Guides

Plain-English answers for families settling an estate

Losing someone is hard enough without deciphering probate paperwork. These guides explain how things actually work and point you to the official, free sources — no jargon, and nothing to buy.

Getting started

Step by step: what to do first when someone dies

The order matters more than people expect. Doing these in sequence avoids the delays that come from contacting institutions before you can prove who you are.

8 min read

What happens to a bank account when someone dies

Accounts do not simply pass to the next of kin. What happens depends on how the account was titled — and that detail decides who can access the money.

6 min read

Documents

The documents you need to claim a deceased person's assets

Almost every claim comes down to the same short stack of paperwork. Gathering it once, in the right form, saves repeating the process at every institution.

5 min read

Unclaimed property

How unclaimed property works, and why billions go unclaimed

States hold enormous sums on behalf of people who do not know it exists. The system is genuinely free to use — which is worth knowing before anyone offers to do it for a cut.

6 min read

Want us to run the searches for you?

Every source we use is free and public — these guides show you how to search them yourself. If you would rather not do it alone, we will run them together and hand you an organized report. Always free for families.

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