June 10, 2026
An executor assistant can help you with the dozens of phone calls, forms, emails, that comes with setlling an estate. Learn more about the 100+ account closures and notifications your attorney doesn't handle Find out what they cost, and if you need one.
When somebody dies, very few people know about it. Actually, almost nobody knows. Your friends. Your coworkers. Your neighbors. The bank. The utility company. The credit bureau. Insurance. USPS. Spam mail. Netflix. They have no idea.
I mean that literally. When someone dies, their Netflix account doesn't receive a notification. There's no algorithm that detects the silence, no system that registers the absence. The account just keeps existing, charging $15.49 a month to a debit card that is now technically part of a legal proceeding, streaming recommendations into the void based on a watch history that ended on a Tuesday afternoon.
And the ironic part is Netflix is the easy one. Netflix has a cancellation button. They have a dedicated form to cancel the account of a deceased person. Netflix, in the grand taxonomy of accounts-that-survive-a-person, is practically a gift.
What you're about to discover, if you've been named executor of someone's estate, is that the person you loved left behind an entire administrative civilization. Utilities. Phone plans. Gym memberships. Cloud storage subscriptions for photos that live on a device whose passcode died with its owner. Amazon Prime. The email newsletter they never unsubscribed from. The rewards points at three different airlines. The HOA. The alumni association. The streaming service they signed up for during a free trial in 2019 and then forgot to cancel.
When you take into consideration each minute detail of your loved ones life, it takes an average of 570 hours to settle their estate. That's nearly 14 weeks of full-time work, but spread over 12-18 months because that's how this works -- in pieces, between everything else. There are dozens of accounts that need some form of action after a person dies. I find that number both staggering and, somehow, perfectly human. Of course we accumulate dozens, sometimes upwards of 100 accounts. We are people who live in the world, who use things, who try free trials and forget to cancel them, who sign up for loyalty programs at the airport because they ask us and we're tired and the points seem theoretically useful. Of course we leave that behind. Of course someone has to figure out what to do with it.
That someone is you. Unless you get help from what's called an executor assistant -- the professional whose job is handling exactly that administrative work on your behalf.
You probably have a probate attorney. They're handling the legal work like the court filings, the will, the transfer of assets. If there's a will, by the way, you're legally required to file it with the court. That work is necessary and you should absolutely let them do it.
If there's not a will, well. You should contact an attorney anyway. Depending on the valuation of your estate and your situation and role are you a surviving spouse or next of kin? You may need to go through probate. A conversation for a different time.
But here's what I mean when I say there's a gap: your attorney's job ends somewhere. It ends at the law. And the law, as magnificent and labyrinthine as it is, does not cover what happens when you call Comcast.
The space between "attorney handles the legal stuff" and "estate fully settled" is enormous, and almost entirely filled with administrative tasks that require no legal expertise whatsoever, just time and patience and a willingness to be put on hold for 45 minutes to explain, again, that the account holder is deceased, yes, that's correct, and no, they cannot come to the phone.
An executor assistant lives in that gap. They handle the administrative coordination. The account closures, the government notifications, the cancellations, the paperwork. So that you can focus on the decisions that actually require your judgment and your authority. And because they do this for a living, they bring a strategic plan, expertise and insight to streamline the entire process.
You remain the executor. You make the calls. They do the calling.
I'm going to keep this at a high level, because the list is longer than you think and would require an entire book to list everything.
The government side. Your funeral home typically notifies the Social Security Administration. You don't need to do that. What you do need to do, separately, is check survivor benefit eligibility and, if qualified, file for the one-time $255 lump-sum death payment (Form SSA-8). An executor assistant handles: driver's license cancellation with the DMV, passport cancellation with the State Department, voter registration removal, veterans association notifications, and Department of Revenue notices for any business-related tax accounts. They also have forms readily available that they can help pre-fill so that when you visit offices in person, you're prepared.
The reason all of this is important, and I think this is actually interesting, is that government agencies work on the honor system. They keep benefits active and records open until you tell them otherwise. Nobody is monitoring for mortality. The databases don't talk to each other. Until you notify them, the account persists.
Fraud protection. The deceased's personal information stays active in data systems for months and fraud is a real risk, regardless of how much your loved one had. All three credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, need to be notified to block new credit from being opened. The Direct Marketing Association needs a deceased registration to stop the name from being sold. You probably didn't even know about these two. This is one of those tasks that feels administrative and small until you learn that identity theft of deceased individuals is, genuinely, a significant problem, and then it feels urgent.
Utilities and household services. Phone, internet, electricity, gas, water, trash, landscaping, HVAC, home service contracts. Active accounts keep billing the estate. There's nothing philosophically interesting about cancelling the cable. It just has to be done.
Subscriptions. This is the category that tends to surprise executors the most. A review of at least 3 months of bank and credit card statements typically turns up half a dozen, a dozen or more active charges that the family didn't know about, or knew about but forgot. Streaming services, gym memberships, cloud storage, digital newspapers, gaming subscriptions, professional memberships. The accumulated subscriptions of a life. Each one is a small decision made at some point, a "yes" clicked somewhere, a recurring charge that kept recurring because nobody said stop.
Social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Reddit, Snapchat. Close or memorialize these based on what the family wants.
Employer notifications. Final paycheck coordination, accrued PTO payouts, benefits notification, pending expense reimbursements. Employers don't always know quickly. Sometimes the payroll system keeps processing.
Financial institutions are a different category. Banks, credit cards, brokerages, retirement accounts, mortgages, insurance policies. These require direct executor action due to fiduciary rules. A third party can't close your father's bank account. That falls on you.
What a good executor assistant does here is handle everything they can. They'll make the initial phone call, email or submit the death certificate to each institution. This notifies them and gets the ball rolling. Then they'll coach you through the rest: which specific documents each institution needs, who to call, what to say, what to expect. You still have to do it. You just don't have to figure out how, which department to go to or what number to call.
An executor assistant isn't a lawyer, CPA, or financial advisor. Life insurance claims go directly to beneficiaries. Probate filings, tax returns, estate valuations, those stay with your attorney and CPA. The decisions are always yours.
Want to understand the full scope before deciding anything? Learn more about AnnCare's executor assistance service or schedule a free consultation.
I want to address something that confuses a lot of people, because the confusion is understandable: if you already have a probate attorney, why would you need anything else?
The answer is that they're doing completely different jobs, and your attorney's job, and I say this with great respect for attorneys, does not include calling Comcast. For many attorneys, they simply don't want to do this. And for their clients, it's not worth the $400+/hour price tag. Or their $180/hour paralegal fees.
Here's the actual division:
TaskEstate AttorneyExecutor AssistantProbate court filingsYesNoLegal interpretation of the willYesNoBeneficiary disputesYesNoFinal tax return (with CPA)YesNoAsset transfer documentsYesNoUtility and service cancellationsNoYesSubscription cancellations (15-30 accounts)NoYesGovernment notifications (SSA, DMV, passport)NoYesSocial media account closuresNoYesEmployer notifications and final paycheckNoYesCredit bureau deceased notificationsNoYesFinancial account closure coachingNoYesPrefilled forms and template lettersNoYes12-month statement audit for hidden subscriptionsNoYes
An attorney's rate is appropriate for legal work, which requires years of education and professional liability. It is not appropriate for the task of being on hold with a utilities company, which requires a phone and patience.
You need both. They're not interchangeable. They just cover different parts of the same very large, very difficult job.
Jennifer was named executor for her mother's estate in January. Her attorney was excellent. Everything on the legal side was moving. And by week three, Jennifer had closed two accounts on her own, had eight more in progress, and had spent 14 hours on the phone. She still had more than 60 accounts left on the list.
She also had a full-time job. Two kids. And she was still grieving her mother, which is something that happens at inconvenient times. Not just at night, not just quietly, but sometimes in the middle of a hold queue when the automated voice says "your call is important to us" and she has already explained four times today that her mother passed away.
Might I remind you the administrative work of settling an estate takes, on average, 570 hours over 16 months. Let that sit with you for a moment. Five hundred and seventy hours. That's roughly three and a half months of full-time work, spread across a year and a half, while you are also living your life and also grieving.
Most of those hours aren't legally complex. They're logistically complex. They're the hours spent researching which department at a government agency handles deceased notifications, and then calling that department, and then being told it's actually a different department, and then starting over. They're the hours spent finding the login for an account, discovering the account doesn't have a cancellation option without a phone call, calling the phone number, waiting, explaining, waiting again.
An executor assistant handles that. Not by making decisions for you, again, those are yours, and they're important. By doing the legwork. By absorbing the hold queues and the explanations and the follow-up calls, so that you get back something like 80 hours of your life.
There's also an emotional dimension to this. Every phone call means explaining, again and again, that someone died. Every new account means saying "my father passed away" to a stranger, waiting through the pause, and starting over. This compounds. Not just the time but the dozens and dozens of separate moments of it. The task is administratively difficult and emotionally exhausting in a way that's hard to anticipate until you're in it.
Getting help with this is not a failure of love. It is a practical response to an objectively difficult situation that nobody prepares you for.
AnnCare's executor assistance service is $699, flat. That covers 100+ administrative touchpoints. Direct closures, government notifications, financial account coaching, a Digital Logistics Kit with prefilled forms, and ongoing support throughout the process. No hourly billing. No percentage of the estate. $699 regardless of complexity.
To put that in context:
At $699 for 80 hours saved, that's $8.74 per hour for coordination by people who do this work every day and know exactly which number to call at each institution.
One more thing: executor assistant fees are generally considered reasonable administrative expenses that can be paid from estate funds, the same category as attorney fees or CPA fees. You may not need to pay out of pocket. Confirm with your probate attorney.
See if AnnCare is right for your estate. Schedule a free 30-minute consultation -- no obligation.
I always say the work of an executor assistant is similar to a mechanic who changes the brakes on your car. You can by all means do the work yourself. But when it's raining out, the ground is wet, and you don't have the right tools, sometimes it's just easier to take it in to the professionals.
If the estate is genuinely simple someone with no credit history, no bank, and no drivers license, or you've done a ton of prep work with an attorney to get things into a trust, you might be fine doing the administrative side yourself.
Most estates aren't that fortunate. Most people have more accounts than their families know about. Most executors don't have 570 hours available over the next year. Most people named executor did not sign up to spend a year and a half making phone calls, filling out paperwork and selling assets.
If you're reading this article, you're probably already past the point of wondering whether you need help. You probably have a list that keeps getting longer, and you're trying to figure out what to do about it.
That's a normal response to a genuinely hard situation. The scope is real. The time cost is real. And asking for help with the coordination work is just practical.
Can executor assistant fees be paid from the estate?
Yes, typically. These fees fall into the same category as attorney and CPA fees which are reasonable administrative expenses that benefit the estate administration process. Confirm with your probate attorney, but this is standard.
Do I still need a probate attorney if I hire an executor assistant?
Yes. They're doing different things. The attorney handles the legal side. The executor assistant handles the administrative side. You make the decisions. None of these roles replace the others.
How long does the process take?
Most direct administrative work is completed within four to eight weeks. Banks typically take two to four weeks; government agencies can take four to six. An executor assistant tracks all of that, so you're not the one chasing status.
What documents do I need to get started?
Certified death certificates (the funeral home provides these -- 5 to 15 copies based on estate complexity), Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration from the probate court, and 3+ months of bank and credit card statements. If you don't have statements yet, that's something an executor assistant can help you request.
What happens if new accounts turn up after the process is finished?
It happens. The asset discovery process catches most accounts upfront, but occasionally something surfaces later like an old account nobody knew about, a subscription buried in an app store. Additional accounts can typically be handled as they come up.
The Netflix account will get cancelled. So will the gym membership, the phone plan, the electric bill, the streaming services, the subscriptions to things nobody remembers signing up for. The government agencies will be notified. The credit bureaus will be informed. The social media profiles will be memorialized or closed, depending on what the family wants.
All of it will eventually be done.
The question is how much of yourself you spend doing it. How many hours on hold. How many times you explain, again, what happened. How much of the time you need to grieve you instead spend navigating automated phone trees.
An executor assistant doesn't change the fact that you lost someone. It just means that when Netflix finally gets the message, you weren't the one who had to call.
AnnCare handles 100+ administrative tasks that fall to executors for $699 flat. See if we're the right fit or learn more about how the service works.
Get a free consultation today and see how we can lift the burden for families.
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