First, the plain part: three weeks out, you are still early, and nothing here is late. Estates like this one are the kind that work out. Two beneficiaries who agree, a will, no mortgage, and assets that are easy to identify — that combination removes most of what makes this process painful. 1. THE FIRST TWO WEEKS Your genuinely urgent list is short. - Get the original will out of the safe deposit box. This is your first real obstacle and it surprises people. A safe deposit box in her name alone is typically sealed at death, and the bank may not let you open it until you have court authority — which you cannot get without the will inside. Most states have a procedure for exactly this loop: call the Fifth Third branch, ask what their process is for accessing a decedent's box to retrieve a will, and ask the county probate court clerk the same question. Some courts issue a limited order for this purpose. - Order death certificates, and order more than you think. Get 10 to 12 certified copies. Nearly every institution wants an original, and reordering later is slow. The funeral home usually handles this and it is much easier through them than after the fact. - Secure the house. Confirm it is locked, that a neighbor or someone local can check it, and that the homeowners insurance stays in force. Call the insurer and tell them the house is now vacant. This matters more than it sounds: many policies restrict or void coverage on a vacant property, and a claim denial on a $240,000 asset would be the single most expensive mistake available in this estate. - Keep the utilities on. Do not cancel them. Heat in an Ohio winter prevents pipe damage, and you will need power for showings if you sell. - Do not cancel her credit card yet — notify the issuer of the death, but let the account be handled through the estate process rather than closed in a way that complicates final billing. What you do not have to do yet: distribute anything, decide about the house, sort belongings, or answer questions about who is getting what. None of that is urgent, and I want to say that clearly because grief creates false urgency. The one exception is the safe deposit box, because it can take a couple of weeks to resolve. 2. WHAT ACTUALLY PASSES THROUGH PROBATE This is worth understanding before you do anything else, because it determines how much work you actually have. Passing outside probate — not yours to administer: - The IRA, about $110,000. You and your brother are named beneficiaries. This goes directly to you both, does not enter the estate, and is not available to pay her creditors. Each of you contacts the IRA custodian separately with a death certificate and claims your share. Important: as non-spouse beneficiaries you will each need an inherited IRA account, and the distribution rules for inherited IRAs have specific timing requirements with real tax consequences. Talk to the custodian and ideally a tax professional before taking any money out. Do not simply cash it out — that is a common and expensive reflex. - The life insurance, $50,000. Same principle. Named beneficiaries, paid directly, outside the estate. File the claim with the insurer. Forming the probate estate — this is your actual job: - The house, roughly $240,000, titled in her name alone. - The checking and savings accounts, about $43,000 combined, in her name only. - The Honda Civic. So of roughly $443,000 in total assets, about $283,000 passes through probate and about $160,000 does not. The IRA and insurance money can reach you and your brother relatively quickly, often within weeks, while the probate assets take months. That is normal, and it is worth telling your brother now so the timing difference does not look like something has gone wrong. 3. THE EXECUTOR'S ACTUAL DUTIES Your legal duty runs to the estate, not to your brother and not to yourself, even though you are both beneficiaries. In practice that means: - Inventory and value the probate assets as of the date of death. For the house, that generally means a date-of-death appraisal — worth getting, because it also establishes the tax basis if you sell. - Pay valid debts and taxes before distributing anything to beneficiaries. - Keep estate money strictly separate. Open a dedicated estate bank account once you have court authority, and run everything through it. Never mix estate funds with your own, even briefly, even for convenience. - Keep records of every transaction. You may have to account to the court, and you will certainly want the record. The rule that matters most: if you distribute assets and a valid creditor claim arrives afterward, you can be personally liable for it. In your estate the known debt is small, but the hospital bills have not arrived yet. Wait for them. 4. CREDITOR, TAX, AND FILING TIMELINE Ohio-specific timing should be confirmed with the probate court in her county, but the typical sequence is: - File the will and application for probate with the county probate court, usually within a few weeks to a few months of death. Ohio requires the will to be delivered to the court reasonably promptly. - Receive Letters of Authority — the court document proving you can act for the estate. Nothing much happens before this; banks will not talk to you without it. Usually a few weeks after filing. - Notify creditors, both known creditors directly and unknown ones by published notice. - The creditor claim window runs a set period, commonly around six months from death in Ohio. This is the clock that governs when you can safely distribute. Confirm the exact period locally. - Final personal income tax return for her final year, due the following April. - Federal estate tax: not a concern at this size. The exemption is in the multi-millions and this estate is nowhere near it. Ohio has no state estate tax currently. Confirm both, but do not worry about them. - Final distribution and closing the estate after the creditor window closes and debts and taxes are paid. 5. A REALISTIC SCHEDULE Expect six to twelve months, with the creditor window as the binding constraint. A realistic shape: - Month 1: Retrieve the will, order death certificates, secure the house and insurance, file for probate. - Month 2: Receive Letters of Authority. Open the estate account. Consolidate the bank accounts into it. Notify creditors. File the IRA and life insurance claims — these are separate from probate and can run in parallel. - Months 2 to 3: Date-of-death appraisal on the house. Decide with your brother whether to sell or keep it. Pay the credit card and any medical bills as they arrive, from the estate account. - Months 3 to 6: If selling the house, list and sell. This is usually what sets the actual timeline. Keep paying insurance, taxes, and utilities from the estate account throughout. - Month 6 or later: Creditor window closes. Confirm all debts are settled and the final tax return is handled. - Months 7 to 12: Final accounting, distribute the remainder equally, close the estate. The house is the variable. If you sell, the timeline follows the sale. If you and your brother want to keep it, the process is faster but you will need to deal with transferring title, and you should talk through the practicalities of co-owning a property from different states before choosing that. 6. THE FAMILY CONVERSATIONS You have described no conflict, which is genuinely fortunate and worth protecting. The way estates like yours go wrong is not through malice but through silence — one sibling handling everything, the other hearing nothing for four months and starting to wonder. Some suggestions: - Send your brother a short update roughly monthly, even when nothing has happened. "Still waiting on the creditor period, nothing needed from you" is a complete update and it prevents the drift that turns into suspicion. - Tell him now about the timing difference. Something like: "The IRA and life insurance will come to us directly within a few weeks — those are separate from the estate. The house and bank accounts have to go through probate, which takes six months or more. That is normal, not a problem." - Agree on the house early, in principle. It is the one decision that shapes everything else. - Decide about executor compensation openly. You are generally entitled to a fee from the estate for this work, set by Ohio statute. Many family executors waive it. Either choice is fine, but decide it out loud rather than having it surface later. - Belongings are where sibling relationships actually break. Not money — objects. If there are items with sentimental weight, address them explicitly and early rather than letting one of you sort the house alone. 7. WHEN TO GET A PROBATE ATTORNEY Yes, and mainly because of the house. Real property is the most common reason a straightforward estate needs professional help: title transfer, the appraisal, and the sale all have to be done correctly, and errors there are expensive and hard to unwind. The rest of your estate is simple — two agreeing beneficiaries, a clear will, modest debts, no tax exposure — so you likely need a limited engagement rather than full representation. Many probate attorneys will handle the filing and the real property work and let you do the routine administration yourself, at considerably lower cost. Two things people get wrong and that I want you to know: - Attorney fees are paid by the estate, not by you personally. They come out of estate assets before distribution. You are not spending your own money. - You are entitled to executor compensation from the estate as well. This is real work and the law recognizes that. Call the probate court clerk in her county first. Clerks are often genuinely helpful about procedure, forms, and local requirements, and that call may tell you exactly how much attorney help you need. One last thing. Three weeks out, you are grieving and doing a job that would be tedious even on a good day. It is normal for this to feel heavier than the tasks alone would justify. The estate can wait a week if you need it to. This is general information about the estate administration process, not legal advice about your specific estate. Confirm Ohio deadlines and requirements with the probate court in her county or with an attorney.