What are you navigating?

If the death was recent, begin with the first days, death certificates, and whether probate is needed.

• The first daysWhat actually has to happen in the first few days, and the much longer list that does not.
• Death certificatesHow to work out how many certified copies you need, and who is allowed to order them where you are.
• Do I need probate?Whether an asset goes through probate depends on how it was titled, on beneficiary designations and trusts, and on the state. Work out what is left before assuming you need it.

What a funeral home may and may not charge for, and the long list of organizations that have to be told — in the order that actually saves work.

• Funeral price rightsA federal rule gives you prices by telephone, a printed list to keep, and the right to buy only what you want. Nothing makes a provider volunteer it, and the difference it makes is money.
• Notifying companiesSocial Security's death file is closed to uncertified organizations for three years, so the telling falls to the family. What some companies owe you once you have told them — and the request that starts it.
• Mail and utilitiesRedirecting mail needs more than a death certificate — and canceling the phone can lock you out of the accounts you still need.

Who is allowed to sign for the estate, what the will does and does not decide, and the routes that avoid a full probate where the estate qualifies.

• The willWhere to look, what a photocopy is worth, who has to hand it over and by when, and what happens when the original cannot be found.
• If there is no willWho inherits when there is no will — and why the answer for a spouse and children changes from state to state.
• Being an executorWhat the job actually is, what you are personally on the hook for, and the order to do it in.
• Small estate proceduresThe affidavit route that replaces probate for modest estates, and how it works in each state.
• Trusts after a deathWhat a successor trustee actually has to do — including a notice that in one state starts a 120-day clock.
• Do you need a probate lawyer?A specific and fairly short list of facts is what makes an estate one that needs a lawyer — and knowing which of them you have is worth more than any recommendation.

Banks, investments, retirement plans, pensions and final pay: what moves on a beneficiary form, and what waits for the court.

• Bank accountsHow the account was held decides the route. Plus the FDIC’s six-month deposit-insurance grace period.
• Investment accountsTransferring shares and funds — and why the capital gains tax the family is dreading is usually not owed.
• Retirement accountsThe ten-year clock most beneficiaries are now on, and the five categories exempt from it.
• PensionsWhether a pension continues was decided at retirement — and giving up a spouse's share required that spouse's notarized signature.
• Final pay and employer benefitsThe last paycheck, unused vacation and expenses can often reach a spouse without probate — with a signed affidavit and no court, where the state provides that route.
• Claiming as a beneficiaryYou are named on something. What that actually means, and who you have to deal with.

What may be payable to survivors, what has to be reported and when, and how to find a policy nobody can put their hands on.

• Social SecurityReporting the death, the $255 payment, survivors benefits, and the money you have to give back.
• Veterans benefitsBurial allowance, a national cemetery place, a headstone, a flag — and the two-year deadline on a claim where the death was not service connected.
• Federal and railroad benefitsIf they worked for the federal government or a railroad, the survivor benefits are not Social Security — different agency, different forms, different thresholds.
• Health insuranceIf you were covered on their plan you have longer than you think — up to 36 months, and the clock starts at the notice.
• Finding life insuranceNine places to look for a policy nobody can find, in the order worth trying them.

A will does not change a deed. What actually moves a house out of somebody's name, what the mortgage and the taxes do meanwhile, and what to do with a house nobody is living in.

• The house is still in their nameA will does not change a deed. What actually moves a house out of a dead owner's name, and what happens while it has not.
• Inheriting a home with other peopleSeveral people, one house, and decisions that generally need agreement. What to establish before anyone argues about the outcome.
• Inheriting a mortgaged homeThe servicer says it cannot talk to you because you are not on the loan. Federal rules say otherwise — in writing, with three specific things in the letter.
• Selling the house while the estate is openWhether the executor can put the house on the market, who is living in it, and what a buyer actually gets. Three states read, and they do not agree.
• Keeping or selling inherited propertyThe house is yours between you. Deciding what happens to it is a different job from being allowed to decide.
• An empty house after a deathThe largest thing the estate owns is now standing empty, and the insurance on it may quietly stop working. This is the call to make first.
• Property taxes after a deathThe tax bill does not stop when the owner dies, the notices go to their name, and the county's remedy is against the house.

What is worth what, who is entitled to it, what a clearing company should cost, and the box at the bank nobody has the key to.

• Personal propertyThe ring, the tools, the photographs. A handwritten list can decide who gets them — but whether it binds anyone depends on your state.
• Clearing a homeA houseful of things, four possible destinations and one rule that decides the order: write down what is there and what it is worth before any of it leaves.
• Estate sale feesThe commission is the number families compare first. What the percentage is taken of, what comes off before the family is paid, and what happens to whatever does not sell are the terms that decide what a proposal is worth.
• Safe-deposit boxesThe will is in the box and the bank wants the will to open the box. The four states read here each provide a way out — and the first move is different in each.

Property passed down without a deed being changed, what puts it at risk, and the protections that exist for it, which no step in an informal transfer announces.

• Heirs' propertyA house that was never legally transferred, owned in fractions by people who have never met, and worth less to the family than it looks.
• Protecting inherited family propertyWhat puts family property at risk, what protections may exist, what must not be ignored, and who can actually help.
• Can one owner force a saleA co-owner can ask a court to end the co-ownership. What that means, what protections may apply, and what has a deadline on it.
• Black land loss and heirs' propertyHow land bought in a single generation was lost over four, what the law has changed, and what a family can do now.
• The house in grandmother's nameSix relatives, an old deed, taxes behind, somebody circling a share, and nobody sure whether probate ever happened. Where to start.

Which debts belong to the estate and which belong to nobody, and what has to be filed before it can be finished.

• Debts and creditorsWhether you owe anything personally (usually not), and what collectors are allowed to do.
• TaxesThe final return, the refund that has to be claimed rather than paid automatically, and where the federal estate tax threshold sits.

These will not apply to everyone. If one does, it can change what you need to do next.

• When the executor will not actWhether they are actually appointed yet, when delay becomes something a court will act on, and what to do first.
• The final accountingIt arrives when everyone wants it finished. That is exactly when to read it — because in some states a discharge closes off the right to object afterwards.
• When the beneficiary died firstWhether the gift passes to their children, falls to the other beneficiaries, or drops into the estate — and why the document it is written in decides.
• Unclaimed propertyThe state may already be holding their money. Searching is free, claiming is free, and the stranger offering to do it for a share is regulated — differently in each state read here.
• Reverse mortgagesWhat the lender can and cannot do, the six ways out, the 95 per cent rule, and the deadlines that run before probate is even open.
• Business interestsThey owned part of a company. What the family gets depends entirely on which kind of company it was — and in one of them the surviving owners have to buy the estate out.
• FirearmsThe one thing in the house where handing it to the wrong relative is a federal offense — and where New York gives the executor fifteen days.
• New Jersey inheritance taxWho owes it, why an account can be restricted when nobody owes anything, which form releases the money, and the eight-month clock.
• Identity theftA deceased person's identity can be misused before the family has a chance to act. What to do in the first month, and what the law does when somebody uses it.