First Days · Free
The first ten days, handled.
You do not have to decide whether to hire us in the week someone died. First Days is the part we do for nothing, for everyone who asks, because the expensive mistakes happen before anyone has called a lawyer.
We are not taking cases yet. Arizona and North Carolina are first. We will not open in a state until a lawyer licensed there has reviewed a complete filing packet we produced, because the alternative is finding out we were wrong using somebody’s actual estate. Ask us to write when that changes.
Whether you even need probate
A third of estates do not, because everything already had a beneficiary or was held jointly. Finding that out in week one saves you a year of court. Finding it out in month nine does not.
The dates that actually matter
Not a generic checklist. The deadlines that run from the date of death in the state where the person died, written down, with what happens if you miss one.
Eight certified death certificates
Most institutions keep the copy you send. People order two, then wait three weeks for more. Eight is the number that usually holds.
The things that go wrong in week one
A house sitting empty whose insurance lapses after thirty days. Auto-payments emptying an account the bank has already frozen. Social Security paid for the month of death, which has to go back.
What happens after
You get a written plan. If the estate is non-probate or small enough for an affidavit, that is Core, $1,500. If it needs a court, that is Complete. If you want us to hold the pen as agent for the executor, that is Fiduciary, and only in some states.
You can stop after First Days. Plenty of people will. The point of the free work is that you know what you are looking at before you pay anyone — us or a lawyer.