Managing a parent's estate can make you feel like you're being buried by an avalanche of paperwork and phone calls, especially if you're doing it remotely. You're trying to close accounts, notify agencies, and keep your siblings in the loop, all while living states away. A good estate settlement dashboard can help you keep track of everything in one place. It helps your family stay aligned, monitors deadlines, and walks you through each step so nothing falls through the cracks.
Key Takeaways
- For executors, estate settlement typically requires hundreds of hours of work; however, there are solutions that can reduce this through automation and guidance.
- Elayne handles filings, notifications, and account closures while providing family collaboration tools.
- Most alternatives focus only on one area: education, concierge support, or asset discovery. This may not be enough for some executors or estate managers.
- Elayne automates the full settlement process, saving some families as much as 400 hours of work.
What Are Estate Settlement Solutions for Adult Children?
Estate settlement solutions are digital tools and services that help families manage the hundreds of steps required after a parent's death, from notifying agencies and closing accounts to transferring assets and navigating probate. For adult children, these tools address specific challenges such as coordinating across distances and handling time-consuming administrative tasks.
More than 53 million Americans provide care to aging family members, and many will face estate settlement. The process demands an average of 570 hours of work across forms, phone calls, and agency visits.
There are several solutions that help reduce that burden through shared dashboards, step-by-step guidance, and in some cases, direct handling of notifications and filings. The right fit depends on how much support you need and whether you're managing everything on your own or have help nearby.
How We Evaluated Estate Settlement Solutions
To help you choose an estate settlement solution, we looked at a few factors:
- Automation: How much administrative work each solution handles directly for you. This includes notifying government agencies, closing accounts, and coordinating with financial institutions.
- Family collaboration features, specifically whether multiple people can access a shared dashboard and track progress without endless email chains.
- Personalized guidance. Generic checklists can't fit every situation, so it is important to look for a solution that can be adapted, based on your parent's specific assets, your family structure, and state laws where your parent lived.
- Asset discovery. Many adult children don't have a complete picture of what their parents owned or where accounts are held.
- Security. Given the sensitive information involved, it's important that a solution have encryption standards, compliance protocols, and identity-protection measures.
- Finally, we considered whether the solution offers done-for-you services or expects you to handle everything yourself.
Elayne
Elayne is a full-service estate settlement platform designed to handle the entire scope of the process. Elayne files paperwork with Social Security and the IRS, notifies financial institutions, transfers or closes accounts, and runs asset discovery to uncover unclaimed policies and survivor benefits that families may miss.
What Elayne Offers
- End-to-end estate settlement execution, including filings with Social Security and the IRS.
- Notifications to financial institutions and support for transferring or closing accounts.
- Asset discovery to identify unclaimed policies and survivor benefits.
- A personalized, adaptive checklist that updates as more is learned about the family’s situation.
- A family collaboration dashboard with shared access, real-time progress tracking, secure document sharing, and role-based permissions.
- Deadline monitoring and proactive risk flagging.
- Remote management with a combination of automation and human guidance.
Good for: Families looking for an all-in-one, hands-on estate settlement solution that reduces administrative burden and allows adult children to manage the process remotely.
Empathy
Empathy partners with insurance companies to provide estate settlement content and guidance to policyholders. If your parent had coverage through a participating carrier, you may have access to their service as part of the benefit package. Empathy functions primarily as a content and education service, meaning families still need to complete most administrative steps themselves without direct support.
What Empathy Offers
- Content library with articles and guides about the estate settlement process.
- App for accessing educational resources and tracking certain steps
- Insurance company partnerships that provide the service as a benefit to policyholders
Good for: Families whose parent had life insurance with a carrier that offers Empathy as a bundled benefit.
Alix
Alix pairs concierge support with an app-based communication channel. You work with an assigned representative who guides you through settlement, and the app serves as your point of contact. The app functions mostly as a communication tool but does not provide asset discovery, shared visibility, or ways for siblings to track progress together from different locations.
What Alix Offers
- Assigned support representative who walks you through the settlement process.
- App for submitting documents and messaging your concierge team.
- Flat-fee pricing for estate services.
- Direct communication channel with your support staff.
Good for: Families who prefer guided support and are comfortable coordinating through a messaging interface.
Sunset
Sunset specializes in asset search and account discovery for estates with a privacy-focused approach. The service helps families identify unknown accounts without alerting institutions during the search phase. But keep in mind that Sunset focuses specifically on asset cataloging. It does not handle agency notifications, account closures, benefit claims, or provide family collaboration tools for the many other administrative steps required when settling a parent's estate.
What Sunset Offers
- Software-driven asset discovery across banks, brokerages, insurance, property, and retirement accounts.
- Privacy protection that avoids notifying financial institutions during discovery.
- Free service to families, funded by participating bank partners.
- Quick results with most accounts identified within one business day.
Good for: families who primarily need help locating unknown accounts and have time to handle the rest of the settlement process independently.
Feature Comparison Table: Estate Settlement Solutions
When managing a parent's estate remotely, you need a solution that handles multiple responsibilities at once. Here's how the leading services compare:
Most solutions focus on one area: education, concierge guidance, or asset discovery. Elayne covers the full range of what adult children face when settling a parent's estate remotely, from coordinating with siblings across different states to managing everything alongside your own responsibilities.
Why Choose Elayne for Estate Settlement
Elayne walks you through each step of settling an estate from wherever you are. Automated filings go directly to courts and agencies, while built-in coordination tools keep family members aligned without endless email threads. Asset discovery surfaces accounts and holdings you might not know about, and you'll receive guidance tailored to your specific situation as you move forward.
Final Thoughts on Estate Settlement Tools for Families
Managing a parent's estate across distance requires more than good intentions and a shared spreadsheet. Family estate collaboration tools give you shared visibility, automated filings, and guidance that adapts to your specific situation. You can coordinate with siblings, track progress, and handle everything remotely without losing weeks to administrative work. The right support makes space for you to focus on your family during a difficult time.
FAQ
Which estate settlement solution is best if I'm managing my parent's estate from another state?
Elayne is built for remote management with automated filings, shared family dashboards, and direct handling of notifications and account closures. If you need only asset discovery, Sunset can help locate accounts, but you'll handle the rest yourself.
How do I choose between a concierge service and an automated solution?
Concierge services like Alix provide guided support through a representative, while automated solutions like Elayne handle filings and notifications directly. Choose based on whether you prefer working through a person or having the administrative work completed for you while maintaining visibility.
What's the difference between asset discovery and full estate settlement?
Asset discovery helps you find unknown accounts and holdings, while full estate settlement covers everything from notifying agencies to closing accounts and filing paperwork. Sunset focuses on discovery, while Elayne handles the complete settlement process.
Do I need a separate probate attorney if I use an estate settlement solution?
Most estate settlement solutions guide you through probate but don't replace legal representation if disputes arise or complex legal issues develop. Elayne handles administrative filings and coordination, and we'll let you know if your situation requires an attorney's involvement.
