Taking care of a deceased person’s affairs is never easy. While making sure that you administer their will exactly as they want, Probate is one of the things that you will have to deal with. Probate is the entire process of administering a person’s estate that includes his will after he is dead. The work involves looking after their money, organizing their assets, and distributing them as inheritance after paying any debt that is in their name. The will that a deceased person has left behind includes a document that contains information about where the assets and possessions of the deceased will go. The deceased can communicate their wishes clearly in that document, like to whom they want to pass on their possessions and appoint a beneficiary. It can include possession of assets and also appoint guardians for minor children. A will often name an executor or administrator that is responsible for dealing with the estate after your death. This executor or administrator has to apply for a special legal authority; this is called probate. It is required before the administrators appointed can deal with an estate.
Why do you need probate?
Even though a will lays out all the details on how to distribute one’s estate and deal with other estate affairs, there is still the need for probate if you are named in the will to handle their estate affairs. If you start sharing out the estate and the will without getting probate, then that would be against the law. Depending on the size of the estate left behind, a probate is required for most aspects of estate administration. A probate is necessary if the deceased owned property, stocks, and shares in their name, money, or if the deceased had any legal proceedings for any disputed estate. In such cases, a presence of a will does not make any difference. The probate procedure is similar to whether there is a will or not and is based on the financial situation of the person who has died.
How can you get probate?
You can get a grant of representation. Probate is a legal document obtained from the court to prove that the executor has the legal authority to deal with the deceased person’s estate. There are different types of grants that you can obtain based on your circumstances. You can get probate only if you are named as an executor in the will. If the will is not present, you cannot get probate. However, there are other legal documents or grants that you can get depending on your case. You can get probate by contacting your local probate registry.
What do you do once you get probate?
Once you have received the grant for probate, you can get the legal responsibility to handle and manage the property left behind by the deceased. If you are named as an executor in someone’s will, you will need to get probate, and then you will be responsible for dealing with their estate. This involves finding the financial documents of the deceased and getting their money from organizations that hold their money by sending them a copy of their death certificate and the grant of probate so that they release funds. Freeze their bank accounts to keep their money safe and then get all the details of the money owned by the deceased and pay any taxes and debts they might owe. Collect the money from insurance companies, banks, and pension funds. And when all of this is done, the executor is responsible for distributing the estate to the beneficiaries of the will.
Probate in the presence of a will
A will is a complicated process, especially if the deceased has a large estate, if the will is not clear and if the deceased has named someone to execute the distribution of their estate. A probate becomes extremely necessary if there is a part of the estate that is under dispute and involves legal proceedings. Moreover, if the deceased has not named a beneficiary for some assets like retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and assets held in trust and any other organization that holds their money, it is not possible to distribute such assets without court supervision. For example, if a will has not named an executor will, someone close to them, a family member, or next of kin can apply for a probate and look after the estate and solve any complicated estate matters. Furthermore, if you are someone who has been appointed as an executor but you don’t want or are unable to take up this role, you don’t have to. You can just get another trusted family member to get probate from the court to take care of the estate.
When is probate not required?
However, there are ways in which you can avoid getting probated; firstly, if the deceased person has a small estate that includes no other assets except cash and other possessions like cars and jewelry. Such kinds of possessions are easy to transfer and distribute by the instructions of the will. However, in the case of a large estate, probate can be avoided if the deceased took care of it as a part of their estate planning so that the property can go directly to the beneficiaries. Some assets are held in joint tenancy by two or more people. In such cases, if one owner dies, the interest goes directly to the other owner, avoiding any need for probate. Some assets that can be held in joint tenancy include bank accounts, real estate, stocks and bonds, and vehicles. For any asset that does not have a joint tenancy, a probate is required to distribute it. Moreover, if you have named someone as the beneficiary for your assets in your will, then that asset can directly go to them without the need for probate. These include any retirement accounts, life insurance policies, trusts, and bank accounts with transfer-on-death designation. As long as the beneficiary is alive at the time of the death, the assets can directly be transferred to them. Any asset that has not been transferred to a beneficiary has to go through probate. Thus, a probate is required if the person has not made the necessary adjustments to the will and had not planned to avoid probate during estate planning. Even though there is a will available, it is still important that you get probate to legally distribute the estate fairly among the family so that the entire asset can be recovered.
