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The First-Time Executor's Quick-Start Guide: Settling an Estate Step by Step, from Probate to the Final Accounting
Paperback
Personal FinanceConsumer ReferenceGeneral Law
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jul 16 2026
Pages: 52
Weight: 0.18
Height: 0.11 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
You've just been named executor, and you don't know what to do first. This is the book that tells you.
The First-Time Executor's Quick-Start Guide walks you through settling an estate one step at a time, in plain English, for people with no legal background who suddenly have to get it right. From the paperwork of the first two weeks to the final accounting that closes the estate, it lays out the sequence in the order you actually face it.
Inside:
- The first two weeks: death certificates, securing the home, and what may be paid now versus what must wait
- Whether you even need full probate, and when a small-estate affidavit is enough
- Opening the estate: the court process, filing, timelines, and the estate bank account that protects you
- Building the inventory and valuing assets as of the date of death
- Creditors and notices: the claims window, which debts get paid first, and the personal-liability line every executor must respect
- Keeping the estate alive: insurance, utilities, and the maintenance traps that quietly cost estates money
- Taxes without terror, selling and retitling property, and communicating with the family
- Closing the estate: the final accounting, receipts and releases, and how you know it is truly done
- Special cases: no will, insolvent estates, out-of-state property, and declining the role
A quick-start guide, not a legal treatise: short chapters you can read at the kitchen table the week you need them, with the checklists and logs assembled into one Executor's File you can actually use.
This book is general information, not legal advice. When a decision carries real risk, it tells you plainly to get a lawyer for that one piece.
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