<prompt> Human: My dad was diagnosed with an undetected cancer and liver failure 8 days ago and is now in hospice care and unresponsive. He will likely pass away within a week or two. My sister and I are his only immediate family.Obviously this has been a terrible time for our family but I wanted to make sure that we cover all our bases when transferring his estate and all of that. Ive never done this before and Im not sure where to begin. Here is what I know of his standing. He has a home with a mortgage 60 of its value is paid off or so. He has minimal other debt, if any. He has a vehicle, paid in full. His income is from social security disability payments and his 401kIRA. He has a whole life insurance policy.Thats all I can think of right now, let me know if Im missing anything. Basically Im interested in the basics of estate taxes, asset transferring the house, mostly and who to contact when he passes. Thanks in advance.  <response>: Sorry for your loss. We went through something similar with my dad last summer - it was 10 days between his cancer diagnosis and when he passed away at home. My dad had a living trust because of other health issues so that made things much easier, but I do remember that the lawyer who set that up for us charged a flat fee for each type of service and that made it much easier for us to work with her because we werent always worried about how much every question or delay would cost us. So based on our experience, I would recommend that you look for someone who charges a flat fee rather than an hourly rate. The other thing I leaned is that you end up needing several copies of the death certificate for insurance, closing bank accounts, etc. Be sure to get enough or the whole process gets held up. 