Probate is a court process by which the decedent's assets are distributed.
Is probate bad? Not necessarily. Probate can provide a useful framework and list of tasks for the person in charge. This is helpful because little in this life prepares you for the process of shutting down someone else's life and all the steps that must be taken. If a state has adopted the uniform probate code, the court's oversight can be very involved ("supervised") or not ("unsupervised").
Does probate slow down getting assets to the beneficiaries? Sure, it could. But in my experience, the largest delay can come from entities who hold the money and that slow-walk the process of getting money to the estate. They send a form, you complete it and send it back, then they tell you sent them the wrong form. So you start over. They want a death certificate and you send it and they tell you they never received it. Etc., etc., over and over again.
I've also know probate to be useful when there's friction among beneficiaries or the potential for friction. Probate can provide the PR with a fallback explanation for everything s/he does, which can be useful.
Is probate bad? Not necessarily. Probate can provide a useful framework and list of tasks for the person in charge. This is helpful because little in this life prepares you for the process of shutting down someone else's life and all the steps that must be taken. If a state has adopted the uniform probate code, the court's oversight can be very involved ("supervised") or not ("unsupervised").
Does probate slow down getting assets to the beneficiaries? Sure, it could. But in my experience, the largest delay can come from entities who hold the money and that slow-walk the process of getting money to the estate. They send a form, you complete it and send it back, then they tell you sent them the wrong form. So you start over. They want a death certificate and you send it and they tell you they never received it. Etc., etc., over and over again.
I've also know probate to be useful when there's friction among beneficiaries or the potential for friction. Probate can provide the PR with a fallback explanation for everything s/he does, which can be useful.
Statistics: Posted by PoundCake — Tue Jun 25, 2024 7:29 am — Replies 1 — Views 257