Sunset helps families settle an estate after someone dies. We find the accounts and assets, prepare the probate paperwork, deal with the financial institutions, and give you one bank account where all the money lands. For families, it's free.

Here's the whole picture of what that involves.

Most people settling an estate don't know what exists. An old 401(k) from a job three decades ago, a small life insurance policy through a union, a savings account at a credit union in a state your loved one hasn't lived in since the 1990s. These are the things families miss.

Sunset searches for:

You choose which categories to search. Results are held until every search you asked for has finished, which usually takes 7 to 14 days. See our full guide to search timelines for the details.

No institution is told about the death during the search, with one exception: searching for life insurance requires notifying carriers, because that's the only way a carrier can check its records. Everything else stays undisturbed until you decide otherwise.

Separate from the search, Sunset runs a free tool that notifies Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion of the death, which stops new credit being opened in your loved one's name. It's free for anyone, whether or not you use Sunset for anything else, and worth doing early. See our article on reporting a death to the credit bureaus.

Before a bank will release anything, you generally need legal authority. That usually means a court appointment or a small estate affidavit, and the rules change by state and often by county.

Sunset determines which path applies to your situation and generates the documents:

Forms are specific to your county, covering all 50 states and more than 3,000 counties. They arrive pre-filled with your information and come with filing instructions. Free online notarization is available 24 hours a day when a document needs to be notarized. You file with the court, or work with an attorney if you prefer.

98% of estates don't require a probate lawyer when using Sunset. Sunset is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.

When you're ready, you ask Sunset to close an account and we handle it from there. We notify the institution, send the required documents, follow up every week until it's closed, and get the funds deposited.

For institutions partnered with Sunset, we have a direct line to their closure teams and documents go out instantly. For everyone else, we prepare and send the same day, at most within one business day.

You'll only hear from us when we need a signature or when an institution insists on speaking with the executor directly, in which case we set up a three-way call. Full details are in our article on closing accounts and accessing funds.

Everything lands in one place. Sunset generates the estate EIN through our IRS partnership and helps you open an FDIC-insured estate or trust bank account, insured up to $3 million.

From that account you can pay funeral costs, medical bills, debts, and probate fees, then distribute what's left to the heirs. Every deposit is labeled with its source, which makes the final accounting straightforward and keeps estate money separate from your own.

The account is free to open and maintain.

Sunset supports property sales in all 50 states through a brokerage firm that specializes in probate and trust real estate. After we confirm ownership with a title search, they talk through the property and your situation and help you find a local realtor.

Sunset earns no fee from this, and you contract with the brokerage directly. See our article on selling estate real estate.

Sunset costs families nothing. No upfront fee, no charge for document preparation or closures, and no percentage of the estate.

Our bank partners pay us a fee based on interest generated from estate bank accounts. That fee comes from the bank, not from you and not out of the estate. Every dollar we recover goes to the beneficiaries and heirs.

Compare that to services that charge a percentage of assets found, which on a $200,000 estate can mean $20,000 gone before anyone inherits anything.

Sunset also offers a separate professional product for attorneys, fiduciaries, and financial advisors who settle estates on behalf of clients. If you're a professional rather than a family member, contact us and we'll point you to the right place.

Setting expectations honestly matters more than sounding comprehensive.

Enter details about your loved one, upload a photo of your government-issued ID and a copy of the death certificate, and confirm your relationship. Validation happens instantly and automatically.

Usually 7 to 14 days, sometimes longer. Your dashboard shows a status for each category while you wait, and all results are released together when the last search finishes.

If you need court authority or a small estate affidavit, Sunset generates the documents for your county and gives you filing instructions.

Sunset generates the EIN and helps you open the account so there's somewhere for the funds to go.

Pick the accounts you want to pursue. Sunset contacts each institution, sends documents, follows up weekly, and deposits the money.

Settle what's owed from the estate account, then distribute to heirs and close the account when you're done.

You set the pace throughout. Some families move through this in weeks, others take months.

Yes. The search is the same either way. Without a will, state intestacy law determines the heirs and you'll need letters of administration rather than letters testamentary. Sunset prepares either one.

Sunset still handles the probate documents, the closures, the estate account, and the distribution. Families are also frequently surprised by what turns up, even when they were confident they knew everything.

Yes, all 50. The search is nationwide and we prepare probate documents for any state and county.

You generally need some legal standing to access account information, typically as executor, administrator, trustee, or a close family member. If you don't have authority yet, Sunset can prepare the documents to establish it.

Sunset works for estates of any size and the service is the same. Small estates often benefit most, since attorney fees or percentage-based services would eat a meaningful share of what's there.

Not within a single Sunset account right now. If you need to search for a second person, another family member related to them can sign up separately.

Discovery is fast. After that it depends mostly on the institutions and, if probate is required, your county's court calendar. Straightforward estates often wrap up in a few months. Estates requiring formal probate take considerably longer, and that timeline belongs to the court, not to us.

If you're wondering whether Sunset can help with your specific situation, ask. Chat with us in the app, call (385) 707-0082, or email [email protected]. We reply to email within one business day.