Avoiding Probate

For those of you that are unfamiliar with probate, it’s necessary that you educate yourself in case you are ever faced with the task of dealing with an estate. If you are unfamiliar with the process of probate, allow us to explain. The main idea behind probate is to have a process in which the individual’s estate is properly managed and distributed to all of the rightful recipients. This process will ensure that all of the rightful heirs, creditors, and beneficiaries get everything that they are entitled to. However, there are many reasons why one would want to try and avoid the process of probate for estates that they are involved with. Below you will find a little bit of information about why the process of probate might be something that you might want to try and avoid.

The main reason that many people will try to avoid the process of probate is due to the fact that the process can be rather slow and often take several months to complete. Another one of the biggest reasons is the fact that it can get quite costly and sometimes fees will be paid right from the estate. This obviously will reduce the amount of money that each recipient receives. For all of these reasons, there are many people that will take the steps necessary in order for their loved ones to avoid the process of probate and receive the assets of the estate faster and easier. There are many different methods that people use in order to avoid the probate process.

Most of these methods will ensure that the assets of an estate are delivered to the recipients immediately or soon after their loved ones death.

Some of these methods include:

• Revocable Living Trusts
• Joint Ownerships
• Beneficiary Designation
• Joint Ownership

This first method refers to joint ownership of property with right of survivorship. When this allows to a particular estate, the process of probate doesn’t apply to the surviving owner when the other owner dies. The main idea of joint ownership or joint tenancy in a property is that there are two rightful owners to one particular property and should one owner die, the other be entitled to a large share of the property. The stipulation that applies to joint ownership states that joint tenancy must be stated on proof of ownership or be written in a legally binding contract.

Revocable Living Trusts

Revocable trusts are used to avoid the probate process because it’s possible for a revocable living trust to hold title to a property on behalf of an individual beneficiary. Similar to the way a will is set up, the trustee will have named a beneficiary for the property. This allows the property to not be considered as part of the estate during the process of probate. Beneficiary Designation Beneficiary designations can occur in respect to many different things including IRAs, insurance policies, and retirement funds. When there are contractual obligations in case of death to pay out to a beneficiary of these different things, they might be able to avoid the probate process.