Manage a deceased spouse in an Estate Planning Matter

If your client’s spouse passes away, there are some practices you should follow to minimize any complications to the management of your estate planning matter.

If the deceased spouse is on an individual contact card:

1. Open the Contact Card of the deceased spouse and select the Additional Details tab.
2. Enter the date of death in the Death Details field.
3. Enter the name of deceased and date of death in the Description field under the Info section of Matter Details. This ensures that their deceased status will be visible on the main matter list display when searching for the deceased client.
4. Navigate to the Billing tab of Matter Info and select the surviving spouse as the sole debtor.

If you entered both the client and their spouse on the same contact card:

1. Open the contact card and select the X in the upper left for the deceased spouse.
2. Right-click on the client in Matter Details and select Add Client. Enter the deceased spouse as Client 2.
3. Follow Steps 3 and 4 in the previous section.