The bank freezes the account the day it hears. The bills keep coming. Survivor benefits only start the month somebody files. The Estate Kit is the step-by-step plan for that part: what to do, who to call and in what order, across the first 48 hours, 6 months and 9 months. Written for how it works here: Social Security, Medicare, the 401(k) and IRA forms, your state’s probate court.
Do it once, one afternoon. Then stop thinking about it.Your family has the plan for life. Sit down once, fill it in, and it’s handled: they know where everything is, who to call and what to do first. One flat price, paid once.
The complete 48-6-9 System.Over 20,000 families have already put their affairs in order with it.
Try it for 30 days.If it’s not for you, you get every cent back. Real people answer 7 days a week.
Between the day someone dies and the day the estate is finally closed, there’s a stretch of work no one prepares you for. It has an official name: estate administration. Here’s what it actually looks like.
Your kids going drawer by drawer, through old statements and a locked phone, trying to work out which banks, which retirement plans and which policies even exist. Aretha Franklin’s family found her handwritten will under the couch cushions. It took a jury, in 2023, five years after her death, to settle which one counted.
With a plan: it’s already listed. Every account, and what to do with it.
There’s no one place to report a death. The funeral director tells Social Security, and Social Security tells Medicare. That’s it. Banks, insurers, plan custodians, private Medicare plans, the DMV, utilities, subscriptions: your family calls every one of them, one at a time.
With a plan: who to call, in what order, and what to have in hand.
An account in one name alone is frozen the moment the bank is told, until the court grants authority, or the estate is small enough for your state’s affidavit. The mortgage, the utilities and the insurance keep arriving in the meantime.
With a plan: your family knows what exists and the right steps to take, without losing weeks.
Three of the ways it gets paid, with the numbers behind them.
That’s the average Social Security benefit for a surviving spouse. It starts the month someone applies. Back pay reaches six months at most. Every month past that is gone for good.
SSA Monthly Statistical Snapshot, July 2026 · 20 CFR §404.621Settling an estate takes almost 16 months and roughly 570 hours of work on average. A messy estate is a billable estate: estate attorneys commonly charge $250 to $500 an hour, and the meter runs while your kids dig through drawers.
EstateExec executor survey · attorney rate surveys, 2025–2026About one American in seven has unclaimed property sitting with a state: forgotten accounts, unpaid life insurance, final paychecks. States returned $4.49 billion to owners in a single year. The rest waits for someone who knows to ask.
NAUPA, unclaimed.org · FY2024 annual reportIllustrative, not a promise: the kit doesn’t file a claim or replace an attorney. It makes sure your family knows what exists, and what to do first.
They would, eventually. Over many stressful months, with frozen accounts, missed windows and forgotten policies along the way. And it won’t be split evenly: it lands on one person, usually a daughter, who learns the job while doing it, while grieving. They don’t just need your information. They need a plan: what to do, who to call, and in what order.
Not a checklist. A method. Three clocks start the day someone dies, and almost nobody knows them in advance. The 48-6-9 System puts every step in its window, in order, each one tied to a federal rule, a state rule or the way an institution actually works. You go through it once, at your kitchen table. It then holds for all fifty states, and for the rest of your life.
The first moves, in order: call the funeral home (they are the ones who normally report the death to Social Security), order about ten certified copies of the death certificate, find the original will, confirm who the executor is, secure the house and the mail, and leave the last benefit payment untouched.
There is no single place to report a death. Social Security tells Medicare, and nobody else. Every bank, the mortgage, the insurers, the 401(k) and IRA custodians, the private Medicare plans, the VA if they served, the utilities and the subscriptions: one call at a time. This is also the window where money quietly disappears. Survivor benefits start the month someone applies, back pay stops at six months, and the $255 death payment has its own two-year window.
The months that cost a homeowner’s family the most. The empty house: most home policies limit or drop coverage once a house sits vacant 30 to 60 days, while the taxes, the utilities and the mortgage keep running. The final tax return. Your state’s creditor window. Probate through your state’s court, if the estate needs it. And one federal deadline with no extension: nine months from the date of death to refuse any part of an inheritance (IRC §2518). Most families never need that option. The ones who do can’t ask for more time.
The three windows are federal or practical, so they hold in all fifty states. What changes state to state, the court, the thresholds, the deadlines, is on your State Quick Sheet.
Every page is written for how it works here, so nothing important is left out:
📧 Delivered instantly by email · 🖨 printed at home, or filled in on screen · kept in one folder.
The alternative in most people’s minds isn’t an attorney. It’s the “I’m gone, now what?” notebook from the big-box store, or the free checklist that never got filled in. Here’s what each one actually does.
| The $12 notebook | Free checklist | Online planner | Estate attorney | The Estate Kit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where things are kept | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ |
| What to do, in what order, with the deadlines | ✕ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ✓ |
| Who to call: Social Security, the VA, the plans, the banks | ✕ | ~ | ~ | ✕ | ✓ |
| Your state’s court, threshold and TOD-deed rule | ✕ | ✕ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ready-to-send notification letters | ✕ | ✕ | ~ | ✕ | ✓ |
| Nothing uploaded, no account, no login | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| One payment, nothing renews | ✓ | free | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
| Built to actually get finished | ✕ | ✕ | ~ | ✕ | ✓ |
✓ yes · ~ in part · ✕ no. The attorney column isn’t a knock: drafting your will or trust is their job. Telling your family what to do the week after is not.
Guided questions and clear sections. No blank-page overwhelm, no jargon, no legal training required. You’re answering prompts, not designing anything. Fill it in at your own pace, on paper or on screen, and keep it together.
Left by people who bought the kit. Quoted word for word, first name and initial only. The stars are the rating each of them gave.
“An excellent guide on what to do after a death. How many death certificates? A lot more than you think. The list of things to do in what order and at what time. A Form to fill out and file containing information on the deceased - pensions, insurances, and so on, to contact. Brilliant - I'd never have thought of half of it.”
“Without the folder, I can imagine how long and frustrating it would be for our children when the inevitable occurs. For a start, they wouldn't be able to access any of the information on my computer. […] a carefully thought-out, secure system that will give our children a flying start to settle our estate and has given them no excuse to miss anything.”
“Email link came through almost immediately and was simple to print off and pop into my own file […] for now I know if something awful happened to me our son would know where to look and have instructions for 'what to do now'. Thank you for putting this together and giving us peace of mind at a sensible price and with access to a human and answers/expertise whenever we need it!”
“An excellent kit. The guidelines are well written and easy to follow. Customer service support is excellent. The few questions I had were answered clearly and promptly, without making me feel foolish. (Thank you, Raphael.) I would highly recommend this kit.”
“Having examined the kit, i'm amazed at how little I knew. These are things you need to know before the event, definitely. I would recommend both the kit and the detailed help book that comes with it.”
“The kit covers such a lot of different topics which need to be addressed when someone dies. I have found it better to go through a little each day & have still not got to the end of my kit. I shall, however, do so & will feel better knowing that I am totally prepared in advance.”
“The product came to my attention through Facebook. I had been thinking of preparing my paperwork but this kit gives me a logical and efficient way of doing so. I have only just started but so far the method is easy to read and follow.”
“The kit is clearly laid out in a logical order. I know that this is going to be a great help to my children. Many thanks.”
“Very speedy email response. Easy to print out the templates even for this elderly technophobe person!”
Many of the people who buy this kit are the daughter or son who’ll be the executor. Order it in your name. It arrives by email in minutes. Print it, bring it over for Sunday dinner, and fill it in together, one sheet at a time. Nothing in it asks how much anything is worth.
“Mom, if something happened, I wouldn’t know where to start. Can we write down where things are, so I never have to guess?”
That sentence opens the conversation. The Start Here sheet does the rest. And if you have brothers and sisters, print a copy for each of them: the ones who know the plan are the ones who don’t fight over it.
Settling an estate takes almost 16 months and roughly 570 hours on average. Frozen accounts, dozens of phone calls, benefits that stop being paid back, a house that quietly loses its insurance. That is the size of the problem. The Estate Kit is one payment, the price on this page, and it covers the entire path. Nothing renews. Nothing to re-buy. Done once, kept forever.
If you own your home, have life insurance or more than one heir, start with the Complete Pack. Every kit is the full 48-6-9 System, paid once, delivered by email to print at home, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Nobody calls you, and nobody asks what your accounts are worth.
The plan and the folder.
The plan, the folder, the letters.
Everything. Written for the person who’ll actually do the work.
$99. Less than 20 minutes of an estate attorney’s time, for the whole kit.
Which one? Renting, simple estate: Essential. Own your home: Complete. Life insurance or more than one heir: Complete.
Every kit: printable and fillable PDF · instant email delivery · 30-day money-back guarantee. Nothing is shipped. You print it at home, or fill it in on screen, and keep it in a folder of your own.
Download the kit, read the plan, print the sheets and start filling them in at your own pace. If you don’t feel it helps your family know what to do, email us within 30 days and you get every dollar back. Nothing to send back, no forms, no questions, no phone call to sit through. The refund is issued within 48 to 72 hours (your bank may take a few days to show it).
Estate attorneys commonly bill $250 to $500 an hour, and an attorney-drafted living trust runs a median $2,475. This kit doesn’t replace any of that, and it doesn’t try to. It’s the part they don’t do: telling your family what to do, in what order, and where everything is. And it’s the part that keeps their meter from running while your kids search.
And yes, free checklists are everywhere. You’ve probably downloaded one. The honest question is whether it’s filled in. A blank binder helps nobody. This one is guided line by line, so it actually gets finished.
Someone in the United States has a stroke every 40 seconds. One in three older Americans dies with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. The afternoon to do this is the one you still have, with your memory, your handwriting and your say. Nobody else knows where you keep things.
CDC stroke facts · Alzheimer’s Association, 2026 Facts and FiguresWhen in doubt, take The Complete Peace-of-Mind Pack: $99 once, and your family has the house, the executor’s brief and the calendar, all in one folder.
No, and that’s the whole point. Free checklists are everywhere; you’ve probably downloaded one already. The honest question is whether it’s filled in. This is a step-by-step plan, what to do, who to call and in what order across the first 48 hours, 6 months and 9 months, with guided fill-in pages that feed it. You answer prompts. You don’t design anything.
Pay once. Do it once. Be the one who left a plan.
Leave them a plan →Instant email delivery · print at home · 30-day money-back guarantee