How to Steer Clear of Probate Scares

Posted in Estate Planning, Probate by Tracey Ingle on October 3, 2024

Welcome to October. Are you a Spooky Season lover? Or a total Fright avoider?

Now and then, I don’t mind a good jump scare. It’s thrilling and fun and gets my heart racing for a minute. What nobody needs, ever, is a legal nightmare that keeps you up at night with worry over lost time and money.

On that note, I have a few things to say about probate.

What is Probate?

Probate is a legal process that manages the transfer of assets from a deceased person to an heir. It kicks in after someone dies, to officially and legally confirm the transfer of assets.

Probate is messy and gets complicated when it’s not clear where the asset is supposed to go.

Probate is governed by state laws, and it’s the state court’s responsibility to confirm payment of debts and the legal transfer of remaining assets. Obviously, the state is picky precise about these things, and transferring cash, property, holdings, vehicles etc. to the “right” person.

How Having a Will Helps

Having a Will helps; Probate confirms the Will is valid and assigns legal authority to the Personal Representative to carry out wishes. Every state has a default Will for its residents, to cover cases where there is no Will, but there’s no guarantee this is what you’d want and leaves a lot up in the heir and subject to the whim of a judge.

Your state’s default Will won’t necessarily (or even typically) be in the best interest of you or your heirs.

To be honest, Probate isn’t scary as much as it is messy.

Why Probate is Messy

The probate process includes:

Filing a petition
Notifying next of kin and heirs
Issuing letters of authority
Publishing a notice in the local newspaper
Tallying debts
Waiting for creditors to make claims

Probate cannot be closed for at least a year, and additional fees are incurred if real estate needs to be sold and in order to close it.

The Downsides of Probate

Probate is time-consuming, costly, revealing (public process with court records accessible to anyone), often complicated, and always an inconvenience. And it gives heirs a forum to easily argue, fight and litigate against one another.

Did you know? Probate can cost thousands and thousands of dollars!

But it is not a necessity!

How to Avoid Probate

You, your family, and your heirs can avoid probate, shielding assets from potential legal challenges, claims from family members, and other complications by planning your estate effectively.

A few ways to avoid legal challenges include establishing:

Joint ownership with rights of survivorship
Beneficiary designations for assets like life insurance and retirement accounts
A trust with clear instructions for assets held within the trust

The Role of a Lawyer

This is where a lawyer can help: ensuring that your estate plan is valid, up-to-date, clear, legally binding, comprehensive, exhaustive, personalized, and meets your state’s current laws.

Everything you’ve worked hard to earn and obtain deserves to end up where you want it to, without conflict or complication.

Book a planning call: we welcome your questions and would be happy to explain our meticulous process that makes it easy for your state to act in accordance with your wishes.

Book now: https://bit.ly/47PtSqu

Other items of interest:

estate plan, estate planning, estate planning lawyer, probate

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