An agent keeps a sourced inventory schedule current as statements, titles and deeds arrive, then hands the attorney a clean draft to review.
When an estate opens, the paralegal's first weeks are mostly collection: statements from banks, a deed from the county, a vehicle title found in a glove box, a list of household items from a relative. The inventory is built from those papers one at a time, and it changes every time another envelope arrives. The agent keeps a working schedule that updates as documents are added to the file.
For each entry it records the asset, the source document, the date on that document and the owner of record as shown. A statement dated the week after the date of death sits beside one dated the week before, and the agent marks the difference so the paralegal can see which figures the attorney will want to look at. Blank cells stay blank, with a note on which paper would fill them.
The agent does not value property, choose a valuation date, decide whether an asset passes through probate or judge what a court will accept. Those calls are the attorney's. What it provides is an organized, sourced draft that the attorney can read, correct and finalize, in place of a pile of statements and a half-finished spreadsheet.
The agent reads the intake notes and the first documents the family provides, creates the schedule and drafts the first round of requests to institutions for staff approval.
As statements, titles and deeds are filed, the agent reads them, places the figures on the schedule with their sources and updates the missing items list.
When the paralegal says the file is ready, the agent assembles the draft inventory with every source linked. The attorney reviews it, adjusts it and decides what is filed and when.
A newer paralegal is handling a first probate for a decedent who owned a house, two bank accounts and a car. The agent gives the paralegal a schedule to fill and a short request list, so what is still missing is visible at a glance. The attorney checks the draft against the file before it goes anywhere.
When relatives dispute what a parent owned, the schedule records only what a document supports, with the source beside each line. Items mentioned in emails or conversations sit on a separate list marked unverified. How contested items are treated is the attorney's decision; the agent keeps the record tidy and attributed.
An estate includes a cabin in another state. The agent adds a line for the parcel, notes which county's records are needed and keeps those requests apart from the main schedule, so the attorney can decide whether local counsel is involved. It offers no view on how the other state treats the property.
Photos, subscriptions, jewelry and furniture rarely arrive with a statement. The agent keeps an entry list for these, with a column for who supplied each description and whether the attorney has asked for an appraisal. The agent does not estimate what anything is worth.
The attorney does. The agent records what each document shows and where it came from, and leaves valuation and classification to the people responsible for them. Where a figure is missing or two documents differ, the entry is flagged for attorney attention rather than resolved.
Your staff enter the date from the file, and it is shown at the top of the schedule. The agent compares statement dates against it and highlights the closest ones. Choosing which figure is used in a filing is a decision someone on your team makes, and the schedule states that on its face.
It goes onto a review list with a short note on what could not be read. Nothing is guessed. The paralegal opens the original, corrects the entry or asks the relative or institution for a better copy, and the schedule records who made the correction.
Only if your attorney decides to share it. The schedule and request letters are internal drafts that live in your matter record. Any message to a personal representative or relative goes out from your staff, in your own words.
It can populate your firm's own draft templates from the schedule. Each court's requirements are known to your attorneys, not to the agent, and we do not build to a court's rules or say that a form will be accepted. The draft goes to the attorney for review, and your firm does any filing.
Every change is logged with the person's name and the time, and the source link stays attached to the entry. If two staff members update the same line, the agent keeps both versions and asks for a decision instead of overwriting.