Most institutions keep the certified copy you send them, so you are surrendering one per institution rather than showing the same one around. Answer a few questions about what the estate contains and the estimator prints the ordering list — and the log for tracking each copy once it leaves your hands.
One small file · Works offline · Printable · Nothing you enter is sent anywhere — there is no email box on it, because there is nowhere for the answers to go
Every estimator in this category ends at a number. The number is the least useful part.
Three accounts at one bank usually need one certified copy. Most estimates get this wrong in the expensive direction.
Many states issue a death certificate with the cause of death and one without. Insurers and claim evaluators generally want the version with it; banks and the DMV do not need it.
One line per institution, so the funeral director can order them as part of the filing they are already making.
Date sent, how it was sent, whether it came back. When a bank says it never received anything, that log is the difference between a phone call and starting over.
The other free tools in this category require an account, save your answers to a server, or exist to introduce you to something you pay for monthly. That is not a criticism of them — a service with running costs has to recover them somehow.
Quietkeep sells organizers once, and they run on your device with no server behind them. There is nothing for us to recover, so there is no reason to ask you for an email address, and no reason for this file to send anything anywhere.
You can check that claim rather than take our word for it: open the estimator, turn off your wi-fi, and keep using it. It will behave exactly as it did before — the same way everything we make does.
The certificates are the first small task of a long list. The full guide explains who asks for one, who is allowed to order them, and why many states issue two versions. What to do when someone dies covers the order of the first days.
The Estate Settlement Companion carries the whole process — the accounts, the notifications and the paperwork tracked to done — for $14.99 once, on your own device.