Proper estate plans prevent probate.
Estate planning is a process of making many important decisions and plans over your future and that of your loved ones. Specifically, estate plans concern what happens to your assets both. At the same time, whether you are alive and well or dead, how do you want to share your support to family, children, or spouse, who takes over making certain important decisions for you in cases of mental incapability and transfer of ownership?
Planning now for the future with an estate lawyer would never be regretted. Preparing for the future over your financial and medical affairs would save you and your loved ones a lot of stress and trouble. However, one wrong document, inclusion, or signatory could mean or signal a whole different thing. It may jeopardize your well-being or put your estates at risk of loss and probate with the beneficiary or trustee not getting it.
It is also important to note that state laws rule over estate plans. Although they dictate what should be included in the will, trust, or power of an attorney, these state laws in Orange County, also regulate how the documents are filed and their implementation. This emphasizes the un-denying importance of an estate lawyer and a probate attorney in Orange County.
The estate plan document includes:
Last will
A will-based estate plan contains detailed instructions on how your property should be shared after you die. If you have minor children, it includes a provision for appointing a guardian for your children.
Trust
Trust is essential when planning your estate. Through trust, you can have anyone whom you solely desire manage and make financial decisions over your assets both. At the same time, you are alive or dead as well as when you become mentally incapacitated.
Advance medical directive
Through an advance medical directive, also known as medical power of attorney, you can designate a health agent to make medical decisions when you cannot do so. This same document could be filed in court should someone need to be your guardian or conservator.
Financial power of attorney
Through this, you can protect your finances and assets through the financial power of attorney. This document allows you to delegate to the person of your choice the ability to manage your assets and make critical decisions should you become mentally incapable.
Probate Process
Probate is the court settlement of a Will or estate. It is a process in which a will is proved in a law court to see if they are valid and accurate enough to be approved and implemented. The process could, however, be a long rigorous battle, and it takes a probate attorney in Orange County to guide you through this entire probate process.
Probate follows a legal process where your estate plans or last Will is verified in a probate court before distribution of your assets and properties according to the will.
All the steps involved in probating an estate depend on the probate laws where the decedent lived at the time of death and any other state where the deceased owned properties. Also, the steps required for settling an estate Will differ based on whether the decedent died testate, with an appropriate and valid last will. If peradventure, the decedent died intestate, without a good last Will, then the court will use a different approach to probate.
Why You Need a Probate attorney
As A Beneficiary
A Probate lawyer can be hired by the beneficiary of a will to offer advice and guidance in legal matters presented to them by the executor of the will. This may happen if the beneficiary and executor are not very familiar with each other. For example, the executor may need to prove that the deceased did not sign the will under duress, most likely in the hands of the purported beneficiary. If you’re the beneficiary, then there is a need to hire a Probate attorney in Nassau for legal guidance as the will must have to pass through validation (probate) in a law court.
Payment of estate debts, bills, and expenses. This is important as each and every asset must be accounted for and the monetary worth of the estate established. Out of these assets, bills, taxes, and debts must be paid before the remnant is distributed to every beneficiary.
As An Elderly, Preparing for the Inevitable and making estate plans
Probate–is the legal process by which your estate and assets are distributed in the event of your passing away–is a tedious process. Your assets must first be evaluated to see if they’re worth spreading according to the statement of your will, just as much as your debts need to be paid.
Prepare other estate planning documents such as living trust, power of attorney, and advance medical directives. With a living trust, you can decide who takes over plans of your estate and make financial decisions over your assets while you are alive or dead and when you become mentally incapacitated.