Disagreement
Most heir claims are paperwork. A contested one is litigation, and this guide won't pretend otherwise. It maps the boundary honestly: the disputes only a court can decide, the uncontested work you can still complete yourself, and the file to assemble so an attorney's first hour is spent deciding, not digging.
On any of these, the state's program will freeze the claim and wait for the court — correctly. No worksheet outranks a judge, and this site won't pretend otherwise: contested heirship is attorney work.
An attorney's first hour should decide, not dig. Bring: the property record (state, property ID, amount), the family tree as you understand it with the dispute marked, the certificates you've gathered, any will and probate filings, and the state's letters. The kit's worksheets produce most of that file as a by-product — which is its honest role in a contested case: organization, not adjudication.
Run your own claim. The free checker takes your state, your relationship, and your amount — and returns the probate-skip verdict, your document chain in order, the signatures you'll need, and the finder fee you'd avoid. Run the checker →
The pages above are the map. The kit is the paperwork: the per-state checklists, the Table of Heirs worksheet, the letters that line up every heir's signature, and the chapter for the state's reply.
One payment, yours to keep. We never file for you and never touch your money — you file everything yourself, with the state. See everything inside the kit →