Avoiding Probate Does It Matter To You?

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Nearly two hundred years ago Benjamin Franklin wrote, Nothing is certain but death and taxes. In current times, probate is often the step that occurs between a persons death and the payment of their remaining taxes. Probate is the legal process supervised by the court system which insures that a deceased persons estate is properly distributed and all remaining bills are paid. Probate is under the jurisdiction of state courts and state laws concerning probate issues vary greatly from state to state.

Even though a person has written a will that appoints an executor and specifies how the estate is to be divided, the probate court may still be involved in settling the estate. However there are a number of ways to protect property from probate court including:

Joint ownership with the right of survivorship. This simply means that the property is owned by more than one person and ownership passes to the surviving owner. Typically a home jointly owned by a married couple passes to the surviving spouse without probate. A parent can also own property jointly with the right of survivorship with one or more children. However, this form of ownership may be problematic if the parent wishes to sell the joint property and the children do not.

Revocable living trusts. By law probate court applies to the processing of a will. A revocable living trust is an alternative arrangement you make for management and distribution of your property after death. Since it is not a will, it does not fall under the jurisdiction of the probate court.

Specify unsupervised probate in the will. While state law may require that a will must always be registered with the probate court, unsupervised execution of the contents of the will is possible if the will itself calls for unsupervised probate. This means that the named executor does not need the courts permission to settle the estate. Unsupervised execution of the will is a good option for ordinary estates where no conflict is anticipated.

Probate may not be a bothersome issue for families of ordinary means but avoiding probate court may be an important factor for large estates simply due to the costs involved. The best advice is to seek legal counsel and plan how your estate should be handled after death well before the need arises.

About the Author:
Paul Kraft is co-founder and administrative principal of Frank & Kraft, P.C., one of the leading law firms in Indiana in the area of estate planning as well as business, tax and financial planning. For more information on avoiding probate and other estate planning services, visit our website.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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