Avoiding probate could be a great thing for your heirs or beneficiaries who stand to inherit after you pass on. After all, the probate process can be a very expensive and time-consuming process that requires your heirs or beneficiaries to go to court in order to facilitate the transfer of your money and property. 
Many people just assume that if they have assets they wish to pass on to loved ones, that they will have no choice but to allow their wealth to pass through probate. The reality is, this is simply not true. In fact, if you have a significant amount of wealth, avoiding probate could be especially important in your particular situation.
The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. can provide you with help understanding your options for avoiding probate and can assist you with taking steps to ensure that your heirs or beneficiaries don’t have to experience the cost or stress of probate court hearings after your death. To find out more about the assistance we can provide in helping you and your loved ones with probate avoidance, give us a call today.
Is Avoiding Probate Possible When You Have Money and Property to Pass On?
Avoiding probate when you have assets to pass on can be more complicated because New York requires probate when your estate is not classified as a “small estate.” Having real property (real estate) or more than $30,000 in assets can mean that your heirs or beneficiaries are required to go through the full probate process unless advanced plans have been made to prevent this from occurring.
The good news is, with help from The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C., it is possible to facilitate the transfer of most or all of your assets without those assets having to go through probate. However, this has to be done before you pass away. Once someone you love has died, if he or she has too many assets to be considered a small estate, avoiding probate won’t be possible.
The steps that are involved with avoiding probate involve using legal tools to arrange for money and property to pass through other means so they are not considered to be a part of the probate estate. For example, one very popular way to avoid probate is to create a living trust and to transfer assets into the trust. The assets that are held within the trust can pass through the trust administration process instead of through the probate process. This means all of this wealth won’t have to go through probate. You can maintain control over the assets you put into the trust during your lifetime by serving as the primary trustee, so you can put a lot of your assets into this trust to ensure they do not have to pass through probate.
You can also make use of other legal processes for transferring wealth outside of probate. For example, you could make inter vivos gifts, or gifts during your lifetime. You could use a family LLC to transfer ownership of assets over the course of time during your life. You could also arrange to own your property jointly with rights of survivorship so it would pass automatically to co-owners or you could arrange to transfer your wealth through the use of pay-on-death accounts that facilitate the automatic transfer of funds to new owners. The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. can help you to explore all of these solutions for transferring assets outside of probate.
Getting Help from Probate Lawyers
Probate lawyers at The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. can provide you with assistance if your loved one has passed away and wealth must pass through the probate process. We know the ins-and-outs of this process and will make it as simple, quick, and easy as possible — even though it is inherently stressful and time-consuming. We can take care of the legal issues for you to help ensure probate goes smoothly so you can keep costs as low as possible and transfer wealth as fast as possible to new owners.
We can also provide comprehensive assistance to those who are interested in avoiding probate so that an estate plan can be created that facilitates the transfer of assets through other means. To find out about the ways in which our firm can help you to avoid probate, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at 585-374-5210 or contact us online today.
Michael Robinson, Estate Planning Attorney
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