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Special Needs Trust – How to Create One For Your Loved Ones

Estate and financial planners often must account for the fact that certain individuals, due to chronic illness or permanent disability, require support over the long-term (usually in the form of a Special Needs Trust). How this support is provided raises important questions as to estate and financial planning strategies for those who are unable to provide for themselves. These considerations often center on how to provide a sustainable and long-term source of income for a person who is unable to care for themselves.

Primarily, one may ask why is a trust necessary when support could be provided through direct payments such as a stipend or allowance? There are two main reasons, which support the use of a trust. The first reason rests on the idea that a person who is unable to support himself or herself may also not be able to manage his or her financial affairs or may also be vulnerable to exploitation. Under these circumstances, providing support through a trust protects a vulnerable individual from financial risk, whereby their money is managed by a third party who only distributes money to the beneficiary according to the terms of the trust.

The second reason involves the fact that means-tested benefits programs do not allow a beneficiary to exceed a threshold of assets. For example programs such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI), SNAP and the HUD housing assistance program limits the amount of countable assets a beneficiary may have while remaining eligible. For example, SSI has a countable resource limit of $2000 for a qualifying individual and $3000 for an eligible couple. Under these circumstances, a trust allows the beneficiary to have access to financial resources without having them counted against means-tested program resource limits. If the person were being supported through an allowance paid into the individual’s bank account or allowed access to a savings or checking account with funds over the threshold limits under these programs, eligibility would likely be suspended until assets are spent down to the allowable limit. In cases where a disabled person receives an inheritance or settlement from an injury lawsuit problems can arise whereby cash on hand may not be adequate to support paying a caretaker or medical bills over the long term; however the individual will likely not be eligible for means-tested benefits programs such as SSI or Medicaid.

Special Needs Trusts
A Special Needs Trust (SNT), or Supplemental Needs Trust, is like any other trust in that the grantor, typically a person operating under some form of legal guardianship over the beneficiary, funds the trust using their assets or assets owned by the beneficiary. However, under an SNT, the beneficiary has no direct control or access to funds in the trust. Further, the trustee has broad discretion to make distributions to the beneficiary according to trust distribution directives found in the trust agreement. Given that the beneficiary is unable to access the funds without permission provided by the grantor or through the terms of the trust agreement, the assets are not included in the countable asset limit under means-tested benefits programs.

An additional advantage found in SNTs rests in the fact that they can be structured in a manner that allows for support after the beneficiary’s guardian or caretaker passes away, thus allowing the beneficiary to be supported from an inheritance or another large sum of money over time. Just as in other trust arrangements, cash, stocks, bonds, and real estate can be placed into an SNT.

SNTs provide a useful financial planning on behalf of individuals who, in the future or presently, may be unable to manage their financial affairs. However, SNTs’ usefulness to financial planners has been restricted by a wrinkle in the Federal laws authorizing this type of trust. The current law only allows SNTs to be created by the beneficiary’s parent, grandparent or guardian, even if the beneficiary is mentally competent and the trust is being established as a future precaution. The current restrictions prevent a person who is presently able to manage their affairs and is physically disabled or may suffer deterioration in the decision-making capacity in the near future from establishing an SNT on their own. Under the present system, a beneficiary who wishes to fund a first-party SNT must rely on family members for assistance or petition a court to establish the trust.

Proposed legislation before Congress will offer a remedy to this problem area in the present laws governing SNTs. The Special Needs Trust Fairness Act of 2015, which has passed the U.S. Senate and is before the House of Representatives under consideration would amend the current law to allow an individual to create an SNT on their behalf.

For estate and financial planners, SNTs offer a viable option for providing financial support for an individual on means-tested benefits programs or who is unable to manage their own finances. However, as illustrated above for individuals who wish to plan-ahead by setting up an SNT on their own the present state of the law does not allow this, although it is likely to change in the near future.

How Can EstateBee Help You?

For more information on revocable living trusts, check out some of the other articles on our website and our discussion forum.

Alternatively, if you would like some more in-depth information on living trusts, check out our Living Trust Kit and our book Make Your Own Living Trust and Avoid Probate. Each will guide you step-by-step through the matters you need to consider when making a living trust. You’ll learn all you need to know about living trusts, their advantages and disadvantages, the tax implications, the alternatives to living trusts and, of course, how to easily make your own. With detailed information, easy-to-follow instructions, helpful worksheets and all of the forms necessary, we show both individuals and couples how to avoid the otherwise inevitable delays and costs of probate by preparing a revocable living trust and using other simple probate avoidance strategies.

If you have any questions regarding living trusts, feel free to contact our customer service team who would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

When is a Will Needed?

When considering an estate planning strategy, planners often fall into assumption that a will is always required. The logic behind this assumption may apply in some cases; however, a number of situations may arise in which a will is not required or may be counterproductive to the overall estate planning strategy. Before asking when is a will needed, it is important to understand a will’s legal function.

What does a will accomplish?
On a basic level, a will is a written document that outlines how assets will be distributed upon death. An executor, named in the will, oversees this process while the estate is being handled by a probate court. Assuming everything goes according to plan, all estate assets will be distributed according to testamentary intent. However, estate planners often fail to recognize that in complex estates, things often do not go according to plan, in these cases a will can often create additional costs to the estate and insert unwanted confusion and ambiguity. Therefore, the law recognizes that a will is not a legal necessity to pass on assets; rather it is one of many options available to estate planners.

A will is not required for estate assets to pass to heirs or beneficiaries after the testator’s death. In cases in which the testator dies intestate (without a will); the law provides rules of inheritance that provide guidelines for inheritance in the absence of a will. Inheritance law provides some rules to address situations involving intestate succession. The first consideration will involve whether the decedent was married. If the decedent died while married, property would pass to the decedent’s spouse. However, if the decedent was not married, the estate is distributed to the decedent’s children, who receive estate assets in equal shares. If there are no children or spouse, the estate goes to the decedent’s parents. If there are no parents living, the property is distributed to the decedent’s brothers or sisters. If there are no brothers and sisters, or if they are deceased their children (decedents nieces and nephews) in equal shares. If the decedent’s sibling or their child (ren) are, the decedent’s grandparents will inherit the estate. If there are no living grandparents, then the decedent’s aunts and uncles, or if there are not any aunts and uncles, the decedent’s cousins will inherit.

Situations in which a person dies intestate, the probate court will attempt to ensure that the estate is disbursed in light of rules of inheritance. Of course, disputes may arise, or the validity of the distribution of estate assets may be challenged in these cases inheritance law would guide the court’s decision-making on how to resolve these disputes.

When is a will needed?
A will is not required to pass assets to heirs to beneficiaries; under some circumstances, it may simplify the process of handling one’s final affairs; however, it is not required. In fact, many jurisdictions allow a decedent’s estate to be disposed of without a will. Relying on what is known as the small estate designation an estate representative may transfer the title to property and administer the decedent’s accounts by presenting what is commonly referred to as a small estate affidavit. Normally, an estate must fall under a monetary threshold to qualify for the small estate designation; as such not all estates will be able to benefit from this designation. In situations in which the small estate designation is not appropriate estate, planners may still be able to avoid using a will with other estate planning tools.

A commonly held preference among estate planners involves either avoiding using a will as a tool to distribute assets; rather only relying on a will to express final instructions not related to the distribution of estate assets. Instead of a will, estate planners often rely on the wealth of estate planning tools that can be used to with greater flexibility and most importantly can reduce a number of assets that are exposed to the probate process or exposed to estate tax liability. Estate planners can rely on a variety of trust instruments or payable on death accounts to avoid using a will as an estate distribution tool. However, whether a will is needed depends on the assets in an individual’s estate and how these assets will be distributed.

When determining whether a will is needed, the most important consideration rests on the question: Does a will accomplish the intended estate planning goals. If the answer to this is yes, then one should consider could estate distribution be accomplished without a will. If the answer to this is yes, then one must consider whether potential costs and delay related to the probate process be avoided by not using a will. If yes, then one should consider the comparative costs and benefits of not using a will and using a will. The main takeaway here is that individual circumstances and intent will largely dictate whether a will is needed or not.

How Can We Help You?

If you would like to make a last will and testament, check out our Online Will Writing Software. Its free to try and you can make a will in as little as 10 minutes. It’s also one of the leading estate planning softwares on the market. You can also check out our book Make Your Own Last Will & Testament which takes you step-by-step through the process of making a will, and covers all of the important matters you need to consider when making a will.

If you have any questions about making a will or about any of our products or services, contact our customer service team who would be delighted to assist you.

How to Amend a Will

When a testator commits his final instructions to a will, it is not written in stone (figuratively). Rather, probate law recognizes that a testator may wish to change his will in light of family changes, changes in the law or changes in the inventory of assets listed in the will. As such, a will may require supplements or amendments to reflect changes in testamentary intent. Under these circumstances, a testator may wish to amend his will. We discuss how to amend a will in this article.

A testator may amend his will in two ways. The first method involves completely redrafting the will whereby the former will is revoked to make way for a new will that reflects the desired changes. The second method of amending a will involves drafting a codicil to the will, or a document that supplements or amends an existing will. The comparative benefits of these approaches largely depend on many circumstances including the scope and complexity of the original will, the desired changes from the amendments, how closely the original will complies with the current law, and the testator’s intent. Before examining the comparative benefits between a codicil and executing a new will, descriptions of the two are in order.

Codicil

A codicil is a testamentary instrument, executed after the original will that amends or supplements provisions in the will. In addition to altering the will, a codicil may perform other functions such as republishing a prior valid will; validating a previously invalid will, or reviving a formerly revoked will that has not been destroyed. A codicil must also meet the same formalities to be executed the original will required. For example, depending on the jurisdiction, a valid will must be signed by the testator in front of two witnesses. As such a codicil must also be signed in the presence of two witnesses.

Drafting a New Will

In some cases, it may be prudent to draft an entirely new will that incorporates changes in testamentary intent rather than preparing a codicil. A properly executed new will holds the legal effect of revoking a previous will, given that the document’s language reflects the testator’s desire to revoke all prior wills. In this case, the language of the new will must indicate that the previous will is being revoked, and the current version reflects current testamentary intent.

Codicil or New Will?

Codicils were historically a necessity, as drafting a new will required a person to rewrite the entire document with the proposed changes. However, this limitation has been made a non-issue given the ease by which an electronic document may be entirely regenerated or amended by word processing software. Given the ease by which legal; documents can be created and edited the amount of work required to retool an existing will be compared to drafting a codicil may be marginal. Therefore, the choice hinges on which option will be more legally effective for accomplishing testamentary intent.

Ambiguity

A codicil’s primary intent is to amend or supplement terms that exist in the original will. However, if the terms of the original will are already ambiguous, a codicil may lump further ambiguity on already ambiguous language. Further adding an ambiguously written codicil to a will may also hold the unintended effect of potentially revoking the original will thus making the codicil take on the status of a new will. In this case, a testator may have been better served to scrap the original will and draft an entirely new will to eliminate ambiguities and to incorporate the new material.

Cost

Testators who wish to make changes to a will often l cite the cost of drafting a new will as the primary reason to make changes through a codicil. Give the ease by which electronic documents can be edited, the cost differences between drafting a new will by repurposing material from the prior will may be less if not equal to the cost of drafting a codicil from scratch. Given that the primary goal of estate planning is to provide a clear succession of assets, the comparative costs, and benefits of drafting a new will outweigh that of drafting a codicil. However, if the changes to the will are minor one may consider that a codicil would be the most straightforward option.

As the discussions above illustrate, the legal questions surrounding amending a will, do not center on whether one can amend their will, rather the primary question centers on what method a testator should use to amend a will. With this issue in mind, whether to execute a new will or draft a codicil depends on the amendments required to represent adequately testamentary intent, without creating unnecessary ambiguity or confusion. As such, the question of how to amend a will should be answered according to individual circumstances.

How Can We Help You?

For more information on wills, read some of the other articles on this website.

You can also check out our book Make Your Own Last Will & Testament which takes you step-by-step through the process of making a will, and covers all of the important matters you need to consider when making a will. If you would prefer to amend an existing will, rather than creating a new one (which usually revokes your old will), check out our Codicil to a Last Will & Testament Kit. It will show you how to amend your existing will quickly and easily, and without the need for a lawyer.

If you have any questions about our products or services, please contact our customer service team, who would be delighted to assist you.

How Long Does it Take an Executor to Probate an Estate

The time it takes to probate an estate will ultimately depend on the assets and liabilities of the deceased and whether or not his or her affairs were in order at the time of death. If the deceased’s estate was complicated, it may take a considerable period of time to determine precisely what assets were held and what debts were owed by the deceased; and thereafter to discharge any debts and taxes. Alternatively, there may be difficulties locating beneficiaries or even legal challenges to the legality of the will or particular provisions of the will. Each of these events is likely to cause a delay in the probate process should they occur.

Each state has its own set of procedures for probate and these will need to be complied with. Some states even have procedures for ‘small estates’ which can speed up the probate process. Taking all of these factors into account, probate can take anywhere from 3 to 6 months to a number of years. By way of simple example, the average time for the probate process in California is 7 to 9 months, if all goes well. Of course, if there is a legal challenge to the will or some other lawsuit, this time can be substantially increased. There are many probates which have been ongoing for decades!

Generally speaking, however, probate should be completed within one year. This period of time is known as the ‘executor’s year’. If, for whatever, reason probate has not been completed within that time frame, the executor may be required to file a status report with the probate court to provide an explanation of what still has to be done to complete probate and an estimate of how much time it’s likely to take.

If the executor fails to report, the beneficiaries under a will can ask the court to make an order requiring the filing of such a report and/or can take any other action they deem necessary to close probate including the removal of the personal representative and the appointment of someone else in their stead.

How Can We Help You?

For more information on probate and executors, read some of the other probate and executor articles on this website.

Alternatively, check out our book, How to Probate an Estate. It takes you step-by-step through the entire process of probating an estate.

If you have any questions about our products or services, please do contact our customer service team, who would be delighted to assist you.

How to Avoid Probate, Reduce Costs and Eliminate Delays

As you may already know, not all of a deceased person’s assets need to go through probate if you know how to avoid probate. Probate can be avoided through the use of a number of legal mechanisms including:-

(i) payable on death, transfer on death or joint accounts;
(ii) insurance policies;
(iii) joint ownership of property;
(iv) revocable living trusts;
(v) lifetime gifts; and
(vi) having property valued at or less than the limit allowed for a simplified procedure that many states allow when estates are small.

Of course, if you do not provide for the transfer of all of your assets by means of the above mechanisms, or indeed any of the other probate avoidance mechanisms, probate will be necessary.

Probate avoidance measures themselves have several advantages. For example, they are flexible and easy to set up. Bank accounts and insurance policies can be established, amended, and terminated with little hassle or cost. As a result, you can easily and quickly change the beneficiaries of your assets or the amount by which you intend them to benefit by means of a simple visit to the bank or your insurance broker. And after you die, the only document that your beneficiaries will typically need to present to the bank or insurance company is a death certificate evidencing your death. With that, the financial institution should be happy to make arrangements to have the relevant proceeds transferred into the names of your beneficiaries or paid out to them.

There are however some disadvantages to avoiding probate. You need to be very careful to ensure that all of your probate avoidance alternatives are working together to avoid probate (whether in whole or in part) and, more importantly, to distribute your assets in accordance with the overall objectives of your estate plan. In this regard, you need to pay specific attention to the beneficiaries named in joint bank accounts, insurance policies, the way real estate (i.e. as a joint tenancy with a right of survivorship) is held, etc. Any lack of attention could result in one person receiving a lot more than you had intended to the detriment of someone else. Don’t forget, by the time a problem materializes with any of your probate avoidance mechanisms you may not be around to remedy it.

The most used method to avoid probate is a revocable living trust. Revocable living trusts avoid probate by transferring your assets from your own personal name to the name of a trust. Because the asset is not in your name at the time you die it will not form part of your probate estate and can therefore avoid probate altogether. Following your death, the successor trustee in charge of your living trust simply transfers the asset in accordance with the terms of your living trust.

How Can We Help You?

For more information on how to avoid probate, check out our book Make a Living Trust & Avoid Probate. It will guide you step-by-step through the matters you need to consider when making a living trust. You’ll learn all you need to know about living trusts, their advantages and disadvantages, the tax implications, the alternatives to living trusts and, of course, how to easily make your own. With detailed information, easy-to-follow instructions, helpful worksheets and all of the forms necessary, we show both individuals and couples how to avoid the otherwise inevitable delays and costs of probate by preparing a revocable living trust and using other simple probate avoidance strategies.

If you have already done your homework, and want to make a living trust now, you can jump straight to our Online Living Trust Software. You’ll be able to go through the entire process of making a living trust for free, and in less than 10 minutes. You only pay for your document if you wish to download it.

For more information on any of our products, contact our customer service team who are here to help you.

Who can Prepare a Living Will? Planning for Incapacity

In practice, there are not very many requirements that a person must fulfil before they become entitled to prepare a living will. In fact, the requirements that apply are pretty similar to the requirements that apply to anyone wishing to create a legally binding document.

To prepare a living will, a person must first be able to understand the purpose for which he is preparing the living will and the effect of the living will document he is about to sign. This is the same standard of mental capacity that applies to the making of wills and other contracts.

In order to ensure that a person has sufficient mental capacity to understand the import of the document he is signing, the state imposes minimum requirements on those who can prepare a living will. For example, the law generally requires that a person must first reach the age of 18 years before they can prepare a living will or other advance healthcare directive.

There are, however, two important exceptions to the above requirements. Firstly, in the states of Alabama and Nebraska a person must be at least 19 year old before they can prepare a living will. Secondly, Nebraska allows a person under the age of 19 years to prepare a living will if they are married.

Most good estate planning attorneys will recommend the inclusion of a living will in your estate plan. For more information on living wills and how to make them, check out some of the other living will articles on our site.

How Can EstateBee Help You?

For more information on living wills, read some of the other living will articles on our website.

Alternatively, if you would like to learn more about living wills, and healthcare powers of attorney, or even make your own, check out our Healthcare Power of Attorney & Living Will Kit. This legal kit contains all the information and ready-to-use lawyer prepared legal forms and documents necessary to create a combined Healthcare Power of Attorney and Living Will. It also contains all the forms necessary to revoke that document.

If you would like to prepare a living will online, then check out our Online Living Will Software. It allows you to make a bespoke living will online without the cost or need to engage a lawyer. You can make decisions on nutrition and hydration, pain relief, organ transplants, and much more.

If you have any queries about our products or services, please feel free to contact us.

Executor Fees: How Much Are Executors Paid for Administering an Estate

Executors fees are the fees payable to executors as compensation for probating and estate. The amount of executor fees can range from between 2% to 4% of the value of the estate or, in many cases, can be limited to ‘reasonable compensation’. As the amount which an executor can receive is set out under state law, this amount varies from state to state and also tends to decrease on a percentage basis as the size of the estate increases.

Remember also that as many executors are often relatives or close friends of the deceased they often do not charge executor fees for performing their duties as executor.

While executors get paid, they are generally unable to recover either executor fees for the provision of their services or reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses without the prior approval of the court. In circumstances where it materializes that the executor was incompetent or failed to carry out his or her duties and/or responsibilities as executor, the court may deny the payment of executor fees to the executor or reduce the amount which ought to be payable to the executor.

How Can We Help You?

For more information on executor fees and probating an estate, check out our book entitled How to Probate an Estate. It explores the process from the moment the deceased passes away right through to the distribution of assets. Items such as death certificates, autopsies, funeral planning and asset management are discussed at length. It will also show you how to initiate and close probate with ease, learn how to locate and manage estate assets, deal with creditors’ claims, taxes, and trusts, avoid the common mistakes made by many executors and much more….

If you have any questions or queries regarding our products or services, just contact our customer service team who would be delighted to assist you.

Use a Joint Revocable Living Trust to Avoid Probate

Many couples use a joint revocable living trust to avoid probate and to handle both their co-owned property and their separately held property. Here, both partners establish the joint revocable living trust and as such, both act as co-grantors and co-trustees of the joint revocable living trust. As co-grantors, each partner can nominate beneficiaries for their individual or separate property and for their portion of joint property. In addition, each partner can unilaterally call for the return of their assets to them and/or revoke the joint revocable living trust at any time. When the joint revocable living trust is revoked, the assets return to the parties that placed them in to the trust. Each partner retains full ownership and control of all their separate property as well as their share of the jointly owned property.

When one of the partners dies, the joint revocable living trust automatically splits into two separate trusts – we’ll call them the ‘first trust’ and the ‘second trust’. The deceased partner’s property and share of the joint property is automatically transferred in to the first trust. The terms of the first trust immediately become irrevocable which means the surviving partner cannot amend them in any way. Thereafter, the surviving partner in his/her capacity as successor trustee distributes the property in the first trust in accordance with the deceased partner’s wishes as set out in the revocable living trust Agreement. In many cases, the deceased partner will leave his or her assets to the surviving partner’s trust – the second trust.

All of the remaining trust assets are transferred to the second trust, which continues to exist as a stand-alone trust – similar to an individual trust. This trust is revocable by the surviving partner in the same way as an individual trust. When the surviving partner dies, the trust assets will be distributed in accordance with the terms of the trust in the usual way.

How Can EstateBee Help You?

For more information on revocable living trusts, read some of the other revocable living trust articles on our website.

If you would like to make a bespoke living trust for a couple, check out our Online Living Trust Software. It is one of the most advanced pieces of software on the market, and offers you bespoke provisions that cannot ordinarily be found in other online living trusts or in template documents.

Alternatively, if you would like more detailed information on living trusts and how they work, check out our book entitled Make Your Own Living Trust & Avoid Probate. You’ll learn all you need to know about living trusts, their advantages and disadvantages, the tax implications, the alternatives to living trusts and, of course, how to easily make your own.

If you have any queries about our products or services, please feel free to Contact Us.

Plan a Funeral and Save Your Family from Uncertainty & Tough Decisions

Unfortunately, as many of us have already experienced the death of someone close to us we already know what a painful and difficult experience it is. It is a time of deep emotional turbulence for children, parents, spouses and siblings. Often, they face not only the sudden shock of losing a loved one but also a sense of fear as they contemplate the future without their loved ones. It is a time when friends and family come together to support each other through a very difficult period. This is exactly why you should plan a funeral.

In such times, the focus is often not on the person that died but rather on the distraught relatives and friends that have been left behind. There are immediate concerns about who to notify, how to organize things and what to do generally. Whether it sounds morbid or not, issues such as organ donations, procurement of death certificates, purchasing of caskets, purchasing of grave plots, organization of funeral services, obituaries and more all need to be considered. Fortunately, if you take the time to plan a funeral you can ensure that your family and friends are not confronted with the unnecessary burden of having to consider and organize these matters. Believe it or not, if you take the time to plan a funeral in advance, it will be a valued and welcome final gift to your loved ones.

Once you have decided to plan a funeral, it is important to remember that funeral planning is a family matter and planning should therefore start at the home. Plans should be discussed and finalized in much the same way as any other family event. While the precise funeral plan you select is largely up to you to decide, the support of your family for that plan will ensure that it is smoothly implemented when the time comes.

The type of funeral plan that you make is entirely up to you – there are few restrictions on how you can plan a funeral of your own. Remember, there are as many ways to honor the dead as there are cultures, religions and budgets. Invariably, however, your plan will be largely influenced and guided by your faith and philosophy generally. All of these items will help determine whether you organize something simple like a private cremation or whether you opt for something more elaborate like a public ceremony and the full burial service. You may even opt to have your body retained at home for private visitations by close friends and relatives, in other instances the body may simply remain at the church until burial. The options are endless and in the end come down to personal choice. Whatever options you end up choosing, be sure they are based on what’s meaningful to you, not on what you think others would like or expect of you. After all, it will be part of your family’s final memories of you.

How Can EstateBee Help You?

For more information on how to plan a funeral, read some of the other funeral planning articles on our website.

Alternatively, check out our book entitled Funeral Planning Basics. Funeral Planning Basics is a comprehensive funeral planning book that will take you step-by-step through the entire process of planning and arranging your funeral. It will introduce you to issues such as organ donations, purchasing caskets, cremation, burial, funeral services and much more.

If you have any queries about our funeral planning products or services, please feel free to contact our customer service team.

Do You Need a Probate Lawyer to Help You Probate an Estate?

If the estate of the deceased is not overly complex and you are prepared to do some research as well as put in the time and effort necessary to probate the estate, then you should be able to complete the probate on your own accord without a probate lawyer. In fact, many people probate estates without engaging a probate lawyer. A large number also engage probate lawyers merely to watch over their shoulder as they go through the process.

However, because one little mistake could set an executor back months, most people tend to engage a probate lawyer for the purpose of assisting them with the probate process. An experienced probate lawyer will immediately know what needs to be done to probate an estate, will have come across pretty much every conceivable problem that could arise in the probate process and will be able to ensure that all the boxes are ticked and that there will be no unnecessary delays in the process arising from the executor’s inexperience.

If having read done all the necessary research, you feel confident enough to take on the process alone, you are perfectly free to do so. However, if you are in any doubt as to what needs to be done, whether before or during the process, we recommend that you contact a probate lawyer. A wrong decision or a misunderstanding on your part could cause major delays in the process, as well as exposing you to actions for negligence if the wrongdoing on your part causes a loss to the estate.

As such, while it’s not necessary to engage a probate lawyer, it can often be very beneficial in terms of ensuring a smooth and quick winding up of the estate and protecting you from allegations and claims of wrongdoings.

The final decision is of course yours to make!

How Can EstateBee Help You?

For more information on probating an estate, check our some of the other articles on our website.

Alternatively, for a more in-depth discussion on probate and executors’ duties, responsibilities and liabilities, check out our book How to Probate an Estate – A Step-By-Step Guide for Executors. This book explores the process from the moment the deceased passes away right through to the distribution of assets. Items such as death certificates, autopsies, funeral planning and asset management are discussed at length. It will show you how to initiate and close probate with ease, learn how to locate and manage estate assets, deal with creditors’ claims, taxes, and trusts, avoid the common mistakes made by many executors, and much more….

If you have any queries about our products or services, please feel free to contact us.

Archives: Articles

Special Needs Trust – How to Create One For Your Loved Ones

When is a Will Needed?

How to Amend a Will

How Long Does it Take an Executor to Probate an Estate

How to Avoid Probate, Reduce Costs and Eliminate Delays

Who can Prepare a Living Will? Planning for Incapacity

Executor Fees: How Much Are Executors Paid for Administering an Estate

Use a Joint Revocable Living Trust to Avoid Probate

Plan a Funeral and Save Your Family from Uncertainty & Tough Decisions

Do You Need a Probate Lawyer to Help You Probate an Estate?

Stay on top of the legal issues affecting your estate plan