The Role
As an Estate Navigator at Ridgeline, you will serve as the dedicated operational lead for executors and individual trustees navigating estate settlement — and for advisory firms and estate owners building readiness before death. You will drive the process end to end, coordinating every professional, institution, and workstream involved. The Estate Navigator is not a support role — it is the central role. Every outcome Ridgeline delivers runs through you.
You will also have direct input into how Ridgeline operates. This is a business in active development, and the person in this role will help define the processes, tools, and client experience that we scale. As case volume grows, the role grows with it.
What You'll Do
- Work with investment advisors and estate owners to build comprehensive Settlement Blueprints — full operational pictures of the estate, organized and ready for activation at death
- Inventory financial, physical, and digital assets; map key contacts, documents, and obligations
- Brief named executors on the estate and their role before they need it
- Maintain and refresh Blueprints annually as estate details change
- Drive the full settlement process from activation through final distribution
- Organize and coordinate all professionals and service providers — attorneys, CPAs, financial advisors, financial institutions, and others — ensuring organized information reaches the right parties at the right time
- Help coordinate institutional asset transfers, account closures, and beneficiary notifications across financial institutions — making execution easier for the executor
- Ensure physical assets are secured and properly managed — facilitating real estate protection, insurance continuity, property management coordination, and personal property organization
- Arrange estate sales, appraisals, and disposition of physical assets
- Facilitate management of ongoing estate obligations — mortgage, utilities, insurance, subscriptions — through resolution or cancellation
- Track and manage tax deadlines; compile and organize financial records for CPA and attorney review
- Present decisions and estate payments to the executor in batched, clear formats — minimizing burden without removing control
- Issue regular status updates so the executor and advisors always know exactly where things stand
- Contribute to refining processes, workflows, and templates as cases generate real-world learning
- Help shape the client communication approach and operational infrastructure that Ridgeline will scale
What We're Looking For
- Experience in estate administration, trust administration, or a closely related field — whether from a law firm, trust company, bank trust department, financial advisory practice, or comparable environment
- Familiarity with probate processes, asset transfers, and coordinating across financial and legal institutions
- Comfort working directly with executors, trustees, attorneys, and advisors in high-stakes, emotionally charged situations
- Accountability — you take ownership and follow through, even when things stall
- Organized and detail-oriented without losing sight of the bigger picture
- Able to engage with confidence, professionalism, and confidentiality across a wide range of professionals and family situations
- Empathy and steadiness with families navigating loss
- Practical and solutions-oriented when the path forward isn't clear
- Able to work with genuine autonomy and bring good judgment to situations that aren't always by the book
- Energized by the idea of taking your hard-won experience and using it to redefine how this process works — for the better, and at scale
This Role Is Not
- A traditional paralegal or legal support role
- Billable-hours driven
- Narrowly scoped to legal or administrative tasks
The work spans operational coordination, institutional follow-through, physical asset management, and direct executor support — from pre-death readiness through final distribution.
Structure
- Part-time contractor, with hours scaling with case and Blueprint volume
- Remote, with schedule flexibility
- Philadelphia area preferred for occasional in-person collaboration
If this resonates, please reach out with a brief note on your background and what draws you to this kind of work.
navigate@ridgelineestateoperations.comWe're particularly interested in hearing about complex, multi-party processes you've managed — what made them work, where things typically broke down, and how you handled it when they did.