You've just been made responsible for settling someone's estate. A checklist tells you what. This tells you what order, what to say on the phone, and when to stop and hire someone.
“While the advice can't be overly specific because of differing state laws, the checklist and steps are sound. It gives general deadlines and the order of events everybody needs to know to navigate through probate.”
Advance reader review · Booksprout
12parts, in the order you'll need them
10word-for-word scripts
12tab Estate Tracker
24state lookups, sourced
36terms in plain English
Why this exists
This is the system, not the checklist.
Most people in your position get handed a long list of tasks. What actually decides whether an estate settles cleanly or expensively is the order you do them in — and almost nobody tells you that.
01
What order
Twelve parts, each covering a window of time. Within each window the tasks are ranked — do the top three in each and the estate still gets settled correctly.
02
What to say
Ten verbatim scripts — the bank, Social Security, the life insurer, the mortgage servicer, the probate clerk, the debt collector, and the sibling who wants their money now.
03
When to hire help
Decision rules, not vibes, for when an hour of a lawyer's or CPA's time is worth it. The estate pays for it, and it's cheap next to the mistakes it prevents.
The 90 days, window by window
Drag to any day. See what matters then.
Almost nothing is urgent. Four things matter in the first 48 hours; everything else waits comfortably. Here's a taste of how the guide lays it out.
1
3
15
43
60
90
Days 1–2 · Part 2
The first 48 hours
Free, from the guide's first pages
Five things to carry with you from the beginning.
If everything else falls out of your head, keep these. They're straight from the guide's opening — yours whether you buy it or not.
Don't pay any of the deceased's bills with your own money. Not one, not to be helpful, not to keep something current.
Nothing leaves the house until it's written down. Not even sentimental things. Especially not sentimental things.
Write down every call and every receipt the same day. Your protection is not being perfect. It's being able to show what you did.
Almost nothing is urgent. Four things matter in the first 48 hours. Everything else waits two weeks comfortably, no matter who tells you otherwise.
You are allowed to hire help, and the estate pays for it. An hour of a lawyer's or accountant's time is cheap compared to the mistakes it prevents.
What's inside the kit
Everything you need, nothing you have to sign up for.
Guide
The 58-page guide
Twelve parts organized by when — the first 48 hours, days 3–14, weeks 2–6, days 60–90 — with the tasks in each window ranked, so you always know what to do first.
Sheet
The Estate Tracker
A 12-tab working spreadsheet with 146 built-in formulas: inventory, debts, expenses, distributions, household accounts, the call log, an executor-hours log and a printable accounting summary for beneficiaries. It warns you if the estate may be insolvent and counts down to every key date. Opens in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.
Print
Two checklists
The First 48 Hours — a short printable list for the days you can't absorb a book. And the Master 90-Day — every task in order, cross-referenced to the guide.
Send
Four copy-and-send letters
A credit-bureau deceased alert, a creditor notice, a life-insurance claim cover letter, and a monthly status letter for beneficiaries — plus how to get a proper receipt and release.
Look up
The State Lookup Directory
For each of the 24 answers that depend on your state: what it's called, and where your state publishes the current answer for free.
Learn
A 36-term glossary
Probate, Letters Testamentary, EIN, successor in interest — in plain English, defined the first time you meet them.
Try one — free
Institutions move at the speed of the right words.
Three of the ten scripts, exactly as they appear in Part 11. Fill in the details and they fill themselves in. Then copy and use them.
Nothing you type leaves this page.
Part 11.1 · Bank or credit union (first notification)
+7 more inside, including“The sibling who wants their money now”
Who it's for
Written for a first-time executor doing this while grieving, working, and often living in another state.
There's a willand it names you.
There's no willand the court appoints someone — often the closest relative who asks.
There's a living trustwhich changes who's in charge of what, not the work itself.
What it deliberately doesn't do
It prints no state-specific dollar figures. Those are set by your state, change on their own schedule, and are published free by the state itself. So the guide teaches you the sequence and shows you exactly where to look — the part that doesn't expire.
⚠ Check your state appears about twenty times. That isn't a hedge. It's the actual shape of the job.
The complete kit
Start today. It takes a few hours a week for about three months.
Secure checkout · instant download link by email 30-day money-back guarantee — no questions asked
LUCAS ARDEN
About Lucas Arden Guides
Practical guides for the paperwork side of life's hardest moments.
Lucas Arden Guides are sequence-first handbooks: what to do, in what order, in what words, and where to find the answer that's current for you. They're built to be used at a kitchen table, not studied.
How this guide was made. AI was used as a tool to help author it. Every federal claim was checked against primary sources — the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the CFPB, the FTC, the VA and the United States Code. The review and final approval were done by a person.
No. It's a sequencing guide: what order to do things in, what to ask, and where your state publishes its own current answers. If something here doesn't match what your court or state agency says, believe them. For anything with real money or conflict attached, the guide tells you when to buy an hour of a lawyer's or CPA's time.
Does it work in my state?
It's written for US estates in every state. The places where the answer depends on your state — about twenty — are flagged, and the 24 state lookups are collected in one directory: what each thing is called and where your state publishes the current answer for free. The few figures it does print are federal, dated, and listed with the official page to re-check them on.
What if there's no will?
It covers that. The court appoints an administrator (usually the closest relative who applies), state law decides who inherits, and the ninety-day sequence is the same. Part 3 walks you through which situation you're in.
I'm not sure I'm even the executor yet.
Start anyway. Securing property, ordering death certificates and locating documents are things any responsible family member can do before anyone is formally appointed. The guide explains what you can and can't do before the court issues "Letters".
An instant download: the guide as a PDF, the Estate Tracker spreadsheet, two printable checklists and four letter templates. The spreadsheet opens in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. No account or subscription required.
Ninety days from now, the hardest part will be behind you.
Working through it on schedule, with clean records, is doing right by them.
