SaveWealth.com, the website of SaveWealth,LLC contains this headline and continues with the reasons why estate owners should want to avoid probate at any cost. Probate is the legal process where the executor of your estate goes to court and carries out the instructions of your will. However, the process also requires the executor to prove that you will is valid and legal, then follow specific steps identify and appraise the property, publicly record and report your personal information, and pay the lawyers various fees to complete the steps in accordance to the local process. So what is the problem? The process is lengthy, expensive and open to the public! Therefore, as this website suggests, probate should be avoided by anyone with an estate of $100,000 or more.

Are the fees really a problem? The fees can amount to as much as 5% of the estate's value. Thus, on a $500,000 estate, the fees could reach $25,000. Is that a high fee to follow your will and split up your estate? If you are like many, the answer is definitely yes. There are many tools that can be used to avoid probate, and several are relatively inexpensive. Living trusts are widely used. Living trusts create a legal entity so that any property owned by the trust can be transferred to your heirs according to the trust, without being touched by the courts.

I will cover Living Trusts in more detail in the next issue of the Blues & News. In the meantime, if you own an estate larger than $100,000, it would be well worth your time to seek out an estate planner and check out your alternatives. If you need references of estate planners, call us at Manges Realty, Inc.

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Thanks to SaveWealth, LLC and SaveWealth.com for probate and living trust info.