When you pass away, your family may need to sign certain documents as part of a probate process in order to claim their inheritance. This can happen if you own property (like a house, car, bank account, investment account, or other asset) in your name only and you have not completed a beneficiary, pay-on-death, or transfer-on-death designation. Although having a will is a good basic form of planning, a will does not avoid probate. Instead, a will simply lets you inform the probate court of your wishes—your loved ones still have to go through the probate process to make those wishes legal.
Now that you have an idea of why probate might be necessary, here are three key reasons why you may want to avoid probate, if at all possible.
1) It is all public record.
Almost everything that goes through the courts, including probate, becomes a matter of public record. This means that in order to properly wind up your affairs (i.e., pay your bills, file any remaining tax returns, and distribute your money and property to your chosen recipients), documents—including associated family and financial information—could become accessible through the probate court to anyone who wants to see them. This does not necessarily mean that account numbers and Social Security numbers will be made public, as the courts have at least taken some steps to reduce the risk of identity theft. But what it does mean is that the value of your accounts and property, creditor claims, the identities of your beneficiaries, contact information for your loved ones, and even any family disagreements that affect the distribution of your money and property may be publicly available. Most people prefer to keep this type of information private, and the best way to ensure discretion is to keep your affairs out of probate.
2) It can be expensive.
Thanks to court costs, attorney’s fees, executor fees, and other related expenses, the price tag for probate can easily reach into the thousands of dollars, even for small or simple matters. These costs can easily skyrocket into the tens of thousands or more if family disputes or creditor claims arise during the process. Your money and property should be going to your loved ones, but if it goes through probate, a significant portion could go to the courts and legal fees instead.
Of course, setting up an estate plan that avoids probate does have its own costs. Benjamin Franklin wrote, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Like the “ounce of prevention,” costs you incur now to put a plan in place are more easily controlled than uncertain costs in the future, especially when you consider that your loved ones may be making decisions while grieving. With proper planning, you can minimize the risk of costly conflict and also reduce or eliminate some costs; if there is no probate case, there will not be any probate filings fees or court costs.
3) It can take a long time.
While the time frame for probating an estate can vary widely by state and by the value, amount, and complexity of the deceased person’s accounts and property, probate is not generally a quick process. Probate will take at least four to six months. It is not unusual for probates, even seemingly simple ones, to take a year or more, during which time your beneficiaries may not have easy access to the money and property you intended to leave them. This delay can be especially difficult for loved ones experiencing hardship who might benefit from a faster, simpler process, such as the living trust administration process. Bypassing probate can significantly expedite the disbursement of money and property so that beneficiaries can benefit from their inheritance sooner.
If you have property located in multiple states, an ancillary probate process must be repeated in each state in which you hold property. This repetition can cost your loved ones even more time and money. The good news is that with proper trust-centered estate planning, you can avoid probate in all of the states, simplify the transfer of your financial legacy, and provide lifelong tax savings and asset protection to your family.
