Who Does What in Celestial Divide: A Guide to Roles and Permissions
A clear breakdown of the three user roles in Celestial Divide — Beneficiary, Executor, and Professional — and what each can see and do.
Every estate or divorce matter involves multiple parties — each with different levels of authority, different needs, and different information they should (and shouldn't) see. Celestial Divide is built around that reality. The platform has three distinct user roles: Beneficiary, Executor / Personal Representative, and Professional. Here's what each one can do — and why it's set up that way.
The Three Roles
Beneficiary
The beneficiary's job in Celestial Divide is focused: place bids, manage personal preferences, and track progress. They can see bidding status across the estate, contact professionals in the Trusted Professional Network (TPN), add real estate or estate cash if relevant, and enter their own income information and financial preferences.
What they can't do is set the structural rules of the estate — that's not their call. They can't set beneficiary splits, adjust disparity levels, override asset sales, or configure the liquidity schedule. Those decisions belong to whoever is managing the matter.
Executor / Personal Representative
The executor controls the setup and structure of the estate. They can enter fair market values to anchor the system's decision logic, add and manage assets, configure beneficiary splits, set disparity tolerance levels, manage the liquidity schedule, and adjust asset sale overrides when documentation exists for a pending sale.
The executor can also bid on behalf of a beneficiary if needed — useful when a party is unavailable or needs assistance navigating the process.
Asset sale overrides are another executor-only control. If a sale is already in progress — a vehicle with a signed purchase agreement, for example — the executor can log that pending sale in the system with supporting documentation, so the asset is handled correctly rather than treated as available for distribution.
If an executor happens to be part of multiple estates, they can create and manage them independently.
Professional
The professional tier is designed for attorney offices, wealth management firms, and other organizations managing multiple matters. Professionals can do most of what an executor can, with one key addition: they get access to a project dashboard with analytics across all active estates or matters. That visibility is what makes the professional tier built for practice-level work, not just individual estates.
Professionals are also the only users who can add new contacts to the Trusted Professional Network — expanding the referral directory available to clients across their engagements.
Some actions at the professional tier are optional, reflecting that certain controls — like entering fair market values or setting disparity levels — may or may not be appropriate depending on the matter.
Permissions at a Glance
| Action | Beneficiary | Executor / PR | Professional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enter Fair Market Value | ✗ | ✓ | Optional |
| Enter Assets | Optional | ✓ | Optional |
| Bid for Themselves | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Bid on Behalf of Others | ✗ | Optional | Optional |
| Add Beneficiaries | Optional | ✓ | Optional |
| Set Beneficiary Split | ✗ | ✓ | Optional |
| Set Disparity Levels | ✗ | ✓ | Optional |
| Custom Liquidity Schedule | ✗ | ✓ | Optional |
| View Bidding Progress | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Asset Sale Overrides | ✗ | ✓ | Optional |
| Add Estate Cash | Optional | ✓ | Optional |
| Add Real Estate | Optional | ✓ | Optional |
| Enter Marginal Taxes | ✓ | ✓ | Optional |
| Contact Trusted Professionals | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Modify TPN (add professionals) | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Financial Preferences (Self) | ✓ | — | — |
| Beneficiary Settings (Self) | ✗ | ✓ | Optional |
| Income Info (Self) | ✓ | — | — |
| Financial Prefs (Others) | ✗ | ✓ | Optional |
| Beneficiary Settings (Others) | ✗ | ✓ | Optional |
| Income Info (Others) | ✗ | ✓ | Optional |
| Project Dashboard | — | — | ✓ |
| Create an Estate | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
✓ = Yes · ✗ = No · Optional = Available but not required · — = Not applicable
A Note on the Trusted Professional Network
The TPN is a directory of vetted professionals — financial planners, accountants, tax professionals — that anyone in the system can contact. It exists because estate and divorce matters frequently surface needs that fall outside the immediate matter: a newly inherited property that needs management, a beneficiary who's just entered a new tax bracket and needs guidance.
Beneficiaries and executors can reach out to professionals in the network. Only professionals on the platform can add new contacts to it.
Why It's Built This Way
The permissions structure isn't arbitrary. It reflects how estate and divorce work actually functions — with a clear chain of authority, layered over participants who each have meaningful but bounded roles.
Beneficiaries need enough access to participate meaningfully and advocate for their own interests. Executors and personal representatives need enough control to configure and run the matter correctly. Professionals need the tools to manage multiple matters efficiently and build a replicable practice around the work.
The goal is a system where every party can do what they need to do, and only what they need to do — keeping the process defensible at every step.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between the Executor and Professional roles?
An executor manages a single estate — configuring it, adding assets, and running the matter from start to finish. A professional manages multiple matters through a shared dashboard. The professional tier adds cross-estate analytics, the ability to add contacts to the Trusted Professional Network, and tools designed for practice-level efficiency. Both roles share most operational controls; the dashboard and TPN management are what distinguish a professional account.
Can an executor also be a beneficiary?
Yes. When someone holds both roles, they have the access rights of both. They can bid for themselves as a beneficiary and also manage the structural setup of the estate as an executor. The system handles this without conflict — bids remain private from other participants regardless of the bidder's administrative role.
What can a beneficiary see during the bidding process?
Beneficiaries can see the bidding status across the estate — meaning they can see that others have placed bids, and track overall progress. They cannot see anyone else's individual bid amounts. That privacy is intentional: it allows each beneficiary to submit their honest valuations without anchoring to what others have said. Preferences only become visible after the allocation is resolved.
Can an executor place bids if a beneficiary is unavailable?
Yes — executors can bid on behalf of a beneficiary when needed. This is useful when a party is traveling, elderly, or simply needs help navigating the platform. The executor enters the bid with full awareness that they're acting in a representative capacity. This is documented in the system for audit purposes.
Who controls what gets shared with beneficiaries?
The executor controls most of the information architecture: what assets are visible, what the configured splits are, and when the process moves forward. Role-based access ensures beneficiaries only see what's appropriate at each stage. Sensitive configuration decisions — disparity levels, liquidity schedules, sale overrides — are not visible to beneficiaries by default.
Celestial Divide is estate asset division software built for professionals. It helps executors, estate attorneys, trust officers, and family law practitioners manage asset allocation, document every decision, and produce defensible outcomes — without spreadsheets or manual negotiation.