Part IV
The guided workflow
How phases, task dependencies, and the four kinds of task work — then a walkthrough of each phase and the automatic checks that gate the end of the process.
How the workflow works
Probate is organized into three sequential phases, each with a checklist that updates as you complete tasks. Steps unlock as the things they depend on get done, so you can act on what's in front of you without holding the whole legal process in your head.
| Phase | The goal |
|---|---|
| 1 — Become the legal executor | Get formally appointed. Ends when the Register of Wills issues your Letters. |
| 2 — Track assets and liabilities | Establish authority with third parties, notify everyone the law requires, and build a complete financial picture. |
| 3 — Distribute and close | Confirm everything is settled, distribute to beneficiaries, and close the estate. |
Four kinds of task
Each task opens a screen matched to what it actually needs from you. Recognizing the four types tells you at a glance whether a task is five minutes at your desk or a trip to the courthouse.
- Upload
- Add a document, choosing which kind it is. Heirwise reads it and proposes what it found for you to confirm. The bulk of Phase 1.
- Generate
- Heirwise produces a document — a filled form or an assembled packet. You review it, then print or file it.
- Offline action
- Something you do in the world: go to the courthouse, call a bank, mail a notice, open an account. Heirwise explains what's needed and you mark it complete. It cannot verify these, so completion is on your word.
- System check
- Heirwise evaluates a condition against the estate's data. You generally don't complete these directly — you change the underlying facts and the check clears itself. A couple are exceptions you tick by hand, and those show a button saying so.
What actually blocks what
Two separate rules govern when you can do things, and telling them apart saves a lot of confusion.
- Within a phase — prerequisites
- Each task lists the tasks it depends on and stays unavailable until those are complete. This is a web of dependencies rather than a straight line: a task listed first may be waiting on one listed third. If something is greyed out, look for the earlier task it needs rather than working down the numbers.
- Between phases — everything complete
- Moving to the next phase requires every task in the current one to be finished. There's no leaving one aside to come back to, and no single task you can rush to unlock the next phase early.
The numbers beside tasks are a suggested reading order, not the order in which things unlock. Work from what's available rather than from the numbering.
Four tasks are the substantive milestones, and it's worth knowing where you stand relative to them: generating the probate petition (RW-02), opening the estate bank account, generating the notice to beneficiaries (Rule 10.5), and generating the estate inventory (RW-09). The checklist doesn't treat them specially — the two rules above are the whole mechanism — but they're the points at which the estate meaningfully changes state.
This guide describes each phase's shape rather than reproducing every task. Your in-app checklist is the authority on what your specific estate needs next — it reflects your actual progress, and it's what updates when something changes.
Phase 1 — becoming the legal executor
You are not the executor until a court says so. Being named in the will makes you the nominee; the Register of Wills makes it official by issuing Letters Testamentary. Phase 1 is entirely about getting from one to the other, and until you have Letters, banks and insurers will decline to speak with you.
The arc of the phase
- Get the foundational documents in — the will, the death certificate, and any codicils. Codicils are amendments and are probated together with the original will, so upload every one.
- Confirm the right court. Jurisdiction follows the decedent's county of domicile, which Heirwise takes from the death certificate, and this step needs the death certificate in place first.
- Handle renunciations if anyone with a prior claim to the role is stepping aside. Heirwise generates a renunciation form (RW-06) for each person, and can produce several in one packet. You collect the signatures and upload them back. The petition waits on this step, so if nobody is renouncing you still need to clear it.
- Generate the probate petition (RW-02) — the Petition for Grant of Letters. Heirwise fills it from what it already knows.
That completes Phase 1, and Phase 2 opens at that point. The rest of getting appointed happens off the app: you take the petition to the Register of Wills with the original will, the death certificate, and the filing fee, and you wait for your Letters. Uploading the Letters is the first task of Phase 2 rather than the thing that unlocks it — so don't be surprised to find Phase 2 already open before you've been to the courthouse.
The court wants the original will, not a copy or a printout. Do not staple, unstaple, hole-punch, or otherwise alter it. If you cannot find the original, stop and speak to an attorney — probating a copy is a different and more involved procedure.
Practical notes
- Call the Register of Wills before you go. Fees vary by county, some want an appointment, and not all take cards. Confirm the address yourself — court offices move.
- Order short certificates while you're there, and get several. They're the compact proof of authority banks ask for, and a second trip is easily avoided.
While you're waiting on Letters, keep uploading. Bills and statements can all go in now, and arriving at Phase 2 with the ledger already substantially built makes the whole phase shorter.
Phase 2 — assets, liabilities, and notice
The longest phase, and the one with the most moving parts. Three strands run in parallel: establishing your authority so institutions will deal with you, discharging the notice obligations the law imposes, and building a complete financial picture.
The checklist splits Phase 2 into two groups — one covering authority and notices, one covering taxes. The three strands below are a way of thinking about the work, not the grouping you'll see on screen.
Strand one: authority and the estate's own money
- Upload your Letters Testamentary.
- Apply for the estate's EIN — its own federal tax ID, obtained on Form SS-4. Most executors use the IRS online EIN Assistant; paper is also accepted. Upload the confirmation letter (CP-575 or 147C) when it arrives.
- Obtain short certificates from the Register of Wills if you didn't already.
- Open an estate bank account using the new EIN.
- Generate the executor proof packet — short certificate, death certificate, and EIN letter bundled together, which is what banks typically want to see.
- Notify the financial institutions, sending letters and short certificates to freeze or retitle the decedent's accounts.
Never mix estate funds with your own. The estate account exists so every dollar in and out is traceable and separate. Commingling is one of the clearest breaches of an executor's duty, and it is very visible in hindsight.
Strand two: the notices
Pennsylvania requires you to tell two audiences that the estate has been opened: the people who might inherit, and the people who might be owed money.
- Generate the notice to beneficiaries under Rule 10.5 and send it to every heir and beneficiary. Heirwise produces one copy per beneficiary.
- Advertise the estate — a legal journal and a local newspaper — which starts the creditor claim clock running.
- Generate the certification of notice under Rule 10.8, the proof that you sent the Rule 10.5 notices, and file it with the court.
The advertisement is what starts the creditor period, and that period gates Phase 3. Placing it early matters more than almost anything else in this phase, because the waiting is calendar time you cannot compress.
Strand three: the financial picture and taxes
Alongside all that, you're filling in the ledger — uploading statements, bills, deeds, and titles until assets and debts are complete. Several tax filings also fall in this phase; they're covered in their own part of this guide.
The phase culminates in the estate inventory (RW-09), the formal statement of what the estate holds. Heirwise assembles an information packet — the financials plus supporting documents — for your attorney to draft the inventory from, rather than producing the filed form itself.
Phase 3 — distribute and close
Phase 3 is different in character. Where the earlier phases were mostly things to do, this one is mostly things to prove. Half its tasks are automatic checks that read the estate's data and pass or fail on their own.
That reflects what's at stake. Distribution is the irreversible step — once money is out the door and assets have been transferred, unwinding it is painful and the exposure is yours. So Heirwise verifies the estate is genuinely ready rather than taking your word for it.
Entering Phase 3
The Phase 2 to Phase 3 gate requires three things at once: the estate is solvent, the creditor period has elapsed, and administration costs and any family exemption claim are paid. If the gate won't open, work down the Phase 3 checklist — each condition is evaluated as its own check there, which is the reliable way to see which one is holding you up. The solvency banner on the balance sheet only reports solvency, not the other two.
The arc of the phase
- Clear the readiness checks — assets resolved, debts paid, waiting period elapsed, beneficiary shares defined. Each is covered in detail in the next section.
- Build the distribution plan, assigning each asset's shares to beneficiaries so every asset's allocations total 100%.
- If a family settlement agreement is being used, Heirwise assembles an information packet for your attorney to draft it from.
- Generate the Final Distribution Schedule. This produces the PDF and locks the plan in one action, so the document and the locked plan can never disagree.
- Get Receipt and Release forms prepared — one per beneficiary, usually drafted by the estate's attorney.
- Assemble each beneficiary's packet: their payment or asset transfer, their Receipt and Release to sign, and supporting paperwork.
- Execute the distributions and collect the signed forms.
- File the final accounting, close the estate, and close the estate bank account once every distribution has cleared.
- Download the complete records archive for your permanent files.
Close the bank account last, and only after every payment has actually cleared — not merely been issued. A cheque presented against a closed account creates a mess you'll have to reopen the estate to fix.
The automatic checks, and how to clear each
System checks aren't tasks you tick off — they read the estate's data and pass when the underlying facts are right. When one is blocking you, the fix is always to change the data, not the check. Here's what each wants.
| Check | How to clear it |
|---|---|
| Assets collected or liquidation complete | Every probate asset must be marked liquidated or retain in-kind. Open each remaining asset in the inventory and set its liquidation status. Assets still not liquid or pending sale will block it. |
| Debts and taxes paid or reserved | Every active liability must be marked paid. Work down the priority worksheet, settling each and marking it. Unpaid, pending approval, and disputed all block. |
| Required waiting period satisfied | The Pennsylvania creditor advertisement period — typically one year from the first advertisement — must have elapsed. Set the estate's creditor period end date; the check passes automatically once that date is in the past. |
| Beneficiary shares defined | Every probate asset needs distributions whose shares total 100%. Open the distribution plan editor and allocate. Assets with no distributions, or shares that do not add up, block it. |
| Final balance sheet reviewed | Passes once solvency, the creditor period, and administration costs and any family exemption claim are all satisfied — the same conditions that let you into Phase 3, re-tested. Normally green on arrival, and it re-flags if any of them later regresses. |
| Distribution plan reviewed | Lock the plan by generating the Final Distribution Schedule. That single action produces the PDF, locks the plan, and completes this check together. |
| Estate readiness check | An aggregate re-test of solvency, the creditor period, and those same two classes of claim. It catches a regression after you entered Phase 3 — a newly-added liability, say. It duplicates the balance-sheet check above; if one fails, expect both to. |
The waiting period is the one you cannot hurry. It runs from the advertisement, so if Phase 3 feels stalled and everything else is green, check the creditor period date — you may simply have time left to serve.
The last two checks deserve a note. Both re-test the same three conditions you satisfied to enter Phase 3, which looks redundant until you realize why: those conditions can regress. A bill that arrives after you entered the phase can push the estate back under water, and these checks are what surface that before you distribute rather than after. Because they test the same thing, they move together — if one goes red, expect the other to as well.