Will, Probate and Living Trust
Most people are unaware of the options they have when it comes to transferring their properties when they die. People who have assets to pass on to their closest relatives at the time of their death don’t know why they want to avoid probate. For others, probate is something that will take away a huge portion of their transferable assets in the form of court costs, lawyer fees and other technicalities. It is filed when the deceased person’s will need to be scrutinized, his or her inventory needs to be assessed, property appraised, pay debts to creditors and distribute what is left to beneficiaries. The question here is, is probate really necessary or are the beneficiaries better off with a living trust or just the will?
Lawyers who think probate is necessary come up with many reasons to defend the idea. They say probate will avoid fraudulent claims on the deceased assets. They claim it is easy to resolve debts with creditors with probate in place. The truth is, very few estates have encountered such problems so far. And those estates belonged to the one percent of the population like you guessed. Most properties are transferred to closest relatives in the family, so issues are rare to happen. In essence, most people don’t need the so-called tremendous benefits of the probate. It is a waste of time, money and helps no one but the involved lawyers and courts.
The probate process means a lot of administrative and clerical tasks. In the majority of cases, probate doesn’t even need lawyers specialized in handling probate. The beneficiaries submit the will, and the will is examined by an attorney’s secretary. A set of paperwork is completed while keeping track of all the deadlines regarding the case. When the time arrives, the attorney will attend court, speak on the behalf of the party and submit all the necessary paperwork. In most instances, the lawyer firm hire third party consultants to check on the will and verify it. So, if there is one person that needs to make an informed decision, it is the beneficiary. The decision he or she needs to make at this point is whether to go through probate or not. Going through probate means forgoing a lot of money that would otherwise be entitled to the beneficiary. Not going through probate means seeking the help of a lawyer to create a living trust and safeguard the assets. Whatever path you choose, it is important to understand that a reliable and trustworthy attorney like Lawyer Exchange for handling estate related cases will help you understand the benefits and drawbacks of both these choices.
The key to establishing a living trust is involving a couple of people who have the best interest of the beneficiaries of the trust in mind. This also means, you the creator and owner of the trust have the right to revise, amend, or revoke for any reason and at any time before your death. And because you are the owner of the trust, you have the full control and usage right of that trust.
