MyFinalPlanner can be your lifeline during this difficult period. We help you wind down the affairs of your loved one without being overwhelmed.
In fact, if you’re winding down a straightforward middle class estate, with MyFinalPlanner, you may well be able to do it all without having to hire an attorney.
⬇️ See the video below for a personal message from co-founder, Tom Voltz, and an overview of how this site can help. ⬇️
72% of families who have just lost a loved one say that the MyFinalPlanner Resources Library would be of immediate help to them?
When I was named executor of my mother's estate, I was overwhelmed. But working with Stephen at MyFinalPlanner I was able to handle everything on my own without hiring an attorney, saving our family thousands of dollars
Settling an estate is confusing, costly, and stressful.
I know it was a struggle for me when my father died recently. That’s why my brother Stephen and I created MyFinalPlanner.
According to a 2018 study, settling an estate under $250,000 takes the executor an average of well over 150 hours and costs the estate 17,000 in fees.
That’s often more than half the assets in the entire estate.
And, as this headline from Canada’s Globe and Mail noted, being an executor of a will might be “the most stressful experience you’ll ever have.”
And the data backs that up. According to a 2022 poll by Maru Public Opinion Research, a shocking 74% of executors in the U.S. and Canada reported that managing a loved one’s estate ranked as one of life’s most strenuous challenges..
The actual duties of an executor aren’t that difficult. The problem is that there’s no road map. Nearly half of executors surveyed recently reported receiving little or no guidance during the entire process.
And I can tell you from personal experience, without guidance the job can be overwhelming.
We don’t let that happen to you.
We’ve developed a comprehensive library of resources that organize and manage the whole process for you.
For just $24.99 a month, MyFinalPlanner’s comprehensive resources cut through the complexity, reduce your paperwork, and keep you from being taken advantage of.
And of course, we stand by our service with a 100% money-back guarantee.
How It Works
The MyFinalPlanner Resource Library is organized around our system of
Comprehensive Checklists
Step-by-Step Guides
Pre-written Templates and forms and
Custom-built Spreadsheets
For every phase of the process – starting with those difficult first few days – you have a detailed checklist.
Then, for every item on every checklist, there’s a set of detailed Step-by-Step Guides walking you through everything you need to know for each task.
And finally, all of that is backed up by our extensive pre-written template library.and custom built executor spreadsheets.
Start with the Checklists
Our checklists are the backbone of our system. They guide you, step-by-step, taking you from wherever you are in the process and making sure you don’t overlook anything.
MORE: How our checklist guide you (click to expand)
How our Checklists Guide You
The place to start is with this first checklist. This is a step-by-step guide to the whole process.
Here, things are broken down by what you’ll need to do in the First Few Days, First Month, Months Three to Twelve, and finally in the Second Year and Beyond.
For example, in the very beginning, you’ll need to call the hospice nurse for a declaration of death.
You’ll need to arrange for cremation or burial, and you’ll want to get certified copies of the death certificate because you’ll need several of those later.
Then you’ll need to secure their home and vehicles and you’ll need to locate their will and financial records.
Then, sometime in the first month, you’ll need to determine whether the estate will need to be probated, and if so, file the necessary forms with your local probate court. (And we have resources to help you out with that.)
Whether you need to file for probate or not, you’ll want to prepare a detailed inventory of the estate’s assets and liabilities.
And this is also when you’ll want to write and submit an obituary and plan their memorial.
Over the next few months, you’ll need to pay all the undisputed debts, pay any estate tax that may be due, and submit any disputed claims to the probate court for resolution.
Finally, if you’ve had to probate the estate, you’ll want to file your proposed Final Distribution and Accounting, and eventually, get your Final Discharge order.
Of course, you’ll need more detailed checklists for each phase and we have them for you. Here’s the checklist for the first few days. That’s when you’ll need to notify others, secure the deceased’s property, take steps to prevent identity theft, arrange for burial or cremation, and plan the funeral.
We have detailed checklists for you for the First Few Days, the First Few Weeks, the First Few Months, Months 6 to 12, and for the Year Two and Beyond.
Step-by-Step Guides
For each checklist there is a set of Step-by-Step Guides – one or more for every item on every checklist. These guides walk you through everything you need to know and break down each step you need to take.
With over 150 detailed Step-byStep Guides you can be sure that nothing will be overlooked.
MORE: What’s in the Step-by-Step Guides? (click to expand)
The MyFinalPlanner Step-by-Step Guides
Worried about finding care for your deceased parent’s pet? Our Guide to Re-Homing your Loved One’s Pet has the answers. What about protecting your loved one’s assets from identity theft? Our Step-by-Step Guide to Preventing Identity Theft explains the risks and lays out exactly what you need to do to protect yourself.
Our short and easy-to-read guides cover everything you need to know. For example, one of the many details you’ll need to address in the first few weeks after a loved one dies is planning and holding a memorial for them. When my dad died, my family knew we wanted to hold a memorial but we didn’t know basic things like:
Where could we hold it?
How many people would come?
Who should speak?
How many of us should speak?
What should they each say?
Should we serve food?
Should we serve alcohol?
What was a reasonable budget?
Should the estate pay for it?
How long should the memorial be?
How should we publicize it?
And a dozen more similar questions.
MyFinalPlanner’s Step-by-Step Guide to Organizing a Meaningful Memorial covers all of this and more, and there’s the same level of detail in all of our Step-by-Step Guides.
An Important Word About Cremation Costs
Today, most Americans are choosing cremation over burial, and while the average cremation costs $3-4,000, if you’re in the know you can get high quality, professional, direct cremation for under $900.
Our Step-by-Step Guide to Saving on Cremation Costs tells you how and includes links to low cost, high quality providers all across the United States so you can be sure you won’t be overcharged and that your family won’t be sold more than you need.
Time saving, pre-written templates
The MyFinalPlanner Resource Library also includes pre-written templates for the seemingly endless letters, notifications, emails and requests, you ‘ll need to send out
Not sure how to word that delicate email to distant relatives, or how to contact Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter/X? Don’t know what to say to your parent’s former business partners or landlord? No worries.
Our ready-to-send templates are pre-written for you. All you need to do is just fill in the blanks and hit send.
MORE: How our templates save you time (click to expand)
How our templates save you time.
The MyFinalPlanner Resource Library includes email and other templates for everyone you’ll need to communicate with, such as:
Notifying friends and neighbors
Emailing:
Landlords
Tenants
Business partners
Employers
Employees
Informing:
Social security
Tax authorities
The department of motor vehicles
Other government agencies
Notifying:
Banks
Credit bureaus
Brokerage firms
Other financial institutions
Closing your loved one’s social media accounts
And more
All you have to do is just download the forms, fill in the blanks, and hit send. Hours of work dispatched for you in mere minutes.
Easily Keep Track of Estate Finances
Perhaps the biggest responsibility you’ll have is keeping track of the financial side of things, so the Library also includes a special custom designed ready-to-use set of spreadsheets to seamlessly track all estate-related income, expenses, assets, and liabilities.
Here too, all you need to do is fill in the blanks: All the calculations are automatically done for you.
MORE: How our Spreadsheets Do the Work for You
How Our Spreadsheets Do the Work For You
You’ll need to keep track of:
Estate assets
Estate liabilities
Estate income
Estate expenses
Estate administrative expenses
In addition, many executors, even for modest and middle-income estates, need to separately account for assets, liabilities, income, and expenses for any trusts that your loved one maintained. If there is a trust – and most people who have a will these days also have a trust – keeping trust finances separate from personal finances is critical.
With MyFinalPlanner’s custom spreadsheets, keeping track of everything is easy. Simply enter your information, separately for trust and personal finances:
Bank and brokerage account balances
Outstanding loans, mortgages, and other debts
Estate administration expenses
Continuing rental, business, investment, or other income and expenses
The spreadsheets automatically do all the calculations for you and summarize everything in easy-to-read and understand reports.
Our aim is to guide you at every turn and to eliminate much of the need for expensive professionals like attorneys or accountants.
MORE: Why My Brother and I Created MyFinalPlanner (click to expand)
Why My Brother Stephen and I Created My Final Planner
When my own father passed away recently, my brothers and I were utterly unprepared for the onslaught of decisions and tasks that awaited us.
It started almost immediately when the hospice nurse asked what we wanted to do with my father’s body and where he should be cremated - questions we’d never even considered.
From there, it seemed like every day brought new issues we hadn’t ever thought about before -
Planning a meaningful memorial service
Figuring out if we had to file for probate
What to do with our father’s house, music collection, clothing, and other belongings
Navigating income tax, property tax, and estate tax issues
and so much more.
We worked our way through, but when we were done we vowed that no one else should have to endure that process without guidance and support.
That experience led us to develop the MyFinalPlanner Resource Library - a comprehensive set of resources to support people like us through every stage of this journey.
Last But Not Least
Helping You Make Wise Financial Decisions
My brother Stephen and I founded MyFinalPlanner to help ease the burden of managing the practical side of things after the loss of a parent, but our resources can also help save your family money.
Almost immediately after a death most families face difficult, expensive decisions at a time when they don’t have either the time or the emotional energy to shop for or negotiate fair prices.
The MyFinalPlanner Resource Library gives you the information you need to take control, ensuring you can make informed decisions and can often save you thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars, while providing the compassionate support you need.
While we cannot guarantee specific outcomes, by using our step-by-step resources, small and straightforward estates, can potentially:
Reduce cremation costs from the average of $3,000-$4,000 to as little as $900.
Reduce or even eliminate the need for hiring an executor, saving you an average of $18,000.
Avoid or reduce the cost of additional legal and accounting fees, which typically average around $12,000.
Negotiate lower real estate commissions if you find yourself selling your parent’s home, cutting costs from a national average of $12,000 to as low as $6,000.
Pricing
A subscription to MyFinalPlanner is only $24.99 a month – less than 85 cents a day – less than the price of HALF a cup of coffee. And you can cancel whenever you wish.
Investing in a subscription to MyFinalPlanner could help you save thousands, making MyFinalPlanner not only a wise choice for guidance and support but also an exceptional value. With our Resource Library you can take control of the job in front of you and keep more of your family’s money where it belongs—with your family.
And if you’re not satisfied within 30 days, we offer a full refund, no questions asked.
MORE: About Our 100% Money Back Guarantee (click to expand)
Our 100% Moneyback Guarantee
At MyFinalPlanner, your confidence and satisfaction are paramount. We are committed to providing you with resources that genuinely assist you during challenging times. If for any reason you are not completely satisfied with our service, you are entitled to a full refund—no questions asked. Simply contact us within 30 days of your subscription or purchase, and we will promptly refund your payment in full. Trust in our commitment to help you manage with ease and peace of mind.
Click the Subscribe button now to invest in a service that saves you time, money, and most importantly stress during this difficult time.
Ready to take control? Subscribe to MyFinalPlanner today:
What you should know about the potentially high cost of settling a small estate
Middle-class families with smaller estates often pay the highest executor fees in America, as a percentage of the estate, according to research conducted by the firm Estate Exec.
According to that study, while the average estate in America is valued at roughly $350,000 and incurs executor fees of about $18,000 (a little over 5% of the estate), estates valued between $50,000 and $250,000, however, spend an average of $15,900 on executor fees or 10.6% of the estate.
Even worse, smaller estates – typically those managed by family members not familiar with the process – are charged even more. Those estates, with assets valued between only $10,000 and $50,000, pay out an average of $23,500.
That could be anywhere from nearly half of an estate’s entire value to over twice its value, taking a massive bite out of what the heirs receive, and possibly even costing them tens of thousands of dollars over and above the value of the estate.
The sad irony is that many, if not most, small estates are simple enough that they can be probated by a family member without the need for a lawyer or an outside executor.
If you’re one of those families with a smaller estate, MyFinalPlanner may be able to help you manage everything on your own without the need to incur any of these high fees.
