Probate and how it can be avoided
Staying clear of probate troubles can only be done with correct and timely estate plan. The financial and probate needs of your family are unique and can only be established through documents related to estate planning. Estate planning is a method of making several important decisions and preparations for your and your loved ones ‘future.
Specifically, estate plans are concerned with what happens to your assets, whether you are alive or well or dead, how you want to share your assets with relatives, children or partners, who take on the responsibility of making such important decisions for you in cases of mental incapacity and, lastly, the transfer of ownership. These plans can only be presented, documented and implemented in wills, living trust, revocable or irrevocable trust, advance medical directives and, lastly, attorney’s financial power (power of attorney).
Nevertheless, probate is a method where a will is proven to be valid and true enough to be accepted and executed in a law court. Nonetheless, the process will lead you through a long, lengthy battle and it takes a probate lawyer to direct you through this whole cycle of probation.
Probate follows a legal process where your last Will is verified in a probate court, before distribution of your assets and properties according to the will. Depending on some factors — such as the state laws binding your locality — the probate process can be quite complex and demanding.
The probate process of a Will
In every state or region, there will be a Surrogate’s court and New Jersey is no different. This is the court where Probation of a Will is conducted. Probate Law process varies across the different states in the country. The Probate Law is guided by the Estates, Power and Trust Law (EPTL), and the Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act (SCPA).
Last will are always faced with probate before they can be implemented. When you pass away, your family is faced with the challenge of managing and sharing your assets among themselves. This is a delicate, emotional and trying time, when they will be faced with a lot of decisions to make. Leaving them without a Will–a valid one–will make things even more difficult for them. Probate in itself is the legal process of determining the validity of a will before its contents are carried out. Not all Wills are valid. A will may be contested. When one or more parties feel that the deceased was forced into signing the will, or that they are being cheated out of their inheritance, such party may issue out a petition of contest of will.
In the absence of a valid Last Will prior to the death of the decedent, such situation is remedied by the State’s intestacy laws. This law varies from state to state, as a Probate lawyer will explain, and it involves different complex processes. Albeit, whether the estate is being probated or subjected to intestacy, the Surrogate Court demands provision of detailed information about the next of kin as well as the monetary worth of the assets.
Contact the best lawyers in New Jersey today
Our probate lawyer would readily provide the key information and assistance you need with any probate or estate plans issues. They would help you plan your estate to avoid any form of court contest or probate and likewise also ensure you don’t walk through probate process alone.
The following is what the probate lawyer would do for you:
Writing and documenting your Wills
Our probate lawyers can help in writing your wills according to the New Jersey state laws. State laws rules over what can be included in estate plan documents such as will. They regulate the documenting process of will as well as the formalities through which a will can be implemented. It is thus advised that you plan consult with a probate lawyer near you today. Further, the probate lawyers would evaluate your estate. While planning your estate, it is expected that you evaluate your assets and properties. With the help of the probate lawyer, you can start planning your estate.
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 will have to be paid before the remnant is distributed to every beneficiary. If the value of the estate doesn’t suffice to be shared according to the will, then the beneficiaries wouldn’t get what the decedent intended them to have.
Estate planning and documentation
Our lawyers would effortlessly prepare other estate planning documents such as living trust, power of attorney and advance medical directives. With living trust, you can decide who takes over plans of your estate, make financial decisions over your assets both while you are alive or dead as well as when you become mentally incapacitated.
Contact the probate lawyer 07652 closest to you today.
