Estate debts and avoiding probate

[gretah]

I just finished reading
8 Ways to Avoid Probate
published by Nolo Press - a self help legal book and software company.

http://www.amazon.com/Ways-Avoid-Pr...52024&sr=8-1&keywords=8+ways+to+avoid+probate

Very simple and direct wording. The authoress makes use of lots of illustrative stories so I could easily understand how various tools and strategies could be put in place. I was very impressed.

I got it from the library. It's on my Kindle wish list.

 

[Meadbh]

It seems death can bring out the worst in people.....and baboons.

Game of baboons: Violent war for dominance breaks out at Toronto Zoo after alpha female dies

 

[frugal-one]

That's what a living trust is used for. Find yourself an estate planning attorney...it's worth the money to set it up properly.


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Not all estates need a living trust. We have one child and everything is going to him. In my state, we can put the house title to pass to our child when we both die ... avoiding probate. The cost here was $30. As you did, we put all paid on death (POD) and transfer on death (TOD) for banking and investments. The will should indicate that all bills should be paid (and by whom). In some states (not ours), vehicles can also be set up to go directly to heir and avoid probate. What else is left? In this case, there is no need for a living trust since everything avoids probate.

 

[Dog]

Just finished up handling my mother's estate and affairs. She didn't have a lot to leave behind, but enough to go through probate including a $100k life insurance annuity that was left to the estate. We just filed the Declaration of Completion so in about 20 days everything is final and I will no longer be responsible. This took longer than expected due to her timeshares. She had two in Mexico (those were fairly easy to return), an in-state timeshare (easy to return) and two out of state Wyndham timeshares. The two Wyndham timeshares took the most time, effort, expense and frustration.
If you own timeshares, please sure review your contracts and check with family before assuming they want to inherit. No one in our family was interested in picking up the timeshares due to the associated maintenance costs and difficulty in getting out of a contract.
DH and I will go to dinner to celebrate the final closing of the estate!


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[Souschef]

Living trust

Years ago, we put all our assets into a living trust, because the value of our house in CA was so high, and the limit for estate tax at the time was $1Mil.
We had set up an AB trust, and half the assets went into her side.
The laws changed, raising the limit, but my wife passed away before I could change anything.
It took 10 years to get the trust down to where I could dissolve it. Everything now is in TOD accounts, avoiding probate.