Sunset: A Practical Tool for Executors

When someone dies, executors face an immediate problem: they must settle an estate without knowing where all accounts, assets, and obligations are located. Bank accounts, credit cards, insurance policies, and property are often scattered across institutions and records. Sunset (available at HelloSunset.com) was built to address this exact reality.

An Executor’s Core Challenge: Discovery

Before probate can move forward, executors must identify what assets the decedent owned, owed, or controlled. This often involves incomplete paperwork, unanswered questions, and the risk of missing accounts entirely. Most estate resources assume this information is already known. Sunset starts where executors actually are—at uncertainty.

Sunset provides automated search and discovery to help identify:

• Bank accounts
• Life insurance policies
• Credit cards and outstanding debts
• Retirement accounts
• Investment accounts
• Real estate interests
• Unclaimed property held by states
• Vehicles and titled property
• Business ownership interests

This structured approach reduces guesswork and helps executors move forward with confidence.

Beyond Discovery: Estate Administration Tools

Sunset goes beyond search by supporting the practical steps required to administer an estate.

Executors can use Sunset to:

• Prepare probate documents in minutes through guided interviews
• Generate state- and county-specific probate filings across all 50 states and 3,000+ counties
• Create small estate affidavits where probate can be avoided
• Generate documents with clear filing instructions
• Complete online notarization, often in minutes
• Instantly generate an estate EIN through an IRS-approved API

These tools help executors move from discovery to filing without juggling multiple systems or unnecessary delays.

Estate Banking

Sunset supports estate administration with integrated estate banking designed for probate workflows.

Executors can quickly establish an estate bank account to centralize funds, pay expenses, and prepare for distribution. The account supports:

• Full transaction history for transparency
• Payment of estate expenses
• Virtual and physical debit cards for authorized use
• Secure holding of discovered funds

Estate funds are FDIC-insured up to $3 million.

How Sunset Is Paid

Sunset does not charge executors or families fees. There are no setup costs or out-of-pocket expenses.

Instead, Sunset is compensated by its banking partners through interest earned while estate funds temporarily sit in the estate account during administration. The estate’s principal is never reduced. Executors and beneficiaries receive the full amount of estate funds, and Sunset never takes a cut of any inheritance.

Distribution to Heirs and Beneficiaries

When court requirements are satisfied and the estate is ready to close, Sunset supports secure distribution of inheritance funds.

The platform helps executors:

• Verify recipient identities and account details
• Maintain clear, auditable distribution records
• Obtain recipient acknowledgment prior to distribution

This structured process reduces errors and post-distribution disputes.

Security Standards

Sunset operates under enterprise-grade security standards, including SOC 2 Type I and Type II compliance. Protections include encrypted data transmission, strict access controls, formal data retention and deletion policies, and tested business continuity and disaster recovery procedures.

These standards support the executor’s fiduciary duty to safeguard sensitive estate information. Additional technical details are maintained in Sunset’s Trust Center.

Built for the Reality of Estate Settlement

Sunset is designed for the work executors actually have to do after a death: identifying accounts, completing required filings, managing estate funds, and distributing assets accurately and transparently.

It’s worth noting that Sunset Software initially launched as a mobile app to support the discovery tasks. As Sunset’s capabilities expanded, it became clear that the volume of documentation, financial controls, and court-driven workflows required a full web-based estate settlement system rather than a mobile-only experience. The original Sunset app was intentionally retired in favor of a more comprehensive platform.

By combining discovery, documentation, banking, security, and distribution into a single system, Sunset reduces fragmentation and helps executors move through estate settlement with fewer delays, fewer errors, and clearer records.