Estate Settlement
Someone has died. Start by finding out what you actually have to do.
Often it is less than you fear.
Estate settlement is everything that happens after a death: working out which assets transfer how, opening a court administration if one is needed, administering a trust if there is one, paying valid debts and taxes, and getting the property to the people entitled to it. Which of those apply to you depends almost entirely on how the assets were titled — and that is the first question worth answering, before anyone is hired.
Start here
Three questions decide everything that follows.
How was each asset titled?
Sole name with no beneficiary means probate. A named living beneficiary, a survivorship co-owner, or a trust as owner means it transfers outside court entirely. This single sort determines the process, the timeline and the cost.
Was there a trust, and was it funded?
A trust only controls what it owns. A signed trust with assets still titled personally avoids nothing — the family gets a probate and the cost of the trust.
Is anyone in disagreement?
A cooperative family and a clear document produce a straightforward administration. Conflict, a suspect document, or a fiduciary who has gone silent is a different matter with different remedies.
A significant share of families who call need no administration at all.
If everything passed by beneficiary designation, survivorship or a funded trust, there may be nothing for a court to do.
Bring the death certificate, the deed, and recent statements for each account showing whether a beneficiary is named. An hour of sorting answers the question, and it frequently answers it in your favour — paying for an administration you do not need helps nobody.
The areas
Choose the situation that matches yours.
Each of these has its own page covering the process, the obligations, the deadlines and the common questions in full.
Probate
Court administration of assets held in the decedent’s sole name. What is probated versus what passes by beneficiary designation, transfer-on-death registration or beneficiary deed; the personal representative’s obligations; and the deadlines that bar a will, a claim or a contest.
Trust Administration
The private counterpart to probate. Successor trustee duties, the 120-day notices most new trustees have never heard of, reporting obligations, and the unfunded-trust problem.
Contested Estates & Will Contests
Capacity, undue influence, improper execution, and later instruments — on either side. The six-month bar that ends most challenges before they begin, and an honest read on whether yours would survive.
Beneficiary Representation
For beneficiaries rather than fiduciaries. Compelling an accounting, removing or surcharging a trustee or personal representative, and what to do before you sign a receipt and release.
Estate Tax & Complex Administrations
The $15 million federal exclusion, the portability election that is quietly forfeited every year, business valuations, mineral interests, and multi-state administrations.
Estate Planning
The other half of the practice. Wills, trusts, powers of attorney and directives — drafted by someone who has spent years settling the plans that failed.
How we work
What to expect from this firm.
A free first conversation
Twenty minutes to sort the assets, identify which process applies, and tell you what has to happen and by when. Including, often, that you do not need us.
The lightest procedure that fits
A small estate affidavit rather than a full administration where the estate qualifies. Independent rather than supervised administration where it is appropriate. Choosing correctly at the outset is most of the value.
Fees paid from the estate
In an administration, the attorney’s fee is ordinarily an estate expense rather than something the family funds personally. We tell you the structure before you engage.
You deal with the attorney
Not an intake coordinator, and not a paralegal relaying answers. In a matter that runs a year, knowing who is actually handling your file matters.
Meet Derek Haake
He settled estates before he drafted them.
Most estate lawyers learn this work from the drafting side and meet the failures only through a client’s account of them. Derek spent three years as a Vice President and Estate Settlement Officer at Bank of America Private Bank — the country’s largest provider of managed personal trust services — administering estates for ultra-high-net-worth families as the institutional fiduciary.
Interpreting wills and trusts, locating unknown assets, transferring real estate to heirs, researching mineral rights and oil and gas leases, coordinating with tax professionals, and communicating with beneficiaries who were grieving and occasionally in conflict.
Having worked on both the planning and the settlement sides is what shapes the documents he drafts now — he has seen precisely what happens when they are unclear, outdated, or sloppily drafted. And as a partner at Howard Haake from 2014 to 2022 he handled probate administrations and litigated challenges to wills and trusts, so he is also the one in court when someone attacks the instrument.
Common questions
Where to start, answered.
Someone just died. What do I actually do first?
Order several certified copies of the death certificate — every institution wants its own, and you will need more than you expect. Secure the property: lock the house, keep the insurance in force, and do not let anyone start removing belongings, however informal the family understanding.
Locate the documents: the original will, any trust, deeds, account statements, insurance policies and retirement statements. Do not distribute anything, do not pay debts you have not verified, and do not close accounts.
Then find out which process applies before you commit to anything. That is the free conversation, and it frequently ends with a shorter answer than people expect.
Probate or trust administration — which do I have?
Possibly both, and possibly neither. It depends on title, asset by asset. Anything in the decedent’s sole name with no beneficiary heads toward probate. Anything owned by a funded trust is handled by the successor trustee under trust administration. Anything with a living named beneficiary or a survivorship co-owner transfers directly and needs neither.
Most estates are a mix. A trust for the house and the brokerage account, beneficiary designations on the retirement plan and life insurance, and one forgotten bank account in the decedent’s sole name that requires a small estate affidavit.
Sorting the assets is the whole first meeting, and it is what determines everything after it.
How much does this cost, and who pays?
In a probate administration the personal representative’s and attorney’s fees are set against a statutory schedule based on the value of the personal property administered, with additional compensation available for extraordinary services. Those fees are ordinarily paid from the estate rather than by the family personally.
Trust administration is generally billed hourly or on a flat fee depending on the work, and is likewise an administration expense payable from the trust.
Worth knowing: the statutory percentage applies to the probate estate only — not to assets that passed by beneficiary designation, survivorship or trust. Which is one more reason the probate/non-probate sort matters financially, not just procedurally.
Can I do this myself?
Sometimes, and we will say so. A small estate affidavit for a modest bank account, or a fully funded trust with liquid assets and two cooperative beneficiaries, is often manageable without ongoing representation.
Get advice where there is real estate, a business interest, a taxable estate, mineral interests, property in another state, an unfunded trust, a beneficiary with creditors or a disability, or any disagreement in the family. And get it before acting rather than after — a personal representative or trustee who gets it wrong is personally liable, and the mistakes are usually far more expensive to fix than to prevent.
The fiduciary is not communicating. What are my options?
You have rights, and they do not require attacking the will. Beneficiaries are entitled to information, to an accounting, and to impartial treatment, and there are remedies to compel each — up to removal and surcharge where a fiduciary has caused loss.
Most of these resolve without litigation. A written demand citing the statutory duty produces the accounting in a substantial share of cases, because the fiduciary was disorganised rather than dishonest.
See Beneficiary Representation for what you are owed and what to do before signing any receipt or release.
Ready to start?
Find out what you actually have to do.
Twenty minutes, no commitment. Bring the death certificate, the deed and the account statements. We will sort the assets, tell you which process applies, what it will cost and how long it should take — including when the answer is that no administration is needed at all.
Schedule a Free Consultation(314) 732-1547
Email derek@haakelawgroup.com · Offices in Wildwood, MO & St. Louis, MO (by appointment)
This page is general information about Missouri law, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Which process applies, and which deadlines run, depends on how each asset was held and on the particular facts. Consult a licensed attorney about your situation.