08 Monday Aug 2016
Posted in Planning Tips
Tags
Avoid Probate, Beneficiary, Designated Beneficiary, Estate Plan, Payable-On-Death Accounts, probate, Transfer-On-Death Accounts
When planning your estate, you may want to consider a strategy that will avoid probate in your estate plan. The probate process is time-consuming, expensive, and at times, contentious. So, to save money and spare your loved ones from the hassles of probate, avoid probate in your estate plan.
03 Wednesday Aug 2016
Posted in Estate
Tags
Belligerent Beneficiary, Beneficiary, Executor, Lawsuit, Personal Property, Power of Attorney, Safe Deposit Box, Will
In the initial stages of claiming the assets, everything was going well until I found out that the belligerent beneficiary (beneficiary) was the new owner of the safe deposit box (the box). As described in the article Opening the Safe Deposit Box of an Estate, the executor must follow a process to open a safe deposit box. So, as executor, I had to carry out the following tasks after the gruesome discovery:
25 Monday Jul 2016
Posted in Probate
Tags
Claiming Assets, Death Certificate, decedent, Executor, Inventory of Assets, Property, Safe Deposit Box
Opening the safe deposit box of an estate is conventional for an executor. Typically, people rent a safe deposit box to store valuable property. So, when a person dies, it’s normal to find a safe deposit box as part of their estate. As a result, the executor must open the safe deposit box to claim the property of the decedent.
19 Tuesday Jul 2016
Posted in Planning Tips
Tags
Administration Plan, Assets, Beneficiary, Details of the Estate, Executor, Expenses, Inventory of Assets, Will
Once approved as executor, the executor needs a coherent administration plan before closing the estate assets. Without such a plan, costly oversights occur as described in the article Understand the Details of the Estate.
13 Wednesday Jul 2016
Posted in Estate
Tags
Beneficiaries, Common Executor, Details of the Estate, estate, Estate Adminstration, Executor, Will
To have a smooth estate administration, it’s important for the executor to understand the details of the estate. In the article Understand the Task in Front of You, the article identified the steps needed to close an estate going through the formal probate process. However, it’s not enough to know just the steps. The executor must also know the details involved in those steps. Only then the executor can develop a coherent administration plan that will help close the estate smoothly.
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02 Saturday Jul 2016
Posted in Beneficiaries
Tags
Attorney, Belligerent Beneficiary, Beneficiaries, Beneficiary, Beneficiary Rights, Debts, Demanding Beneficiary, Estate Attorney, Executor, Final Accounting, Taxes
The belligerent beneficiary is a type of beneficiary that feels slighted by the estate. For whatever reason a beneficiary feels slighted, the beneficiary becomes belligerent by acting out towards the estate and the executor in any of the following ways:
Regardless of how a beneficiary behaves towards the estate, the executor must respect the rights of each beneficiary and treat them professionally, fairly, and, if necessary, firmly.
23 Thursday Jun 2016
Posted in Probate
Tags
Estate Adminstration, Executor, Executor Compensation, Executor Reimbursement, Executor Rights, Probate Court, Will
In settling an estate, executor rights are helpful to the executor. In general, the executor is responsible for managing the estate, paying off debts, paying taxes, and complying with the will in distributing property to beneficiaries. Furthermore, to make sure that the executor can do the job properly, the probate court grants the executor rights. The following is a list of executor rights granted by the probate court:
15 Wednesday Jun 2016
Posted in Beneficiaries
If an executor wants a smooth administration, communicating with the beneficiaries of an estate is essential. Because beneficiaries of an estate have rights, the executor must respect those rights and communicate with the beneficiaries regularly.
12 Sunday Jun 2016
Posted in Estate
The demanding beneficiary is the most frustrating type of beneficiary an executor deals with. A demanding beneficiary will try to extract more property from the estate than otherwise entitled. As executor, I dealt with a demanding beneficiary which started with a wish list for possessions soon after the funeral.
08 Wednesday Jun 2016
Posted in Estate
Tags
Certified Death Certificate, decedent, EIN number, estate account, Executor, Formal Probate Process, Letter of Authority, personal representative
In November 2012, my attorney informed me that the probate court approved me as executor of my Uncle’s estate. However, the attorney didn’t have the Letters of Authority for Personal Representative at the moment. So, the attorney told me that the letter will arrive in a couple of days. I couldn’t wait to get going on closing the estate. As noted in the article In the Interim, I had the estate organized and ready to administer. Consequently, the approval process took two months and time was ticking away. In Massachusetts, the formal probate process takes a year, and now I was down to ten months.