The window exists for one reason: to give a living owner a last, easy chance to say so.
How long
Whatever the owner configured. Seven days is the default and the most common; longer timers pair with longer windows.
- Typical
- 7 days
- Longer timers
- 14 or 30 days
- Countdown
- Shown on your heir dashboard, read from the chain
What can end it
The owner does anything. Opening their app, sending a transaction, changing a setting. Any of it cancels the claim and resets their inactivity timer to zero.
Nothing else. There is no way to accelerate the window, no appeal, and no override. Not by you, not by us. Documentation from a solicitor, a death certificate, a court order — none of it affects the program, because the program cannot read any of it.
This is the trade
The same rule that makes it impossible for anyone to release an estate early makes it impossible for anyone to release it faster in a genuine case. There is no version of this that has one without the other.
What to do while you wait
Keep trying to reach them. If they are alive, this is the window in which it matters. A single reply saves everyone the process.
Handle the things the program cannot. Probate, banks, insurers and employers all operate on their own timescales, and starting them now is sensible.
Read the vault item titles. Titles are visible before release. They will tell you roughly what is coming — a login, a set of instructions, a message — and help you plan.
Get your wallet ready. You will need SOL for the finalization and withdrawal transactions, and a properly backed-up wallet to receive into.
If it is cancelled
The owner appeared. The claim clears, their timer restarts, and you are back to watching.
You would have to wait their full inactivity span again before another claim becomes possible.
When it closes
You can finalize. That is a second transaction you must send — it does not happen on its own, and a claim nobody finalizes simply sits there indefinitely.