With all the recent news about what will happen with estate taxes, the process of probate has come up quite a bit. Sometimes probate is mentioned in a low-key, matter-of-fact kind of way; at other times it is presented as something scary, and to be avoided at all costs. We know our readers have seen…
Serving as someone’s executor or personal representative is a HUGE job, and not for the faint of heart. Although it is commonly considered an honor, there is a lot of work involved, and an executor must have a great capacity for organization, attention to detail, meeting deadlines, and more. You may be tempted to name…
Probate: [from the Middle-English probat, from Latin probatum…] a : the action or process of proving before a competent judicial authority that a document offered for official recognition and registration as the last will and testament of a deceased person is genuine. b : the judicial determination of the validity of a will. This Merriam-Webster…
The movies have given people certain expectations when it comes to a death in the family and probating a will; this Hollywood portrayal includes an attorney, a book-lined office, and the entire family assembled for a formal reading of the will which ends in shocked gasps as the entire fortune goes to an unknown and…