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Featured · Taxes

The estate's own tax number, and the order the first year runs in

The tax paperwork of the first year after a death looks like a pile. It is actually a sequence, and almost all of it is driven by two dates: the date of death, and the ordinary filing deadline that follows it.

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Editor picks

Selling an inherited home: how the capital gain is actually computed

Families expect a tax bill on the whole sale price, or expect none at all, and both are usually wrong. The computation is short, its inputs are knowable early, and one widely assumed benefit generally does not transfer to an heir.

7 min · Aug 2, 2026

Stepped-up basis: the number that decides what an inherited house costs in tax

One rule in the Internal Revenue Code does more for families inheriting a home than most of the rest of the tax code combined. It resets the property's tax cost to its value on the date of death, which means decades of appreciation are simply never taxed.

7 min · Aug 2, 2026

Form 1041: when the estate itself becomes a taxpayer

After a death, income does not stop arriving. The estate is treated as its own taxpayer, with its own tax year, its own identification number and its own return. Here is what triggers that return, what counts as the estate's income, and what emphatically does not.

7 min · Aug 2, 2026

23 articles

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The estate's own tax number, and the order the first year runs in

The tax paperwork of the first year after a death looks like a pile. It is actually a sequence, and almost all of it is driven by two dates: the date of death, and the ordinary filing deadline that follows it.

7 min · Aug 2, 2026

Selling an inherited home: how the capital gain is actually computed

Families expect a tax bill on the whole sale price, or expect none at all, and both are usually wrong. The computation is short, its inputs are knowable early, and one widely assumed benefit generally does not transfer to an heir.

7 min · Aug 2, 2026

Stepped-up basis: the number that decides what an inherited house costs in tax

One rule in the Internal Revenue Code does more for families inheriting a home than most of the rest of the tax code combined. It resets the property's tax cost to its value on the date of death, which means decades of appreciation are simply never taxed.

7 min · Aug 2, 2026

Form 1041: when the estate itself becomes a taxpayer

After a death, income does not stop arriving. The estate is treated as its own taxpayer, with its own tax year, its own identification number and its own return. Here is what triggers that return, what counts as the estate's income, and what emphatically does not.

7 min · Aug 2, 2026

The final tax return: the last Form 1040 for someone who has died

Death ends a tax year in the middle. One more individual return is generally due for the part of the year the person was alive — filed by someone else, on the ordinary deadline, with a few rules that apply to no other return anyone will ever file.

7 min · Aug 2, 2026

The estate that is not the house: the work nobody warns you about

The house gets the attention because it is the hardest single thing. The hours, though, go somewhere else entirely — dozens of accounts, two tax returns, a digital life with no keys, and a lot of certified copies. Here is the map.

4 min · Jul 31, 2026

When co-owners cannot agree: who decides, and what partition really means

Inheriting a house with siblings means inheriting a decision structure nobody designed. Here is who can do what alone, what happens when one person wants out and the others do not, and why the court-ordered version is the most expensive way to end it.

5 min · Jul 31, 2026

You have been named successor trustee. Here is the sequence.

Being a successor trustee is a job, not an honor, and it starts before anyone tells you it has. Here is the shape of the work — what to secure first, who has to be told, and the one mistake that can make you personally responsible.

5 min · Jul 31, 2026

What actually goes through probate — and why the house usually does

Families are told "the estate has to go through probate," and then discover half of it already moved without them. Here is what passes on its own, what doesn't, and why the house is almost always the piece that sets the schedule.

7 min · Jul 31, 2026

Real estateMichigan

Selling an Inherited Home As-Is in Metro Detroit

Selling inherited property as-is can be faster and simpler, but buyers will expect lower prices and may walk away during inspections. Here's what advisors should know about the metro Detroit market.

3 min · May 26, 2026

Repair the home or sell as-is? A framework before you sign anything

A framework for the question families actually need answered before contractors get involved.

6 min · Apr 28, 2026

Real estateGeneral

Listing an estate home: what makes it different

The specific differences from a normal home sale that catch families off guard.

6 min · Apr 24, 2026

AuthorityMichigan

What Letters of Authority actually do — and what Michigan title companies actually want

If you've been named personal representative, Letters of Authority are your single most important document. Here's what they unlock — and what title companies need to see.

6 min · Apr 22, 2026

When co-executors disagree: how to keep probate moving

When two siblings are named co-executors and one wants to sell the home and the other doesn't, the estate stops moving. Here's how to restart it without litigation.

7 min · Apr 19, 2026

What you actually owe when you inherit a home, in plain English

Most states levy no inheritance tax, and the federal estate tax exemption is high enough that most families never trigger it. The real tax issue is something else.

9 min · Apr 16, 2026

ProcessMichigan

A personal representative's first 90 days, in order

A week-by-week breakdown of what Michigan probate actually asks of you in the first three months — and what families commonly get wrong.

8 min · Apr 14, 2026

Real estateGeneral

Sell, hold, or transfer the home — a decision framework

Most personal representatives don't actually want to sell — they want to make the decision well. This framework gets you there.

7 min · Apr 11, 2026

Trust or probate? How to read the document on the kitchen table

If your loved one set up a revocable trust, much of what families think of as probate doesn't apply to you. Here's how to tell — and what to do next.

7 min · Apr 9, 2026

Siblings as co-owners: when the home stays in the family

Some families decide to keep the home jointly. It can work — but only if the operating questions are answered before the keys change hands.

7 min · Apr 6, 2026

Small estateMichigan

When you don't need full probate: Michigan's small-estate options

Many Michigan estates qualify for an abbreviated process that skips the four-month notice window and most court oversight. Here's what each route can reach — and what it costs you.

5 min · Apr 3, 2026

What a reconstruction cost analysis is, and why estates use them

A clear, written estimate of what it would cost to bring this property to condition — independent of the contractor who would do the work.

4 min · Apr 2, 2026

Real estateGeneral

Clearing title on inherited property: what title companies need

Most estate-property closings that fail at signing fail for the same handful of reasons. Catch them weeks earlier and the closing is uneventful.

5 min · Mar 30, 2026

InsuranceGeneral

The first 14 days at a vacant inherited home

A walk-through of what to do at the property in the first two weeks, in order. Built from years of estates where one of these was missed.

5 min · Mar 26, 2026

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Every topic we cover

Each topic collects the articles that deal with one part of settling an estate.

Probate process & timelines Court authority & PR duties Tax obligations of estates Sell, hold, or transfer Repair vs. as-is decisions Family & co-executor disputes Small-estate process Trusts vs. probate Transfer-on-death & beneficiary designations Joint ownership & survivorship Insurance & utilities

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