Considering the engagement of various parties connected to the estate and the will itself, probate has its image as one of the scariest and most complicated parts in managing the testator’s assets. However, it might be much easier if you take a careful grasp of the four-step approach to perform a probate that we would like to propose as below.
Step 1: Petition to the Court & Announcement to heirs and beneficiaries
This task is fundamentally to initiate the whole process with its result of either the will probate admission and executor appointment stated in the will or the nomination of an estate administrator in the absence of a will.
In this process, attempts are also made to notify heirs, beneficiaries and related creditors of the decedent about the will petition to attend the court hearing.
Step 2: Notice to creditors and estate stock take
As the assets might be credited to various external parties, they should be informed by executors or estate administrators appointed in the court before the inventory stock take of the estate property
In short, this step includes two key tasks:
- Notice is in written form delivered to known creditors according to state law
- Stock take of probate properties includes both cash and non-cash assets such as real property, stocks, bonds, business interests, intellectual properties.
In this task, an appraiser can be hired by the estate or appointed by the court to support appraising these assets
Step 3: Funeral expenses, Debts and Taxes Management
In common sense, these obligations will be directly extracted from the estate.
Legitimate claims of creditors are defined by executor and final bills are settled from the estate. In case of insufficient funds to net off these costs, the executor is permitted to sell the assets.
Step 4: The transfer of property’s legal title
This step basically finalizes the process of probate, in which all approved claims are solved, bills are paid, obligations are satisfied and ultimately remaining assets are distributed to
beneficiaries.
Kindly note that: In the event of no executor nominated or no will from decedents, the court will appoint an estate administrator to function as an executor.
