PROBATE LAW
For the very best real estate lawyer in Plantation, look no further.
Kadoch Law Group has been handling real estate transactions of all kinds since 2009. Whether a complex purchase or a basic sale, Kadoch Law Group has the tools to make your real estate transaction a smooth one. Our mission is centered around transparency and trust, the goals in any transactions.
What is Probate?
A few things in life are sure, death, taxes, and creditors! When someone dies the things they own, their bills, taxes, and debts do not disappear. To transfer title of ownership, pay creditors and settle other matters relating to a person’s estate requires probate.
Probate is a formal legal process that gives recognition to a last will and testament (if the decedent made one), marshalling and valuing the individual’s assets, paying their final bills, taxes, debts, and distributing the reminder of their estate to the rightful beneficiaries.
Many states have simplified or streamlined their probate processes over the years. When your heirs or beneficiaries fight the probate process can become very lengthy, expensive and in some cases may bankrupt the estate. In planning your estate, it is important to minimizing the real issues that can make probate difficult, such as the possibility of lawsuits by heirs and creditors.
Should You Avoid Probate?
Probate is a costly and lengthy process. A well-planned estate may “avoid probate.”
The living trust is often marketed as a vehicle that allows you to “avoid probate” upon your death. A living trust can almost never totally avoid probate, and a simple will is needed to “pour over” to the trust any property that has not been transferred to the trust during your lifetime.
Many types of property routinely pass outside of the probate process, even without establishing a living trust. Such property includes life insurance or retirement plan proceeds, which pass to a named beneficiary by designation rather than pursuant to your will, and real estate, bank, brokerage accounts held in joint names with right of survivorship.