first, it ensures that they see a strong female role model who is doing ambitious, hard things. And second, it serves as a reminder that life is short, so make the most of it.
“I hope it encourages them to have the hard conversations, and prioritize the things that matter,” she says. “Life is finite, and I hope it reminds them to spend their time on the people and things that matter most.”
It wasn’t until Baryshnik started building Estate Kit that she used her parents as guinea pigs for the product, and finally recorded their wishes. This led to a dozen deep, meaningful conversations about what quality of life looks for them, and the decisions they would want her to make. She says that instead of being awkward, these conversations have actually brought them closer together.
Knowing other families can put these conversations off, either because they can feel awkward or not urgent, Baryshnik highlights feedback she’s heard from many doctors who have heard patients trying to download instructions to their loved ones in the last hours of their lives.
“You’re either doing it in your hospital bed in your last few hours, or your family’s doing it in the weeks and months following your passing, during a time when they’re grieving and not at their best,” she says. “Or, you’re doing it on a random Tuesday five years earlier when you feel great and you’re sitting around your kitchen table with a cup of coffee, and spending the few hours that it takes to download all of these important pieces of information to your loved ones.”
Whether you do it over an afternoon, or tackle a few pieces of information a week for a year, gathering it together can be the biggest gift you give your loved ones, one Baryshnik will have from her parents in the future.
Now that their answers are clear and documented, Baryshnik says her answer would be very different if her dad asked her to make important decisions for him today. Instead of the pressure and uncertainty she felt a decade ago, today’s answer would be clear.
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Willful is proud to be partnered with Estate Kit. You can easily get a Willfu. will alongside your Estate Kit plan. Visit EstateKit.com to get started.
