The Probate Process, Step One: The Petition

After someone passes, family and friends often wonder what to do next. This series will examine the steps of probate from the opening of an estate to the closing. First, you must understand what probate is. Probate is the legal, court process of distributing a...

What to Do When an Executor Goes Rogue

In many cases, when someone dies, the appointed executor professionally handles the estate. However, in some cases, an executor goes rogue. It seems that sometimes, a death in the family brings out the worst in people, including resentment between heirs, including the...

The Priority of Claims in a Probate

Part of the probate process is paying the claims that are filed. Even if a creditor doesn’t file a claim, if the executor or personal representative knows about it, he or she must still pay that liability. The personal representative must know in which order to pay...

Secure Storage of Your Estate Plan

One of the key components of an Estate Plan is storing the original documents where they can be found and retrieved when needed. For Probate, an original Will is necessary and you may find you need an original Power of Attorney for some transactions. So, where do you...

Estate Sale- How does it work?

After someone passes, the Executor works on dividing the assets. Dividing assets is easy if they are liquid assets like bank or stock accounts. But what do you do with odd personal effects or all the “little stuff” in a home? More unique or specialty items, like...