Cairn

Death Boom · Industry research

Why Cairn Costs $14.99 a Month

Everything a family can use today to get through the paperwork after a death, from free checklists to bank trust departments, with what each one costs and who ends up doing the work. We used these prices to set Cairn’s subscription.

Executor workload per estate
570 hrs
Avg. rate for hired help
$173/hr
Avg. paid engagement
~$4,500
Avg. printed or digital planner
$17.09
Cairn, after 28 free days
$14.99/mo

Scope. Help with the logistics after a death: certificates, notifications, accounts, and estate settlement. Grief counseling is left out, as it is in the resource atlas. Prices are what each provider published online in September 2026. Many providers do not publish rates, so the averages describe the published market, not every option. Where a range was given, we used its midpoint. Method and limits are at the end of the page.

What a family is paying for 2 figures

Every avenue below is a different way to split one body of work between the family and someone they pay. The cost of doing it alone is time.

  • Time

    About 570 hours over about 16 months

    EstateExec’s data, cited by ElderLawAnswers and Elayne, puts the average executor workload at roughly 570 hours, spread over an average of 16 months. Simple estates can close in 6 to 9 months. Others run past two years.

    • National average
    • Done by: the executor

  • Money

    About $14,000 for probate on average

    Atticus, citing Senior Living’s estate settlement report, puts the average all-in cost of probate at about $14,000, including filing fees, appraisals, and attorney fees.

    • National average
    • ~$14,000

    Not every estate goes through probate. Whether one does depends on the state and on how assets are titled. Cairn tells users to confirm this with an attorney.

Free options 4 avenues

Free help is real and good, and Cairn points people to it rather than replacing it. The catch is that the family still does all of the work and keeps track of it themselves.

Buy a planner 14 products · avg. $17.09

Printable and spreadsheet planners sell for $2.99 to $34.00, with a middle value of $14.27. People buy them even though free lists exist, which tells us they will pay for structure and organization.

  • Digital downloads, Etsy

    Executor checklists, trackers, and binders

    Spreadsheets and PDFs for tracking accounts, assets, debts, and probate steps.

    • Updated Estate Executor Organizer and Accountability Notebook$9.99
    • Executor Estate Binder Printable PDF$12.95
    • Executor Checklist After a Death, Probate Roadmap PDF$12.99
    • After Death Spreadsheet, executor checklist (Excel)$13.51
    • Executor Administration Tracker, Excel and Google Sheets$13.60
    • Estate Executor Command Center, Probate Tracker$14.94
    • After Death Spreadsheet Executor Checklist Template$14.99
    • Estate Executor Command Center, Estate Settlement Spreadsheet$21.99
    • Estate Administration Toolkit, RLT Trustee Checklist$23.99
    • Estate Executor Organizer, Interactive App$25.59
    • End Of Life Planner and Journal$28.04
    • Estate Executor System, After Death Checklist and Probate Organizer$34.00
    • National
    • $9.99 to $34.00
    • Done by: the family

    Several were on sale when checked, and we used the sale price. Also see Etsy estate executor organizers.

  • Digital download, Gumroad

    After Death Checklist

    A 38-page printable covering probate, funeral planning, accounts, digital assets, and agency notifications.

    • National
    • $2.99
    • Done by: the family

  • Printed organizer, Walmart

    Information My Family Needs to Know Organizer

    A 32-page spiral-bound book with pockets for documents, meant to be filled out before a death.

    • National
    • $9.68
    • Done by: the family

    Out of stock when checked. Listed price used.

Do-it-yourself software 5 products · avg. ~$127

Apps and web tools that organize the executor’s work. They are mostly one-time payments. They track tasks well, but the family still makes every call and fills out every form.

Hire a person by the hour 8 providers · avg. $173/hr

No official count of these practitioners exists, and the field is largely unregulated. The best available figures: INELDA has trained about 9,500 end-of-life doulas, NEDA has 1,500+ members, AADMM has about 700 daily money managers in the US and Canada, and California alone has 866 active licensed fiduciaries. Paid engagements we found run about 26 hours on average, or roughly $4,500.

Flat-fee estate settlement services 9 price points · avg. ~$4,430

Companies that take on the account-closing and probate work for a set fee. Their prices land in the same place as hiring a person by the hour.

Side by side, per estate 8 avenues

Typical cost for one estate. Bar length uses a log scale, so each step is roughly ten times the one before it.

AvenueTypical cost per estateWho does the workGuides the first weeks
Free guidance and checklists$0The familyPartly, as separate lists
Planner$17The familyAs a checklist
DIY software$127The familyRarely
Cairn (16-month estate)$225The family, guided step by stepYes, free for the first 28 days
Flat-fee settlement service~$4,430The professionalNo, starts once the estate is open
Hourly help (26 hrs)~$4,500SharedSometimes
Bank trust department$10,000+The professionalNo
Probate, all-in average~$14,000Attorney and familyNo

Cairn’s figure is 15 paid months at $14.99 after the 28 free days. A 6-month estate would cost about $75. An 18-month estate would cost about $255. Bars scale as log10 of cost on a 0 to 100,000 dollar axis.

Why we settled on $14.99 a month 7 reasons

  • The decision

    $14.99 a month, one subscription for the whole account, first 28 days free

    The 28 days start when the user taps “Start journey.” No card is asked for until then. On day 29 the account becomes read-only unless the user subscribes. Nothing is deleted and nothing is charged. Closing, downloading, and deleting are always free. If things become too much and Cairn suggests a rest, the free days stop counting until the person comes back.

  1. A month of guidance costs less than one planner

    Families already pay an average of $17.09 for a planner they fill in alone. At $14.99, a month of Cairn costs less than that, and it adjusts to their situation and keeps track of what is done.

  2. A whole estate stays in the price range of DIY software

    Over the average 16-month estate, Cairn comes to about $225. That is more than the average one-time app ($127) but inside the range families already pay for those tools ($19 to $499). The difference pays for conversational guidance and a tracked status for every step.

  3. About 5% of what hired help costs

    A paid engagement averages about $4,500, and probate averages about $14,000 all in. $225 is about 5% of the first and under 2% of the second. Cairn stays affordable for the families who cannot hire anyone, which is most of the people this project is for.

  4. The hardest weeks are free

    The first 28 days cover waypoints 0 to 4 plus a Week 4 wrap-up: the first hours, death certificates, what to secure now, funeral research, the first notifications to agencies, banks, insurers, and employers, and closing out the month. No one should be asked for a card in the week someone died, and no paid competitor covers this stretch.

  5. Monthly, because estates don’t close on a schedule

    Estates take 6 to 18 months. A monthly price means a family pays only while they are still working through it. An annual or per-case fee would overcharge short estates. When the work is done, closing is free.

  6. One subscription covers the whole account

    Families often lose two people within a short time, such as both parents. A second case is covered by the same subscription, so no one is charged twice for grieving twice.

  7. The price matches what Cairn is

    Cairn is an AI guide, not an attorney, fiduciary, or therapist. It is priced as a tool that keeps the family organized and tells them when to bring in a professional, not as a replacement for one. The avenues above stay on this page because some families will need them.

Method and limits

  • The hourly average ($173, middle value $155) uses one principal rate per provider for eight providers. Where a range was published, we used its midpoint. Attorneys are shown separately and left out of the average.
  • Engagement length (26 hours) averages Clear Estate’s included hours (30 and 40) with Begin With The End’s packages (10, 20, and 30).
  • The planner average covers 14 products priced in US dollars. One planner priced in New Zealand dollars was left out. Amazon listings could not be checked.
  • Many providers do not publish prices, including Compass Coordinators, Elite Estate Concierge, and Empathy. These averages describe the published market.
  • Prices were checked in September 2026 and change often. Re-check before quoting any single provider.

Sources

  1. ElderLawAnswers, How long does an executor’s job take?
  2. Elayne, What do executors of wills do
  3. Atticus, How much does a probate lawyer cost
  4. SSA, What should I do when someone dies?
  5. Dignity Memorial checklist
  6. Everloved checklist
  7. Rocket Lawyer survivor checklist
  8. Empathy for families
  9. Executor Concierge Services
  10. Etsy, Executor planning
  11. Etsy, Estate executor organizer
  12. Gumroad, After Death Checklist
  13. Walmart, Information My Family Needs to Know Organizer
  14. SwiftProbate, Best estate apps for executors (2026)
  15. Settled Estate, Estate settlement companies
  16. Bornbir, Death doula rates
  17. Sofia Health, Death doula cost
  18. AskChristyB, Death doula cost
  19. Independence Navigator pricing
  20. Bedrock Fiduciaries fees
  21. Coast Fiduciary fee schedule
  22. Quinn Fiduciary fee schedule
  23. LA Fiduciary Partners fee schedule
  24. Begin With The End, After-loss support
  25. Clear Estate pricing
  26. Chain Bridge Trust estate fee schedule
  27. STAT News, End-of-life doulas and INELDA, A decade of doula impact
  28. AADMM fact sheet
  29. California Professional Fiduciaries Bureau, FY 2024-25 report

Start with four free weeks

See what the first 28 days cover and what comes after, on the pricing page.

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