If you have agreed to serve as the executor over someone’s estate, there are numerous duties you will have to perform. While each state has its own probate laws that direct how executors must act, here are several of the main duties that you are likely to encounter as you go about the probate process.

Collect the assets.

The estate settlement process is all about getting a deceased person’s property to new owners. To begin this process you will have to account for every piece of property the decedent owned. This includes real estate and personal property, as well as investments and other probate assets.

Manage the property.

Probate can take a long time, and during that time it is the executor’s responsibility to manage the property until it can be distributed to new owners. You might, for example, have to make mortgage payments on the deceased person’s home, as well as ensure that regular maintenance and upkeep is performed so the assets do not depreciate in value.

File the will.

It is generally the executor’s responsibility to find the deceased person’s last will and testament and file it with the local probate courts. While probate is not always required in every case, you may have to file the will with the probate court regardless.

Pay the bills.

Executors have to pay any estate creditors with estate property. So, if the deceased person left behind, for example, credit card debt, you will have to ensure that it is paid with estate funds.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

A story out of Jacksonville, Florida highlights some of the problems that can occur if you don’t take the time to adequately address estate planning issues. Julia Bolena, a widow who would have been married to her husband for 53 years, recently tried to access her deceased husband’s Wells Fargo savings account. Even though she and her husband had been married for half a century and she was listed as a joint account holder on her deceased husband’s checking account, the bank prevented her from accessing the funds in the savings account.

Apparently, Bolena was not listed as a joint account holder on the savings account, nor was she listed as a transfer on death beneficiary. She was also not given financial power of attorney or listed as executor over her deceased husband’s estate.

Further complicating matters, Bolena contacted a local Florida probate court and asked what she could do. The court clerk informed her that it would cost her $250 to obtain a letter that would allow her to transfer the savings account funds. However, there is only $273 in the account, and Wells Fargo continues to charge a small inactivity fee each month.

Bolena is a retiree who lives on fixed income, and the $275 could help her greatly. Unfortunately, she does not appear to have an easy way to access the funds. Had she been listed as estate executor in her deceased husband’s will, been included as a joint account holder on the savings account, or listed as a beneficiary, the problem could have been easily avoided.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

A lot of people creating an estate plan choose to create a revocable living trust primarily because the trust allows them to minimize the size of their probate estate. But what is a probate estate, and why would you want to minimize it? Here’s what you need to know about probate, probate estates, and how living trusts enter into the equation.

The Property You Leave Behind

Everything you own after you die must go to new owners. The probate process is the legal process that allows this property transfer to happen. Once all of your property has been inventoried and all of your debts have been paid, the remaining property will go to your heirs. This process can take quite a long time and, because someone has to manage the process, can cost a significant amount of money.

The Property in Probate

While all of your property will have to be transferred to new owners, not all of it will have to go through probate. Property that you own jointly with someone else, property that has named beneficiaries, and property that is owned by a revocable living trust can avoid the probate process.

Transferring Through a Trust

Whenever you create a revocable living trust, you can transfer all of your property to it and then choose how the trust will distribute that property after you die. This process completely avoids probate, making it far more efficient and cost-effective than the regular probate process. Living trusts also make this process private, whereas the probate process is open to the public.

If you’d like to know more about probate and other legacy wealth planning issues, you can attend our next free Legacy Wealth Planning Seminar. Seating is limited, so contact our office for registration details.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Question 1: What is small estate administration?

An estate is all the property a person leaves behind after he or she dies, and estate administration is the process through which that property is transferred to new owners in accordance with New York law. Probate is the set of laws that governs the estate administration process, and these laws allow for an expedited administration process often known as small estate administration. Through small estate administration the family members of a deceased person can more quickly and easily transfer that person’s property to new owners.

Question 2: What qualifies as a small estate?

New York law says that any estate valued at $30,000 or less qualifies as a small estate. However, that $30,000 amount does not include specific types of property, such as some domestic animals, family pictures and personal items, a personal car, as well as personal computers, electronic devices, musical instruments and other personal items not exceeding the value of $10,000. There are other specific assets that are not covered under the $30,000 limit, so you should speak to a probate lawyer for more details.

Question 3: Is there anything that will disqualify me from using small estate administration?

Yes. If the decedent—the person who has died—owned real estate, that may disqualify you from using the small estate probate procedure. If the person owned property as a joint tenant you can still use small estate probate, but if the decedent owned property only in his or her own name you must go through the formal probate.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

If you are ever asked to serve as an executor in New York, you should view this question as an indication the person asking you trusts you very much. Your job as executor will be to manage the property that person leaves behind after he or she dies.  And while the probate process in New York can be somewhat daunting, you should understand that there are some new problems you might have to face that executors in the past rarely had to deal with.

For identity thieves, stealing someone’s personal information is a way for them to obtain a financial advantage. Many of these thieves have recently been stealing the identities of deceased people in order to open fraudulent accounts or obtain other benefits.

According to one recent report, over 2 million deceased people had their identities stolen last year by identity thieves. Many of these thieves used the decedent’s personal information to open new credit cards and make fraudulent purchases.  After doing so, it often falls to the executor to have to sort out the problems left behind by the thieves.

Part of your duty as executor is to keep meticulous records, a task that will come in very handy if the estate is ever subjected to identity theft. You should always be prepared to contest any claim from a creditor that appears to have resulted from a fraudulently opened account. Additionally, notifying all relevant government agencies that the decedent has died is essential.

Of course, people unfamiliar with the probate process will want to speak to a probate attorney as soon as you learn that you have been nominated as executor.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

The first step in deciding to make an estate plan isn’t necessarily calling up the first lawyer you find on the Internet and asking him or her to help you create a plan. The attorney you select should be someone with whom you feel comfortable, especially when you consider that the estate planning process will often require you to think about some fairly personal issues. To find the attorney that best suits you, your needs, and your individual circumstances, you should develop a plan. Here’s what you can do.

Step 1: Make a list of lawyers.

You should find a number of attorneys in your area who have experience with estate planning issues. Call their offices and schedule a meeting where you can go in and speak to the attorney in person.

Step 2: Make a list of questions.

The attorney should be willing to answer questions you have, but don’t expect lengthy advice about your legal situation. The questions you should ask include such topics as how the attorney works, what you will be expected to do, and, of course, how much you can expect pay.

Step 3: Take notes.

After meeting with each lawyer you should write down notes about how you felt about the interaction. Would the lawyer be someone with whom you feel comfortable enough to discuss personal issues? If not, perhaps you need to look elsewhere.

On the other hand, if you feel comfortable with someone, you should go ahead and plan another meeting so you can get started on creating your plan as soon as possible.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

An estate is the collection of property a person leaves behind after death. Estates include both assets, such as real estate or bank accounts, as well as debts and other liabilities. The legal process that governs estates is called probate, and each state has its own set of probate laws. If you want to find out about an estate that has been submitted to probate there are several possible ways to do this.

Contact the Estate Administrator

Every time someone dies someone else has to open a probate case before the estate property can be distributed. This person is known as an estate administrator, sometimes called an executor or personal representative. It is the administrator’s job to go about collecting estate property, contacting would be inheritors, as well as notifying creditors that the estate has been opened. If you know who the estate administrator is you can typically contact his or her office and ask about the estate.

Search the Public Record

Probate cases are civil cases and are open to public inspection. Once an estate has been opened it will usually be accompanied by a notification published in a local newspaper of record. Also, the county courthouse will maintain open records and allow you to inspect the documents that have been filed in the case.

Contact a Probate Lawyer

A lot of people simply don’t have the time to research estates, and hiring your own probate lawyer to do the research for you can save you a lot of headaches.  A good probate lawyer will be able to quickly find out information about the case, some which may not be readily discoverable by people who are unfamiliar with the probate process.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

You may not have known this, but Sherman Hemsley, the actor who played George Jefferson on “The Jeffersons,” the TV sitcom that aired from 1975 – 1985 and was nominated for eight Golden Globe awards, died in July from lung cancer and, because of intra-family disputes over his will, his body was kept in refrigerated storage for five months.

78-year-old Richard Thornton, the recently verified half-brother of Mr. Hemsley, had contested the validity of Hemsley’s will, claiming that he was not of sound mind when he signed the document. The will stated that Hemsley wanted all of his possessions to pass to his longtime friend and manager, Flora Enchinton Bernal, who was also named as the executor of the estate. But Judge Patricia B. Chew, who presided over the dispute, sided with Ms. Bernal in November and upheld the terms of the contested will.

Even though Thornton’s daughter claimed that her father wasn’t after Hemsley’s estate, estimated to be worth more than $50,000, Thornton does demonstrate how virtually unknown relatives can suddenly appear to contest the will of the recently deceased. While it is true that Thornton was not unknown, he does admit that the two did not call each other or exchange Christmas cards, but that Hemsley did publicly acknowledge him once. This sole acknowledgment occurred at a New Jersey concert in 2011.

Because Judge Chew upheld the terms of Hemsley’s will it seems that the actor will not be moving up to the Eastside, and will instead be buried at a military cemetery in Texas.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

As a general rule of thumb, you need to review your estate plan any time you experience a major life event or a change in circumstances. One of these key life events, moving to a new state, should prompt you to review at least your last will and testament, if not everything else. There are both practical and legal concerns you will need to consider if you created a will in a different state and have since moved to a new one.

Issue 1: Where are your representatives?

As part of creating a will you must sign the document and have it signed by two witnesses. If you made a self-proving will, there is no need for your witnesses to be located close to you when the time comes to present your will to the probate court. However, if your will is not self-proven and those witnesses are now far away from your current location, this can make it difficult for the probate court to call them in to testify about the validity of your signature. If your witnesses are unable to testify, the court will be unable to validate your will.

Issue 2: Did you make a handwritten will?

Even though handwritten wills, also called holographic wills, are relatively rare, some states do allow for them. Unfortunately, the state you move to may not be one of those states, and it may not have to accept your will as valid. In general, a printed will is valid no matter the state you created it in, but handwritten wills are only valid in a minority of states.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

When we die, the estate that we leave behind goes through a process known as probate. It is during this process that any outstanding debts one may have owed will have a chance to be satisfied from his or her estate. In other words, the executor of an estate (i.e., the person responsible for “wrapping up one’s estate”) has a duty to try and take care of any outstanding debts, but, in order to do so, the executor or must have notice of that outstanding debt.

1. How do I let the executor know I’m owed money?

After a person dies the executor of that estate, or the probate court having  jurisdiction over the matter, will issue a Notice to File Claims – also known as a Notice to Creditors – in some sort of publication, usually a local newspaper.

2. Is this approach the same in every state?

No, the law surrounding probate varies from state to state, so be sure you know what that law is in your jurisdiction. While some jurisdictions only require the Notice to be published in a newspaper, others allow for such a Notice to be mailed directly to known creditors. Still other jurisdictions, such as New York, do not require any notice to be given to a creditor. The reason for this is that the New York assumes that creditors exercising due diligence will inform the executor of the claim via their standard collection methods; once informed, the executor has a legal duty to try to satisfy the debt.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.