No. Lili App Inc. is a financial-technology company, not a chartered bank. Deposits are held at Sunrise Banks, N.A. (Member FDIC) under the Sunrise Account Agreement (V1.16, effective 2026-01-11). The FDIC insurance is real and pass-through to the customer, but the legal banking counterparty is Sunrise Banks, not Lili. Pre-2024 Lili customers were sponsored by Choice Financial Group; the relationship migrated to Sunrise during 2024-2025.

How does Lili get FDIC insurance up to $3 million?

Through Sunrise Banks’ participation in a deposit-sweep network similar to IntraFi’s ICS. Balances above the standard $250,000 ceiling are auto-distributed across multiple FDIC-insured banks in $250,000 buckets, with each bucket qualifying for full FDIC coverage at its respective bank. Customers who already hold deposits at one of the network banks under their own relationship should monitor for overlap, since aggregate balances at any single bank still cap at $250,000 for FDIC purposes.

How does Lili’s Tax Bucket work?

Tax Bucket auto-set-asides a user-defined percentage of every deposit into a separate Tax Bucket savings space. The percentage is configurable per state and federal filing posture. Lili then computes estimated federal self-employment tax in real time on the Smart and Premium tiers; in-app federal estimated tax payments are available on Smart+ (state estimated payments are not in-app). This is the structural feature Lili is built around — a 1099 freelancer can deposit a client check and have the federal estimated-tax slice auto-allocated before the money lands in spendable checking.

What APY does Lili pay in 2026?

Lili Savings pays 2.25% APY on balances up to $500,000, 4.00% APY on the slice from $500,000 to $1,000,000, and 0% APY on balances above $1,000,000 — effective 2026-01-13. APY is now available on all tiers including the free Core plan (it was paid-only before). The rate is variable and re-prices with the rate environment; the $500K threshold is the structural inflection point for a 1099 operator deciding whether to keep cash at Lili or move excess to a separate broker.

Was Lili affected by the Synapse collapse?

No. Lili was not a Synapse customer. Lili’s pre-2024 sponsor was Choice Financial Group, and the current sponsor is Sunrise Banks — neither relationship sat behind Synapse’s middleware. The May 2024 Synapse bankruptcy is structurally adjacent because both Lili and the Synapse-dependent fintechs (Yotta, Juno, Copper) are partner-bank fintechs serving 1099 / consumer ICPs, but the ledger and contract paths are distinct.

How does Lili compare with Found?

Both Lili and Found target US 1099 freelancers with checking + auto-tax-bucketing + bookkeeping. The structural differences: Lili has $3M FDIC pass-through via Sunrise Banks’ sweep; Found has $250K FDIC single-bank via Lead Bank (no sweep). Lili’s tiered APY (2.25%/4%/0%) is available on all plans including free; Found’s APY is gated to Plus ($19.99/mo, 1.5% capped at $20K) and Pro ($80/mo, 2.5% uncapped). Lili supports more entity types (single-/multi-member LLCs, GP/LLP, S-corp, nonprofit) but not B-corp, C-corp, or trusts. Found supports more entity types including C-corp but is single-bank for FDIC.

Can C-corps or B-corps open a Lili account?

No. Lili supports sole proprietors, single- and multi-member LLCs, general partnerships, limited liability partnerships, S-corps, and nonprofits. B-corps, C-corps, and trusts are not eligible. Operators incorporated as Delaware C-Corps or B-corps need to choose a competitor (Mercury is the structural fit for Delaware C-Corps; Found also accepts C-corps but caps FDIC at $250K).

Lili Review 2026: Tax-Bucket + Schedule C for 1099 Freelancers

Name: Lili Review 2026: Tax-Bucket + Schedule C for 1099 Freelancers
Item: Lili
Rating: 3.7
Author: Stephan Kulik

What Lili is, in 2026

Lili is a US business-banking platform founded in 2018 (product launched 2019) by Lilac Bar David (still CEO) and Liran Zelkha (CTO), headquartered in New York, NY. The company serves "over 600,000 independent workers and small business owners" per its own communications, with approximately 182 employees as of February 2026 per Tracxn. Total funding to date is ~$80M across three rounds, with the last disclosed round being a $55M Series B in May 2021 (Group 11, Target Global, AltaIR); no publicly priced round in 2024-2026.

The structural model is partner-bank: customer deposits sit at Sunrise Banks, N.A. (Member FDIC), a Minnesota-headquartered national bank under the OCC. Pre-2024, Lili was sponsored by Choice Financial Group, N.A.; the relationship migrated to Sunrise Banks during 2024-2025, with the Sunrise Account Agreement V1.16 effective 2026-01-11 as the current legal surface. Sunrise Banks is part of a broader BaaS-sponsor cohort and operates a sweep program that lifts FDIC pass-through to $3M per customer.

The 1099 income shape — irregular deposit timing, quarterly federal estimated tax, Schedule C bookkeeping — is the design constraint that shapes every Lili surface. Tax Bucket is the structural feature, not a marketing add-on.

At a glance

Who Lili is for: US-based freelancers, sole proprietors, 1099 contractors, single- and multi-member LLCs, general partnerships, limited liability partnerships, S-corps, and nonprofits. The structural fit is tightest for solopreneurs whose income is irregular and whose tax filing is Schedule C — the Tax Bucket plus Schedule C generation eliminates the QuickBooks-plus-bank-plus-tax-software stack that most 1099 workers run by default.

Who to avoid Lili for: C-corp, B-corp, and trust entities (not eligible); venture-funded startups with API-first treasury requirements (Mercury fits better); operators with material cash income who need branch-level cash deposits (Lili uses Green Dot / Allpoint workarounds with retailer fees); businesses needing >$3M FDIC pass-through (Mercury or Bluevine fit better); operators needing state estimated-tax payments in-app (only federal is in-app).

Safety in one sentence: deposits sit at Sunrise Banks, N.A. with FDIC pass-through up to $3,000,000 per customer via Sunrise’s sweep network, with the standard $250,000 ceiling applying to balances the sweep cannot allocate.

Bank structure & deposit protection

Lili App Inc. is not a chartered bank. It is a financial-technology company that operates a 1099-native business-banking experience on top of Sunrise Banks, N.A. (Member FDIC). The legal banking counterparty for customer deposits is Sunrise Banks under the Sunrise Account Agreement V1.16 (effective 2026-01-11). If Lili App Inc. were to enter financial distress as a corporate entity, customer deposits would remain accessible because they are titled at Sunrise Banks in the customer’s name (or in an FBO custodial account titled for the customer’s benefit).

The differentiating mechanic is Sunrise Banks’ sweep program, which extends FDIC pass-through to $3,000,000 per customer by distributing balances above the standard $250,000 ceiling across multiple FDIC-insured banks in $250,000 buckets. Each bucket qualifies for full FDIC coverage at its respective bank. The customer sees a single Lili balance; underneath, the funds are spread across the sweep network. The specific bank list is available through Sunrise’s sweep disclosure rather than enumerated on Lili’s marketing surface.

Two pre-conditions apply to the $3M figure. First, sweep enrollment is opt-in; non-sweep balances are capped at the standard $250,000 ceiling at Sunrise Banks. Second, the customer must monitor for sweep-bank overlap. If a Lili customer already holds deposits at one of the sweep-network banks under a separate banking relationship, FDIC aggregates balances by depositor at each individual bank — meaning the overlap eats into the $250,000 per-bank slice and shrinks effective sweep coverage.

The sponsor migration matters. Pre-2024 Lili customers were sponsored by Choice Financial Group, N.A.; the relationship migrated to Sunrise Banks during 2024-2025. Operators who opened their Lili account before the migration should verify in-app that their rails have moved — the legacy Choice account paths are deprecated but customer-specific cutover timing was not publicly disclosed. Third-party reviews still citing "Choice Financial Group" as the Lili sponsor are stale and should be re-checked against the current Sunrise Account Agreement.

The Synapse footnote. Lili was not a Synapse customer. Lili’s sponsor banks (both legacy Choice and current Sunrise) contracted directly with Lili rather than through Synapse’s middleware. When Synapse entered bankruptcy in May 2024 and froze customer balances at middleware-dependent fintechs like Yotta and Juno, Lili balances were structurally insulated by the direct fintech-to-bank ledger path.

The fee schedule

Lili runs a four-tier subscription with the free Core plan covering checking + Visa debit + $3M FDIC + savings + team access — historically the savings product and team access were paid-only, but they migrated down into Core during the Jan 2025 plan rename (Basic → Core). Paid tiers layer on tax / bookkeeping / invoicing features rather than gating the core banking experience.

Item	Core	Pro	Smart	Premium
Monthly fee	$0	$15	$35	$55
Tax Bucket	Included	Included	Included	Included
Savings (tiered APY)	Included (2.25% to $500K)	Included	Included	Included
BalanceUp overdraft	—	Up to $200, fee-free	Up to $200	Up to $200
Invoicing	—	Included	Included	Included
Schedule C / 1065 / 1120-S generation	—	—	Pre-filled	Pre-filled
In-app federal estimated tax payments	—	—	Included	Included
Outgoing domestic wire	$15	$15	$15	$15
ATM (out-of-network domestic)	$2.50	$2.50	$2.50	$2.50
FX on debit purchases	$0	$0	$0	$0

The savings APY structure — 2.25% on the first $500K, 4.00% on the slice from $500K to $1M, 0% above $1M — is the line item most third-party reviews summarize incorrectly. The 4% headline rate only applies to balances between $500K and $1M, not to balances up to $1M; operators with under $500K earn 2.25% on the whole balance, and operators with over $1M earn 0% on the excess. Verify against the live in-product disclosure for the most current bands.

Hands-on notes

Signup is fully online (mobile or web), with required artefacts: legal name, mobile, date of birth, home address, SSN for any ≥25% beneficial owner, industry classification, entity type, business mailing address (no P.O. boxes), state of registration, and EIN if applicable. Sole proprietors can sign up with SSN only. Approval is typically immediate; up to 2 business days when the application falls into manual review.

The eligible-entity list is narrower than Found or Mercury: sole proprietors, single- and multi-member LLCs, general partnerships, limited liability partnerships, S-corps, and nonprofits. B-corps, C-corps, and trusts are not eligible — a meaningful TAM constraint vs Mercury (which onboards Delaware C-Corps as its default ICP) and Found (which accepts C-corps and S-corps both). Operators incorporated as Delaware C-Corps cannot open a Lili account at all.

The Tax Bucket workflow is the structural UX win. Every deposit can be split by a user-defined percentage into the Tax Bucket; that percentage is configurable to reflect federal-plus-state estimated-tax posture (default is ~25-30% for a 1099 worker in a moderate-tax state). The Tax Bucket is a separate savings space, not a virtual envelope — funds in it are FDIC-insured independent of the checking balance, and the quarterly tax estimator on Smart+ reads from the Tax Bucket balance to project the federal liability.

Bookkeeping (Pro+) auto-categorizes transactions against Schedule C line items: 1099-NEC payments collapse into the contractor category, transaction fees route to bank charges, and so on. Custom rules and tags are unlimited on Pro and above. The Schedule C generation on Smart+ pre-fills the IRS form from the bookkeeping ledger; the customer reviews and exports rather than re-typing every line. The in-app federal estimated-tax payment on Smart+ closes the loop — quarterly federal payments leave Lili directly to the IRS, while state estimated payments still require an external state portal or accountant.

Friction points that show up in actual usage. Account freezes and closures with little notice are the most-cited pain point on Trustpilot and BBB, particularly when activity patterns look "consumer" under Lili’s business-only account-use rules. Customer service responsiveness degrades during review-hold periods, with funds inaccessible while the review pends. The Trustpilot aggregate is 4.7 across approximately 897 reviews — high for the category — but the negative-review tail concentrates on this specific pattern. Native cash deposits are not supported; cash income must route via the Green Dot Network at CVS / Walgreens / Walmart with retailer fees up to $4.95 per deposit.

Plan & tier comparison

Lili’s tier line-up is unusual: the free Core plan covers the banking experience completely (checking, debit, $3M FDIC, tiered savings, team access), and paid tiers exist to layer on tax / bookkeeping / invoicing software rather than to gate the core banking surface. That structurally separates Lili from competitors like Found and Relay, where APY itself is paywalled.

Feature	Core	Pro	Smart	Premium
Monthly price	$0	$15	$35	$55
Banking (checking + debit + FDIC)	Full	Full	Full	Full
Savings (tiered APY)	Included	Included	Included	Included
Tax Bucket	Included	Included	Included	Included
BalanceUp overdraft ($200)	—	Yes	Yes	Yes
Invoicing	—	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bookkeeping (Schedule C auto-categorization)	—	Basic	Advanced + rules	Advanced + rules
Pre-filled Schedule C / 1065 / 1120-S	—	—	Yes	Yes
In-app federal tax payments	—	—	Yes	Yes
Team access	Included (added 2025)	Included	Included	Extended
Priority support	—	—	—	Yes

The decision tree is binary at signup: Core if the operator already runs a separate tax / bookkeeping stack (or files a simple Schedule C without auto-categorization); Smart if Schedule C generation is the workflow win that justifies $35/mo. Pro at $15/mo is the awkward middle that most freelancers either grow past quickly (into Smart) or skip entirely. Premium at $55/mo is for multi-business operators or teams that need extended user access; for solopreneurs, Smart is the structural ceiling.

Caveats

B-corp, C-corp, and trust entities are not supported. This is the dominant gating constraint and the reason a Delaware C-Corp founder cannot use Lili. The eligible-entity list (sole prop, LLC variants, GP/LLP, S-corp, nonprofit) is narrower than Found, Mercury, or Bluevine.

Native cash deposits are not supported. Cash income routes through the Green Dot Network at CVS / Walgreens / Walmart with retailer fees up to $4.95 per deposit. Operators with material cash income (contractors, hair / beauty service businesses, cash-heavy retail) will hit this constraint quickly.

Sponsor migration is recent. Choice Financial Group → Sunrise Banks migration happened during 2024-2025; legacy customers should verify their account rails are now on Sunrise. Third-party reviews still citing Choice as the Lili sponsor are stale and predate the migration.

State estimated tax payments are not in-app. Federal payments to the IRS work inside Lili on Smart and Premium; state estimated payments still require the external state portal or an accountant. Operators in high-tax states (CA, NY, MA, OR) will need both surfaces rather than a single Lili flow.

Account-freeze risk concentrates on consumer-pattern usage. Lili’s account agreement requires business use; deposits and spend patterns that look consumer (Venmo transfers, retail spending without business categorization) can trigger account-review holds. The Trustpilot negative tail concentrates on this pattern, and customer-service responsiveness during a hold is the most-cited complaint.

Plan rename (Basic → Core, Jan 2025) invalidates older reviews. The 2025 plan restructure renamed the free tier, pulled savings access and team access down into Core, and repositioned Pro at $15/mo. Reviews dated 2024 or earlier that quote "Lili Basic $0" or "savings is paid-only" are stale.

Lili vs. Found vs. Bluevine

The closest structural competitors are Found (1099-native, Lead Bank sponsor, $250K single-bank FDIC) and Bluevine (lower-mid-market SMB, Coastal Community Bank sponsor, $3M sweep). The three solve overlapping but distinct problems; the ICP is the line that separates them cleanly.

Lili vs. Found. Both target 1099 freelancers with checking + auto-tax-bucketing + bookkeeping. Lili has $3M FDIC via Sunrise Banks’ sweep; Found has $250K single-bank via Lead Bank (no sweep). Lili’s savings APY is tiered (2.25%/4%/0%) and available on all tiers including free; Found’s APY is paywalled (1.5% capped at $20K on Plus, 2.5% uncapped on Pro at $80/mo). Lili supports more entity types than Found at the LLC / nonprofit end; Found supports C-corps that Lili does not. For an LLC freelancer with under $500K of operating balance and a need for Schedule C generation, Lili Smart at $35/mo is structurally cheaper than Found Pro at $80/mo for similar functionality.

Lili vs. Bluevine. Different ICPs. Bluevine targets lower-mid-market SMBs that want yield on the operating balance (3.0% APY uncapped on Premier $95/mo). Lili targets solopreneurs whose workflow win is tax-bucketing and Schedule C generation, not yield on the operating balance. A freelancer with $30K of operating cash gets nothing meaningful from Bluevine’s yield mechanics and everything from Lili’s tax workflow; an SMB with $500K of operating balance gets nothing from Lili’s tax workflow (LLC files Schedule K-1, not Schedule C) and meaningful yield from Bluevine Premier.

FAQ

Is Lili a bank?: No. Lili App Inc. is a fintech, not a chartered bank. Deposits sit at Sunrise Banks, N.A. (Member FDIC) under the Sunrise Account Agreement V1.16 (effective 2026-01-11). Pre-2024 sponsor was Choice Financial Group; the relationship migrated to Sunrise during 2024-2025.
How does Lili get FDIC insurance up to $3 million?: Through Sunrise Banks’ sweep program. Balances above the standard $250,000 ceiling are distributed across multiple FDIC-insured banks in $250,000 buckets, with each bucket qualifying for full FDIC coverage at its respective bank. Overlap with the customer’s own relationships at any sweep-network bank reduces effective coverage at the overlapping bank.
How does Lili’s Tax Bucket work?: Tax Bucket auto-set-asides a user-defined percentage of every deposit into a separate Tax Bucket savings space. The percentage is configurable per tax posture. Lili computes estimated federal self-employment tax on Smart+ and supports in-app federal payments; state estimated payments require an external portal.
What APY does Lili pay in 2026?: Lili Savings pays 2.25% APY on balances up to $500K, 4.00% APY on the slice from $500K to $1M, and 0% APY on balances above $1M — effective 2026-01-13. Available on all tiers including the free Core plan (it was paid-only before the 2025 restructure).
Was Lili affected by the Synapse collapse?: No. Lili contracts directly with its sponsor bank rather than through Synapse middleware. Both legacy Choice Financial Group and current Sunrise Banks paths are structurally distinct from Synapse-dependent fintechs.
How does Lili compare with Found?: Both target 1099 freelancers. Lili has $3M FDIC via Sunrise’s sweep; Found has $250K single-bank via Lead Bank. Lili’s APY is on all tiers including free; Found’s APY is paywalled. Lili supports more LLC / partnership variants; Found accepts C-corps that Lili does not.
Can C-corps or B-corps open a Lili account?: No. Lili supports sole proprietors, single- and multi-member LLCs, general partnerships, limited liability partnerships, S-corps, and nonprofits. B-corps, C-corps, and trusts are not eligible.

Who Lili is for

Use Lili if you are a US-based freelancer, sole proprietor, 1099 contractor, single- or multi-member LLC, partnership, S-corp, or nonprofit; if Schedule C is your tax filing surface; and if Tax Bucket auto-set-aside plus pre-filled Schedule C generation is the workflow win that justifies the Smart tier ($35/mo). The free Core plan is genuinely usable as a primary account for solopreneurs whose tax stack lives elsewhere.

Use Found, Mercury, Bluevine, or a chartered business bank instead if you are incorporated as a Delaware C-Corp or B-corp (not eligible for Lili); if state estimated-tax payments need to live inside the bank (Lili supports federal only); if you need >$3M FDIC pass-through (Mercury IntraFi reaches $5M); or if you need native cash-deposit infrastructure (Lili routes cash through Green Dot retailer flow).

References

Primary-source list, with capture date 2026-05-11. Lili’s pricing surface, the sweep-bank list, and the APY tiers re-price periodically; operators treating these figures as load-bearing should re-verify against the source URLs at decision time.

Risk warning US FDIC / Reg E disclosure

FDIC pass-through coverage is per partner bank, not per fintech. If you hold funds at multiple Chime-style fintechs that share the same partner bank, your $250,000 FDIC limit aggregates across those balances. Crypto holdings, brokerage cash awaiting investment, and overdraft-protection lines are NOT FDIC-insured — verify product type before assuming cover. Reg E provides limited-liability rights for unauthorised electronic-fund transfers when reported within the statutory window.

Premium plans

Our pick

Lili Core

€0 /mo

Free — renamed from Lili Basic Jan 2025. Includes savings access + team access (added 2025)

Lili Pro

€15 /mo

Adds BalanceUp overdraft, invoicing, expense categorization, high-yield savings

Lili Smart

€35 /mo

Pro + advanced bookkeeping, quarterly tax estimator, pre-filled Schedule C / 1065 / 1120-S

Lili Premium

€55 /mo

Smart + extended team access + priority support

How it stacks up.

Varo Money 82

OCC

First US neobank to receive an OCC national bank charter (July 2020). Direct FDIC member — your money sits at Varo Bank, N.A., not a sponsor. Headline 5.00% APY savings rate on the first $5K with direct deposit — among the highest in the US neobank market.

SoFi 79

OCC

The only public US neobank holding both a national bank charter and a brokerage license. Bundles checking, savings, investing, and lending in a single relationship — incentive structure rewards multi-product customers via Plus-tier rate boosts. Closest US analogue to Revolut's all-in-one model.

Chime 74

FDIC

The largest US neobank by user count. Partner-bank model gives FDIC pass-through cover to $250K via The Bancorp Bank and Stride Bank — Chime itself is not a chartered bank. Aggressive fee-free positioning, early-paycheck access, and a domestic ATM network of 60K+ are the headline value props.

Or compare side-by-side

Lili vs Varo Money → Lili vs SoFi → Lili vs Chime →