Even if you’re still healthy you’ll need to think about who’s going to get your property and other assets after you pass away. You want to be able to give your loved ones a little something and you’d like to make it easy for them to get. This means avoiding probate court. However, if disputes between relatives arise in relation to the division of estate, the services of a probate lawyer may be required.
Being able to avoid probate will make it faster for your assets to be transferred and distributed to your loved ones. It’s also much cheaper to skip over it, Inheritance Advanced explains how long probate can take in case that you have any questions.
To help you in this endeavor, here are a few tips on how to avoid probate court and make things easier for your loved ones after you’re gone.
1. Write a Living Trust
Writing a living trust with the help of estate planning lawyers is a good alternative to making a last will. With a Living trust, your assets are placed in a trust and are managed by a trustee. It’s the perfect way of avoiding probate court because your things have already been distributed technically.
There is also an added cost with probating a will. Writing up a living trust will allow you to avoid them. You may hire a living trust lawyer to help you prepare and write a living trust.
2. Name Beneficiaries
Almost all of your assets allow you to name a payable on death beneficiary. Even that bank account you opened up when you were working your first burger-flipping job.
Your bank account isn’t the only thing you can put a payable on death beneficiary on. You can also add them to life insurance plans, 410K, stocks and bonds, IRA accounts, and pension plans. If you’re interested in going through with this method, you can go to your bank and pick up the forms. Just make sure to know all the details first which can be found on sites like https://www.babyboomers.com/article/ira-and-401k-what-s-the-difference-/5f0cae9ce4b0e9852b3ae2b3.
3. Joint Tendency With a Right of Survivorship
Are you and your spouse thinking about buying a home? If you do then you should consider owning it jointly. If you do then when one of you passes the property will go straight to the other one without having to go through probate at all.
Did you never take the plunge and get married? No worries this rule applies even if the two of you were never wed.
4. Give Away Property
You can avoid probate by giving your property away before you die as a gift. The biggest drawback to this is that if you decide to go this route, you won’t be able to use the property at all anymore.
Keep in mind that if the gift is worth over a certain amount they may have to pay some kind of taxes on it.
The Secret on How to Avoid Probate Court
When you pass on you want to make it as easy as possible for your loved ones to collect the assets that you’ve given to them. The best way to do that is to skip over probate court.
Use these tips on how to avoid probate court to help your family and friends get what’s owed to them as fast and cheap as possible.
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