Updated August 1, 2026. Quick answer: the order most checklists give you is wrong, because they start with dollars. Two facts decide almost everything before the estate’s value matters at all: how the house is titled, and whether your state’s small-estate shortcut legally reaches real property. It usually does not — 31 of the 51 small-estate routes are personal-property-only, 15 do not say either way, and only 5 clearly reach a house. So a $60,000 estate with a solely-titled home goes through probate in most states, while a $600,000 estate whose house passes by survivorship may not. Answer six questions and get the ordered version for your state:
The roadmap
Why the order matters more than the checklist
Every “what to do when someone dies” article is a flat list: get death certificates, find the will, open probate, notify creditors. The list is not wrong, it is just not ordered, and the order is where the money is. The small-estate question has to be answered before you file anything, because filing a full administration you did not need is expensive and hard to undo. The titling question has to be answered before the small-estate question, because it determines what is even in the probate estate. And the deadline clock starts at the date of death regardless of how long it takes anyone to find the paperwork.
The mistake that costs the most: assuming the shortcut covers the house
This is the one worth stating plainly. A small-estate affidavit is a sworn document that lets a successor collect property without a full court administration — and in 31 states it reaches personal property only. Bank accounts, vehicles, personal effects: yes. A house titled in the decedent’s name alone: no. Illinois, New York, Virginia and Washington are all in this group, and in all of them a family that reads “your estate is under the limit” and skips probate will find the house cannot be sold or transferred, sometimes years later at closing.
Only 5 states clearly give the shortcut a real-property limb, and each has its own separate cap — Arizona, California, Oregon, West Virginia and Wyoming. Another 15 do not state the answer clearly enough for us to assert one, and the tool says so rather than guessing. Every threshold above is quoted with its statute; the comparison table is at small estate limits by state.
When passing outside probate still does not protect the house
A transfer-on-death deed is genuinely useful — 35 states authorise one, more than most sources report. But avoiding probate and being beyond reach are different things. 18 of those 35 states also define the recoverable estate broadly for Medicaid estate recovery, past the probate estate. Ohio’s statute reaches TOD affidavits, payable-on-death accounts, survivorship property and living trusts by name. So for someone who received long-term-care Medicaid, a TOD deed may move the house out of probate and not out of the claim. The tool flags this on the states where it applies.
The opposite correction is worth as much. California narrowed its programme sharply: for deaths on or after January 1, 2017 recovery is limited to assets passing through probate, only for federally mandated long-term-care services — and it is barred entirely while a surviving spouse or registered domestic partner is alive. Families are still told the old rule.
Methodology
Three verified datasets built and published by this site drive the tool: small-estate thresholds and probate fee models with statutory citations (the source behind probate cost by state and small estate limits by state), the transfer-on-death deed statute survey, and a statute-level Medicaid estate-recovery scope survey. Every dollar figure the tool prints is carried verbatim from the dataset row it cites, and each row is shown with its statute so you can check it. Rows we graded medium-confidence are labelled as such in the output rather than quietly averaged in.
What the tool deliberately does not do: it does not publish a probate cost band, because 44 of the 51 states set compensation by a “reasonable fee” standard or a hybrid rather than a schedule, and a band computed across those would be invented. It routes to the probate cost calculator, which applies each state’s statute. It also cannot see liens, homestead or exempt-property carve-outs, which most thresholds are measured net of — so an estate near a limit needs a real check, not this one.
General information, not legal advice. Probate is state law and the procedures differ in detail even where the dollar figures match.
If a bank refuses a power of attorney: in most states that triggers a court order compelling acceptance plus liability for your attorney’s fees — with a deadline, usually seven business days, and no right to demand their own form.
Two things a power of attorney will not do: it ends the moment the principal dies — the bank that did not know is protected, the agent who did is not — and if it is a springing document, somebody has to certify incapacity first, which is where they usually fail.
A surviving spouse can often override the will: the spousal elective share is not a flat one-third — it slides with the length of the marriage, up to 50%, and it applies to an augmented estate that reaches revocable trusts, POD/TOD accounts and life insurance.
The questions people actually ask
These come from what people actually search and ask in public threads on this topic. Each answer is a short summary of a page on this site that works the question through properly, with its sources; follow the link when the detail matters, which on most of these it does.
Can I use the small-estate affidavit if there is a house?
In most states, no — 31 of the 51 small-estate routes reach personal property only, so a home titled in the decedent’s name alone cannot be cleared by affidavit at any dollar figure. This is the single most common error in generic checklists, and it is why the roadmap above asks how the house is titled before it asks what anything is worth.
What is the deadline for everything after a death?
There is no single deadline — there is a set of clocks that all start at the date of death, and several are use-it-or-lose-it. Disclaimers die at nine months with no extension; the portability election is worth potentially millions to a surviving spouse who would otherwise not file at all. Enter the date, get the calendar.
Can I distribute to the heirs before the creditor period ends?
You can, and it is one of the few ways an executor becomes personally liable for the estate’s debts. The creditor claim window is the clock that usually controls how long an estate must stay open. Why early distribution is the trap.
My ex is still named on the 401(k). Does the divorce decree override it?
For an ERISA plan, generally no — the beneficiary form beats the decree, and plans pay whoever is named on the paperwork. It is the most expensive piece of admin that people never get round to. The form beats the decree.
Do I need to file a final tax return for the person who died?
Yes, and it is the filing families most often miss because it feels like the estate’s problem rather than the person’s. It covers the part of the year they were alive and it has its own deadline. What it covers, and when.
Who inherits if there was no will at all?
The state’s intestacy statute decides, and the common assumption that the spouse takes everything is often wrong — most wrong in blended families, where the surviving spouse’s share is cut by statute when the decedent has children from another relationship. The blended-family default.
Can the surviving spouse override the will?
Usually yes, through the spousal elective share — and it is not a flat one-third. It slides with the length of the marriage and applies to an augmented estate that deliberately reaches trusts, POD/TOD accounts and life insurance. Compute the share.
The tax side of losing a spouse: the same income taxed on single brackets with half the standard deduction is a real annual increase — compute the widow’s penalty, and see why the final joint year is the cheapest year the survivor will ever have.
Before cost, validity: what your state actually requires for a will to work — witness count, whether a notary is needed at all, and whether a handwritten or electronic will counts, with the statute cited on every cell.
If a reverse mortgage is part of the picture: whether a surviving spouse can stay in the house is decided at closing — a spouse not named in the loan documents at origination can never become eligible later, and the regulation says so in terms.
Two decisions this roadmap assumes you have made. Whether to engage a lawyer — probate without a lawyer — and what to avoid while you work through the steps: the mistakes that create personal liability.
A business interest belongs on the inventory early rather than being discovered late — what happens to an LLC when its owner dies.
All the numbers, kept current. This page uses 5 figures from our claims register — every figure we track is on one page, each with the year it applies to and a plain statement of what makes it move.