Have aging parents? Don’t get left with the mess.

Months of phone calls with banks. Accounts nobody knew existed. Siblings who disagree. Legal bills that eat the inheritance. When a parent dies, all of it lands on one person, usually with no instructions. One Step After gets it organized beforehand, and guides you through settling the estate if the worst has already happened.

Disorganized estates cost money. They also cost relationships.

27%

of US adults

Have cut off contact with a family member. Money and inheritance rank among the most commonly cited causes

9–18

months

How long estates that go through probate commonly take to settle

3–7%

of the estate

Typical total probate cost, roughly $15,000–$35,000 on a $500,000 estate

If any of this sounds familiar, you’re in the right place.

“Mom says she has a Will, but nobody has ever seen it.”

A Will names who gets what. It rarely says where anything is. Fix that together, in an afternoon.

“Dad won’t talk about this, and I’m getting worried.”

Start with the parts that aren’t emotional: accounts, insurance, the house. It feels like admin, not a deathbed conversation.

“If something happened tomorrow, I’d have no idea where to begin.”

The roadmap tells you what’s urgent, what can wait, and what to do first, in order.

You can start this without a family meeting.

Set it up yourself

Create the account and answer a few questions. You don’t need your parents in the room to start.

Invite them in, on their terms

Share only the areas they’re comfortable with. Siblings, the attorney, and the financial advisor can join free.

Fill the gaps over time

Upload documents as you find them. Lysi reads them and files the details so the picture builds itself.

Already lost someone? Start here instead.

Everything above assumes there is time to plan. If there isn’t, One Step After works the same way in reverse: you tell it what you know, and it tells you what has to happen next.

Immediately after death

Death certificates, notifying Social Security, securing the property. The things with deadlines, in the order they need doing.

The first month

Finding the accounts, notifying institutions, working out whether probate is needed in your state.

Ongoing

Bills that still need paying, subscriptions still charging, property that still needs maintaining.

Closing the estate

Final distributions, final filings, and knowing when you are actually finished.

These are the real phases of the estate roadmap, the same ones you get inside the app.

Built by an executor, for executors.

I lost my mom in 2020 and my dad in 2024. I was named executor and spent months on the phone with banks, sorting through bills, trying to piece together a legacy that was never written down. There was no guide for any of it, so I built the one I needed.

Chris VanderbiltFounder, One Step After

Read the full story →

The questions everyone asks first.

My parents are private. Do they have to hand everything over to me?+

No. Access is controlled area by area. They can share the house and insurance while keeping finances private, and change it at any time.

Isn’t this what their attorney is for?+

An attorney drafts documents. They don’t inventory the accounts, find the subscriptions, or tell you what to do the week after. Bring your attorney in as a collaborator if you want.

What if we never end up needing it?+

Then you spent $249 once and your family has an organized record of everything. There’s no renewal to cancel.

Who actually owns the account?+

Whoever creates it. Many families have the adult child set it up and invite the parent, or the reverse. Either works, and it transfers.