What is Probate? Everything You Need to Know About Estate Administration
What is Probate or Estate Administration?
Probate or estate administration is a process of settling the person’s estate after their demise or death. It is a legal process and usually involves the distribution of wealth/assets, payments of outstanding debt, performing the necessary steps mentioned in the will (if any), or taking actions based on the intestacy laws. Generally, the probate process can differ based on whether the decedent has left a will and how much wealth, assets, and liabilities need to be settled or distributed. Based on this, there can be an extensive or summary/simplified probate process.
List of Actors Involved in Probate
- Personal Representative: This person is either appointed by the court or by the decedent to ensure all formalities of probate are carried out in a legal and just manner.
- Attorney: This is the legal expert who will likely assist the representative with several decision-making processes that need a deeper understanding of the intestacy laws of the state. For different states, these laws will likely be different. For instance, if the decedent is predominantly from Florida, they will require a Florida probate lawyer for all the formalities.
- Probate Appraisers: These people will evaluate the worth of assets, personal items, and more. The more diverse the assets, the higher the chances of intervention from an appraiser.
- Court: As the name suggests, this is the court of law that supervises the complete process and ensures all actors abide by the laws throughout the proceedings.
- Beneficiaries: These are people to whom wealth or assets will be distributed. This would either be according to a valid will or the intestacy laws.
- Creditors: These are people to whom the decedent owes a debt. In several scenarios, creditors can also claim against the estate to compensate for outstanding debts.
- Heir: The person who will inherit the assets or properties. In this case, too, the heir is determined by a valid will or the state’s intestacy laws.
- Guardians: These are people who will take care of minors or people who are dependent (people with disability or illness). They are either chosen by the decedent, or the state takes the responsibility of appointing one.
Steps Involved in the Probate Process
- First, a death certificate, along with a motion to begin the estate administration process, is filed.
- If there is a will, it needs to be filed and validated. If there is no will, the intestacy laws automatically come into play.
- An executor is appointed to carry out all proceedings of the probate process.
- Assets, liabilities, and credit/debt are identified and validated. The valuation of assets also takes place in this stage.
- Beneficiaries and creditors are notified about their claims.
- The debt is settled, and the wealth is distributed.
- Once the above steps are carried out, the court closes the estate.
Please note that the above steps may occur according to a will or according to the state’s intestacy laws. It is also important to understand that any will requires validation for it to be executed. Thus, if a will or a part of it is not valid or contradicts the intestacy laws, there is a chance that it won’t be executed by the administrator.
How to Avoid Probate?
One can avoid probate in numerous ways based on one’s requirements and how one wants one’s wealth to be handled after they are gone. One way is to have joint ownership of the wealth. Thus, if one of the owners passes, the survivor still owns the wealth, and there are no changes unless a valid will deems so.
Another way is to have a trust where you appoint trustees who will manage the assets for the person and the beneficiaries. Once the person passes, the trustee will simply distribute the wealth to the beneficiaries.
Besides these, there are numerous other ways, such as having a transfer-on-death or pay-on-death bank accounts, retirement accounts, gifts, and more. Overall, these will enable you to skip the probate process which may be time extensive, expensive, and weary in several scenarios.
Conclusion
In summary, the probate process is guided by the will or intestacy laws. In either case, it is valuable to have a probate lawyer of the state, say Florida, who can guide one through the process and ensure all activities are aligned with the legal system or the will.
