It’s easy to create a plan to pass financial accounts directly to heirs before you die and avoid the probate process after death. All you have to do is complete a form from your financial institution ...

Unless your loved one puts their estate into a living trust or similar legal arrangement, the fact of the matter is that their assets will likely need to pass through probate when they die. Probate is ...

Probate is the court-supervised process of validating a person’s will after they die. The process includes locating the deceased's remaining assets, settling outstanding debts and allocating the ...

When someone passes away and their property is not in a trust, these assets must typically go through probate. Probate is a court-supervised process that can delay distribution, increase costs and ...

Probate is the legal process of proving the validity of someone’s will. So, that means when a property is in probate, there are various legal maneuvers that the inheritors of the property, the ...

When someone dies, particularly if there’s no will, property sales and the disposal of all of their other assets are handled by a probate court, whose mandate is to get the highest possible prices.

The California Court of Appeals decision in Ukkestad v. RBS Asset Finance, Inc., issued on March 16, 2015, may provide a way to fund a revocable trust that’s as easy as 1, 2 . . . (see below). The ...

Q: I enjoyed reading your recent article on the differences between using a will and a quitclaim deed in order to pass property to heirs or family members. I'm writing to ask about my 91-year-old ...

Probate is the process of proving a will left by an individual. The individual is called a decedent in the legal language of probate administration and estate planning. The decedent is the deceased ...