Free form builders for the executor or administrator of an estate. Each form is built to the rules of the state you choose, filling the state's official court form where one exists and drafting the instrument to the statute where the state publishes none. The letters to banks and online accounts are keyed to the institution rather than the state.
The petition for probate and letters. It files the will if there is one, asks the court to appoint the executor or administrator, and asks for the letters that banks and title companies accept as proof of authority. Some states fill an official form; others draft the petition from the statute.
When the estate's value is under the state's small estate limit and the state's waiting period after death has passed. The affidavit is presented to the bank or holder of the property, or in some states filed with the court, in place of a full probate. The builder checks the estate against your state's limit before it produces the document.
A sworn statement of the decedent's family history and heirs, recorded in the county land records when no estate was administered. It is a Texas term of art with equivalents in a number of other states, and it is laid out to the state's recording rules so the county recorder accepts it.
The notice to creditors, published and mailed to known creditors, which starts the claim period; the estate inventory, listing the estate's property at date of death values; and, at the end, the estate closing packet, which is the state's closing statement, final account, or petition for discharge.
An estate is a separate taxpayer from the person who died. It needs its own employer identification number to open an estate account and to file an estate income tax return. The EIN application prepares IRS Form SS-4 for an estate or a trust.
The letter of instruction is addressed to a specific bank, brokerage, or insurer and follows that institution's published claim process and document list. The digital assets recovery letter does the same for an online service's program for a deceased user's account. Both are keyed to the institution or program rather than the state.