The work
What actually happens, in order
Most of this is not the court. The court is one filing and then a wait. The work is the forty organizations that each need a certified death certificate, a copy of the Letters dated within the last sixty days, and their own form.
We run the institution work in parallel. A person doing this alone does it one letter at a time, which is why it takes a year and a half.
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.
0
Triage
The first ten days
We find out whether this estate needs probate at all — roughly a third do not. We order eight certified death certificates, because most institutions keep the copy you send. We look at the things that go wrong in week one: a house whose insurance lapses, auto-payments draining a frozen account, Social Security paid for the month of death, which has to go back. You get a written plan and the dates that actually matter.
1
Discover
Weeks one to six
We locate the will if there is one, the accounts, the real property, the debts, the beneficiaries, and the people who have to be told. Families usually know about the checking account and the house. They do not know about the old 401(k), the credit union from a previous job, or the unclaimed property the state is holding.
2
Open
Weeks two to ten
If the estate needs a court, we prepare the petition, the notices, and the proposed order. A lawyer licensed in that state reviews it and signs it. We file. We wait for Letters. The wait is the court's, not ours, and we will tell you the honest range for that county rather than a number we made up.
3
Notify
Weeks three to twelve, alongside the rest
Heirs, known creditors, the newspaper the statute names, Social Security, the VA if it applies, the insurers. Direct notice to known creditors is not optional, even when a newspaper notice ran. We do both.
4
Marshal
Months one to twelve
This is most of the hours. Each bank, brokerage, insurer, transfer agent, DMV, and utility wants a slightly different packet, and most of them will reject the first attempt without saying why. We work them in parallel. You will not see a queue of forty. You will see 34 of 41 complete.
5
Tax
Months three to fifteen, alongside marshaling
Final income tax return. Estate income tax return if the estate earns anything while it is open. State filings where they exist. The federal estate tax return only when the numbers actually require it — we will not prepare one for show.
6
Distribute
Months eight to eighteen
Nobody is paid until the creditor period has run and the inventory is done. Then the executor signs every distribution. We prepare the receipts, the checks, the accountings. We do not hold the money and we do not send it. The executor does.
7
Close
Months nine to twenty
Final accounting, the petition to close where the court requires one, releases, and the Record: every filing, every letter, every receipt, every valuation, indexed. You are personally liable as executor. The Record is what protects you.
What we will not compress
The creditor claim period. Depending on the state it runs three to six months from the date notice is published. No software shortens a statutory wait. Anyone who tells you the whole estate can be done in ninety days is counting on you not reading the statute.
What we compress is the other twelve months: the callbacks, the hold times, the packets that come back, and the calendar nobody is watching.