What to Do When a Parent Dies

Take care of yourself and your family first. The administrative tasks can wait a few days. When you're ready, do two things: find the estate planning documents — trust, will, powers of attorney — and order certified death certificates. Everything else flows from what those documents say (or don't say), and almost nothing can be done without a certified copy in hand. Most families need 10 to 15; work out how many before you order.

The estate is called intestate, and your state's intestacy statute decides who inherits — not the family, and not the court's judgment of what would be fair. The shares are fixed by law and they surprise people: a surviving spouse does not automatically take everything in most states, and children, parents, and siblings enter the order depending on who survived. Someone still has to be appointed to administer it, and they receive Letters of Administration rather than Letters Testamentary. See exactly who inherits under your state's rules, and if the estate is small enough, you may be able to collect it with an affidavit and skip probate entirely.

Check their files at home, any safe deposit box, and ask their attorney if they had one. Some people tell family members where documents are kept; others don't. If you can't find anything, you may need to proceed as if there's no estate plan — which means state intestacy laws control.

Often, no. Every state offers a small-estate procedure that avoids formal probate, and the cutoff ranges from $15,000 to $400,000 depending on where your parent lived. Anything that already had a named beneficiary — retirement accounts, life insurance, payable-on-death accounts — or that was jointly owned passes outside probate no matter how large it is, so the estate that actually reaches the court is frequently much smaller than the family expects. Check whether probate is required before assuming it is.

An executor is named in a will and manages the probate process — a court-supervised proceeding. A trustee is named in a trust and manages trust assets — no court involved. Some people serve as both. The jobs overlap but have different legal requirements and timelines.

Trust administration can be done in a few months for simple estates. Probate typically takes 6-18 months, depending on the state and estate complexity. Much of that time is not the court — it is the creditor claim window, which runs 2 to 12 months depending on the state and must close before the estate can safely distribute. Contested estates or tax issues extend either process. If it's probate, estimate the cost before you start.

Almost certainly not. An inheritance is not taxable income, and federal estate tax only reaches estates above $15,000,00026 USC 2001(c), 2010; P.L. 119-21 §70106Verified Sep 15, 2026View source, which excludes virtually every family. Two things do carry tax consequences: money coming out of an inherited retirement account is taxed as ordinary income when you withdraw it, and 5 states levy their own inheritance tax on what beneficiaries receive. The rule that saves families the most is the step-up in basis — an inherited asset's cost basis is reset to fair market value on the date of death26 USC § 1014Verified Sep 15, 2026View source, so if you sell your parent's house shortly after their death, the decades of appreciation they accrued are simply not taxed to you. Get the date-of-death value documented before you sell; estimate the step-up and check your state.

Not out of your own money — a child does not inherit a parent's debts. The estate pays what the estate owes, and if it runs out, the remaining creditors generally go unpaid. Where personal liability does attach is distribution: if you are the executor and you hand assets to the beneficiaries before the creditor claim window closes (2 to 12 months, by state), a valid claim that arrives afterward can come out of your pocket. Track the creditor deadlines for your state and pay the estate's debts before anyone inherits.

Not always. Simple trust administrations are frequently handled without one, and 32 states allow independent administration — the personal representative gets the court's appointment and then does the work without returning for approval at each step. Legal help earns its cost when the estate is large, the will is contested, real property sits in more than one state, or the family disagrees. Check whether self-filing is realistic in your parent's county before you assume you need counsel.