Frederick J. Kramer
Attorney and Counselor at Law
Elder Law and Estate Planning
(516) 293-4747
Planning
today to secure tomorrow
Probate & Estate Administration
“Probate” means that your Will must be submitted
to the Surrogate’s Court in the county where you resided at death for the
Court’s approval. Probate of your Will is only required if you die owning any
assets in your name alone. Not all assets
a person dies owning passes through the Will, such as:
< Jointly held Assets
< IRAs with designated beneficiaries
< Life Insurance Policies with
designated beneficiaries
< 401(k) Plans with designated
beneficiaries
< “In Trust For” bank accounts
< Living Trusts (Revocable or Irrevocable)
Therefore
it is important to understand that notwithstanding what your Will may specify,
at death not all assets pass through it and those assets are not distributed in
accordance with its provisions.
Wealthier
individuals oftentimes seek ways to avoid the necessity of Probate because
probate can, depending upon family facts and circumstances, prove to be time
consuming, aggravating, and costly. The
estate attorney could appropriately charge a percentage of the gross probate
estate value for legal services.
Avoiding probate for many individuals is, therefore, a reasonable
objective if their estate planning goal is to minimize legal fees at death.
Trusts
are frequently used to avoid probate.
Assets funded into a trust during one’s lifetime are not owned in the
individual’s name at death and therefore avoid probate.
The information
presented at this site should not be construed to be formal legal advice nor
the formation of a lawyer/client relationship.
All website content ©
2005, Frederick J. Kramer, Esq.