Death Scenario Playbooks: The 90-Day Plan No Family Has

The first 90 days after a death are the period in which most preventable estate damage gets done. Tax filings get missed. Trust funding gets botched. Beneficiary designations turn out to be wrong. Real estate gets stuck in limbo. Businesses lose continuity. Surviving family members, already in grief, are asked to make a hundred decisions they were never prepared for.

A death scenario playbook is the document that prevents most of that. It is a written, family-specific, step-by-step plan covering exactly what happens, who does it, by when, and what breaks if it doesn't get done. It lives outside the will, outside the trust, and outside the lawyer's filing cabinet — in a place the surviving spouse, the executor, and the successor trustee can actually find it.

This guide walks through the three windows that every playbook should contain.

Why "playbook" is the right word

Most estate plans are written in the language of the lawyer rather than the language of the family. Section 4.3 of the trust references the residue of the estate. Section 7 references the per stirpes distribution. Section 12 references the powers of the trustee. These are necessary in the legal document. They are useless in the first week after a death.

The playbook translates the legal document into actions. Step 4: Successor Trustee files Form SS-4 with the IRS to obtain an EIN for the trust. Required document: certified death certificate. Deadline: before any trust account can be opened.

Each step has a who, a what, a deadline, and a consequence if missed. Family members can read it under stress. Lawyers can use it to drive the engagement.

Days 1–30: stabilize

The first 30 days are about stabilizing the estate, not optimizing it. The major moves:

Order 10 to 15 certified death certificates. This sounds excessive; it is not. Every financial institution, government agency, life insurance company, and county recorder will require an original. Funeral homes can typically order them through the state vital records office for $15–$25 each. Without them, nothing else can happen.

Locate the will, the trust, and the death-scenario playbook itself. If the family already has a roadmap saved in The Compendium, this step takes ten seconds. If the documents are in a safe deposit box that was held in only the deceased's name, this step takes weeks (most states require court order to open the box, which means probate has to be opened first — a circular problem the playbook should warn about).

File the will with the local probate court. Most states require this within 30 days of death, even if probate is not actually being initiated. Failing to file is a civil offense in some jurisdictions and creates problems if probate is needed later.

Notify Social Security, the deceased's pension administrators, and any annuity providers. SSA usually receives a death notice automatically through the funeral director's electronic filing, but confirmation is worth doing.

Contact the deceased's estate attorney and CPA. Both will need to be engaged formally; both have running clocks on filings the estate will eventually owe.

Locate keys, passwords, and access credentials. Especially digital assets — email, cryptocurrency, cloud storage. Many of these are inaccessible without prepared access in advance, and after the death the surviving family has no legal way in.

Open an estate checking account if probate will be required. Funded with cash from the estate (typically by liquidating a non-retirement brokerage account) for the bills that will hit during administration: legal fees, mortgage payments, utility bills, property taxes.

Do not distribute anything yet. The most common avoidable mistake in the first 30 days is the surviving spouse or a child distributing tangible personal property "because Dad would have wanted me to have it." Distributions before the inventory is filed and creditor period closes can create personal liability for the executor.

Days 31–45: file, fund, retitle

Days 31 through 45 are the operational core of the administration. Less emotional, more procedural.

Trust funding cleanup. If the deceased had a revocable trust that was never fully funded (see our probate exposure analysis guide), this is the window in which the cleanup happens. Assets that should have been in the trust during life now have to be retitled — typically through probate of the pour-over will, then "swept" into the trust per the will's terms.

Open the EIN for the irrevocable trust. Upon the grantor's death, the formerly-revocable trust becomes irrevocable and gets its own taxpayer ID. Form SS-4 from the IRS, takes about 15 minutes online.

Asset retitling begins. Brokerage accounts, real estate, vehicles, business interests — each has its own retitling procedure. Brokerages typically require a Letter of Authority (or equivalent), the death certificate, and a notarized affidavit. Real estate requires a recorded deed transferring title from the deceased to the trust or to the heirs.

Notify all named beneficiaries on retirement accounts and life insurance policies. Each beneficiary will need to make their own elections — for IRAs, choosing whether to take the inherited account as a stretch IRA, a five-year-rule liquidation, or a lump sum has substantial tax consequences. The window for these decisions is shorter than most beneficiaries realize (typically September 30 of the year after death for retirement accounts).

Initial creditor notification. Most states require a public notice of probate that starts a creditor claim period (usually 90 to 180 days). The notice runs in a local newspaper of record.

Business continuity actions. If the deceased held an interest in a closely held business, the business's operating agreement or buy-sell agreement should already specify what happens at death. Activate those provisions. Notify partners, key employees, and major counterparties. Insurance proceeds funding a buy-sell agreement should be processed in this window.

If portability election is relevant: prepare. For married couples where one spouse died first, the surviving spouse may need to make a DSUE (deceased spousal unused exclusion) election on Form 706 to capture the deceased's unused estate exemption. This requires filing 706 even if no estate tax is otherwise owed. Decision needs to be made before the 706 due date.

Days 46–90: file, distribute, close

The third window is dominated by tax filings and beneficiary distributions.

Form 706 (federal estate tax return) — preparation begins. Due nine months from date of death, but should be in active preparation by Day 90. Form 706 requires a complete inventory of every asset (real estate appraisals, business valuations, brokerage statements, all retirement accounts), every debt, every prior gift, and the marital and charitable deductions. Even for estates below the federal exemption, a 706 is often filed for the portability election alone.

Final 1040 (income tax return for the deceased). Filed by the executor for the partial year through the date of death. Due April 15 of the year following death.

Form 1041 (fiduciary income tax return for the estate or trust). Filed annually for as long as the estate or trust is open and earning income. The first 1041 is for the period from date of death through year-end.

State estate tax filings, where applicable. Twelve states plus DC. Deadlines vary; most are tied to the federal 706 deadline but a few states (notably Massachusetts and Washington) have their own forms and earlier deadlines.

Beneficiary distributions. Once the inventory is filed, the creditor claim period has run, and the estate has cash to cover anticipated tax liability, distributions to beneficiaries can begin. Specific bequests first, then residuary distributions. Each distribution generates a Schedule K-1 for the beneficiary's income tax purposes if the estate has earnings.

Real estate decisions: sell, retain, or distribute. Most real estate decisions are made in this window. Ancillary probate (for out-of-state real estate) typically begins in Day 31–45 and resolves in this period.

Business succession finalized. By Day 90, the operational succession of any closely held business should be largely complete. Ownership transfer recorded, key roles filled, insurance proceeds (if any) deployed.

What the playbook does not cover

The 90-day playbook is the operational layer. It does not address:

• Year-2+ administration — for complex estates with closely held businesses, ongoing trust administration, multiple beneficiaries, or contested issues, administration runs 18–36 months.
• Will contests or beneficiary disputes — these run on their own timelines.
• Charitable bequests with structuring requirements — CRTs, CRATs, donor-advised funds typically need their own dedicated administration timeline.
• Long-tail tax issues — basis step-up planning, post-death qualified disclaimers, and audit defense extend years past the 90-day window.

The playbook is the foundation. The more complex the estate, the more layers get built on top of it.

How to actually have one

Most families don't have a death-scenario playbook because nobody ever gave them one. The Compendium generates one for $9.99 per scenario — covering primary owner first, spouse first, and simultaneous death. The playbook is specific to the family's actual documents, named beneficiaries, asset roster, and family structure. It saves to the platform's document library and prints to a clean PDF the surviving family members can find when they need it most.

Run all three. Save them. Tell your spouse and your executor where they are. That single act probably has more impact, on a per-dollar basis, than any other estate planning step a family can take.

The Compendium provides software, not legal, tax, accounting, or financial advice. Specific deadlines, forms, and procedures vary by state and by estate complexity. Run any death-scenario plan past your licensed estate attorney and CPA. For federal forms and filing instructions, see the IRS.