Deceased customer notification and estate settlement

How do we handle a deceased customer's accounts from the first report to retitling or payout, with the estate documents and payee claims in order?

Open one case for the person, not one per account. When a death is reported, Callvu finds every account and relationship, applies the immediate steps (the flag, the stop on cards and standing orders, the survivorship and payable-on-death rules), classifies what each account needs, collects the death certificate, letters and claimant identification from the family or executor on their phones, routes legal review where the policy requires it, and retitles or pays out each account in the core with the decision recorded.

In scopeComplex: multi-party handoffsCallvu moves: classify, chase and verify, decide, write back

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Last updated November 6, 2026.

The problem today

The family tells the branch, the branch tells deposit operations, and the debit card keeps working for a month.

Today, without Callvu

A daughter calls to say her father has died. The agent notes it on one account. The joint account, the CD, the safe deposit box and the loan are found one at a time over the following weeks, each by a different person. Social Security deposits keep arriving and must later be returned. The card is used by someone. The executor is asked for the death certificate three times.

Each account has its own answer. A joint account with survivorship passes to the survivor; a payable-on-death account to the named beneficiary on proof of death and identity; a single account to the estate on the court's letters, or to a successor under the state's small estate affidavit below its threshold. Federal benefit payments received after death must be returned. A bank that pays the wrong person is liable to the right one.

The family is grieving and the executor is unpaid. A process that asks for the same document repeatedly, in the wrong order, is the one they remember.

How it runs

From the requestto the system of record.

A family member, an executor, or a notice from a government agency reports the death. Callvu opens one case for the customer and finds every account and relationship in the core.

Family member or executor: Reports the death, provides the death certificate, the letters or affidavit, and claimant identification, on their own phone.
Branch: Takes the report, captures what the family brought, and sees the case; does not decide payouts.
Deposit operations: Executes the retitling and payouts the decided case allows and sees every account's status.
Legal review: Decides the cases the policy reserves (disputed claims, foreign letters, large estates, missing documents) in the Decision Desk.
Callvu: Finds the accounts, applies the immediate steps, classifies each account, chases documents, routes review and writes each outcome to the core.

Report and immediate steps
The report is captured with the reporter's identity and relationship. Callvu flags every account and loan for the customer, stops cards and standing orders where the policy says so, holds single-owner accounts, and leaves a joint survivor's access as the agreement provides. A pending federal benefit deposit is flagged for return.
Classify each account
Each account is classified by its ownership and designation: joint with survivorship, payable-on-death or in-trust-for with named beneficiaries, single ownership to the estate, custodial, trust, or a loan or line. The classification sets what each account needs: proof of death only, the beneficiary's claim and identification, the court's letters, or the state's small estate affidavit under its threshold.
Chase and verify
The family or executor is asked once for the death certificate, and each claimant (survivor, beneficiary, executor) for their identification and claim, with links. Letters or an affidavit are read and checked for the court, the estate, the authority and the date. Each document is verified as it arrives and the case shows what is outstanding per account.
Decide
A survivorship account with proof of death, or a payable-on-death claim with a verified beneficiary, proceeds by rule. An estate payout above the policy's limit, competing claims, foreign letters, a missing beneficiary, or a small estate affidavit near the threshold goes to legal review in the Decision Desk with only the allowed outcomes.
Write back
Each account is retitled to the survivor, paid to the beneficiary, paid to the estate, or closed, in the core, with the documents, the claimant identification and the decision attached. Interest to the date, final statements, tax reporting changes and the return of any post-death federal benefit are recorded.

Where it ends: Every account of the deceased customer is retitled, paid out or closed in the core, each with its documents and decision, and the loans and services are handled with the estate. The Decision Trace shows each account's classification and the rule or review that resolved it; the Audit Trace shows every request, document and payout.

Runtime enforcement

What is enforcedwhile the work runs.

The regulations preloaded in Callvu Studio and the bank's own policies, applied as steps that run, not lines in a binder. A step that breaks a rule does not run, so a completed run was compliant.

Regulations

Payable-on-death and survivorship accounts (state law; for example the Uniform Probate Code multiple-party account provisions, sections 6-201 to 6-227): On the death of a party, sums on deposit in a joint account with right of survivorship belong to the surviving party; sums in a payable-on-death account belong to the named beneficiary. A bank that pays in accordance with the account's terms on proof of death and the claimant's identity is protected. A single account passes to the estate.
Small estate affidavit (state probate code): Below the state's threshold, a successor may collect the deceased's property by affidavit without letters, after the waiting period the statute sets; the bank verifies the affidavit, the threshold and the waiting period before paying.
Return of federal benefit payments after death (31 CFR 210.10): A financial institution that receives a federal benefit payment by direct deposit after the recipient's death must return it; the bank is liable for post-death payments it had notice of.
CIP (31 CFR 1020.220): Each claimant who receives funds or becomes an account owner is identified and verified under the bank's policy.

Company policies

One case per deceased customer, covering every account and relationship found in the core.
The immediate steps on report (flags, card stops, holds on single accounts, benefit return flag) are the bank's policy and run automatically.
The documents each account type requires, the estate payout limit above which legal review decides, and the small estate rules by state are set by policy and applied by Callvu.
No payout without the claimant's identification verified and the document the account type requires on file.
The core is the system of record; each outcome is written with its documents and decision.

Controls

Account discovery across the core for the customer and their relationships.
Automatic immediate steps on report.
Per-account classification that fixes the required documents and the recipient.
Single request for the death certificate, shared across accounts.
Claimant identification and screening; letters and affidavits read and checked.
Decision Desk routing for disputed, large, foreign or incomplete cases.
Federal benefit return check on post-death deposits.

Clocks and deadlines

Immediate steps: Flags, stops and holds the day the death is reported.
Federal benefit return: Post-death federal payments returned on notice, per 31 CFR 210.10.
Small estate waiting period: The state's period after death before an affidavit may be used; the case shows the date.
Outstanding documents: Each claimant is nudged on a schedule; the case shows what is outstanding per account.

Documents and checks

The death report with the reporter's identity and relationship
The death certificate, captured once
Letters testamentary or of administration, or the small estate affidavit
Each claimant's identification and claim, with verification results
The legal review decision where a case was routed
The retitling, payout or closure record per account, with final statements

In the Decision Trace

Each account's classification and the recipient it set.
The documents required per account and their verification results.
Which accounts resolved by rule and which by legal review, with the decision.
The payouts, retitlings and closures, with amounts and recipients.

In the Audit Trace

The report and the immediate steps, with times.
Each request to each claimant and when it was answered.
Each Decision Desk step with the reviewer and the time.
Each write to the core and the statements and notices sent.

The handoff

Between the front doorand the back office.

The front door

The branch, a call, or a notice. The family reports once; the executor and each claimant provide documents and identification on their own phones.

The back office

Deposit operations executes decided outcomes; legal review decides only the reserved cases. Every account reaches its end from one case, and no card keeps working for a month.

The Decision Desk

An estate payout above the limit, competing claims, foreign letters, a missing beneficiary or an affidavit near the threshold goes to legal review in the Decision Desk with the case and only the allowed outcomes.
A claimant who has not responded is nudged with care on the policy's schedule, and the executor sees what each account is waiting for.

Proof

In scope.Proof at scale, not one process at a time.

The kind of process Callvu runs in production for customers in this industry. Ask for a reference on this exact process. The results below are the industry's published proof; each claim code links to its record on agents.callvu.com.

More than 1,000 processes are live across Callvu customers.

Across Callvu customers

Banca Transilvania automated more than 100 workflows with Callvu.

BNK-04

Bank Leumi digitized all loan application and servicing workflows within six months, and dozens more processes since.

BNK-01

Questions

What buyers ask next,answered plainly.

Does the family have to report each account?

No. One report opens one case, and Callvu finds every account, loan and service for the customer in the core.

What happens to the debit card and the standing orders?

They are stopped the day the death is reported, under the bank's policy, and a pending federal benefit deposit is flagged for return.

How is a payable-on-death account paid?

To the named beneficiary, on proof of death and the beneficiary's verified identity, by rule. No letters are needed.

When does legal review get involved?

For the cases the policy reserves: an estate payout above the limit, competing claims, foreign letters, a missing beneficiary, or a small estate affidavit near the threshold.

How many times will the executor be asked for the death certificate?

Once. It is captured on the case and used for every account.

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