When you’re navigating what comes after a death, helping a parent, or planning for the future, Sahvelo gives you free guidance that adapts to your needs and helps you understand what to do next.
Built from statutes, official guidance, and primary sources. Free to read, and your Handbook is yours to download. How we verify
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Use your own words. Sahvelo shows you what comes next, with the source beside it, and says so when it does not have something.
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For example
Three starting points, with guidance that adapts to your needs.
Now, and the weeks after
Find what has to happen first and what can wait, understand the estate and the paperwork, and learn which steps change with your state.
Start here
Three good places to begin.
Learn what has to happen in the first few days, and what can wait.
Find out how many certified copies you need, and who can order them where you live.
Understand what goes through probate and what does not, before assuming you need it.
Understand whether a court is involved, who has authority to act, and what changes when there is no will.
Learn what moves a house on after a death, and what to do with everything inside it.
Find out what happens to each account, what may be payable to survivors, and which debts belong to the estate.
While there is still time
Helping a parent can mean getting organized, understanding their options, handling paperwork, coordinating care, or stepping in when circumstances change. Start with the area that fits what you're navigating.
Access free guides for discussing money, care, living arrangements, future wishes, and other decisions that may be easier to address before they become urgent.
Learn how to help protect a parent's finances, understand who has authority to act, and navigate accounts, bills, powers of attorney, and other important documents.
Understand care options, advance directives, hospital transitions, health coverage, and the questions to ask as a parent's needs change.
Explore ways to make home safer, support independence, arrange additional help, and evaluate when a different living situation may make sense.
Plan the practical side of helping a parent, from sharing responsibilities and coordinating care to balancing caregiving with work and your own life.
A Sahvelo product
Build a free Handbook around what you need.
Answer a few short questions, and Sahvelo organizes what may need attention today, tomorrow, and in the weeks and months ahead, with the forms you may need, the decisions in front of you, and the options available to you.
Navigating After a Death
There are 39 things in this plan. Of those, 4 need attention now. The rest are dated, or waiting on something else.
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Your Sahvelo HandbookOhio
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Sahvelo
Handbook
Navigating After a Death
Prepared from your answersOhio
Two pages from a real Handbook built for a spouse in Ohio, three days after a death, with a will.
Before any of it is needed
Three territories, in the order that makes each one easier.
Put in place first
A will, and a trust if one is worth having
Learn what a will decides, what it cannot touch, what makes one valid where you live, and when a trust is worth having.
Then
Beneficiary forms that say what you now want, and one record of where everything is
Organize the forms that override your will, record where everything is, and understand what actually controls each thing you own.
Next
Someone who can decide for you, and a plan for the people who depend on you
Decide who can speak for you, plan for the people who depend on you, and keep all of it current as life changes.
Recently reviewed guidance, one from each area.
Built around you
Important guidance points back to the statute, agency page or official form behind it.
Sahvelo uses what you tell it to narrow the guidance and show where an answer changes by state.
When there is not enough verified information, Sahvelo tells you instead of pretending certainty.
Sahvelo provides information, not legal advice. See how we verify our guidance.
From the record behind the guidance
Official referenceFederal
38 CFR §13.30 (Beneficiary rights)
Official referenceCalifornia
California Probate Code §6402
StatuteNew York
NY EPTL § 5-3.1
Official referenceFlorida
Fla. Stat. §732.201 (Elective share)
Four examples from the source record behind Sahvelo’s guidance.
Ask Sahvelo what comes next, or read the guidance at your own pace.
Another way to look at the questions that matter.
September 30, 2026
Medicare may cover short-term skilled care. Medicaid may cover ongoing long-term services and supports for people who qualify. The hard part is knowing where one ends, where the other may begin, and which rules are your state's.
