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Written by : Thanh Wallis |
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hi this is mike coleman i'm an attorney at lance law and i'm just going to talk briefly today about wills and probate so i have people come into the office sometimes and they say to me well if i just sign a will or execute a will then i'm not going to have to go through probate or my heirs won't have to go through probate with my assets and that's not necessarily true really the the reason for probate is based on what the title to the asset is so for instance let's take a bank account a bank account can be titled in all different kinds of ways so you can have bank accounts titled in one person's name alone you could have a bank account held jointly with spouses or other co-owners maybe the bank account is in someone's name alone but with a beneficiary or perhaps it's in some kind of a trust so the answer to whether or not you're going to need to probate this bank account if something happens to the owner is based on how the account is titled so for instance if the account is in one person's name alone and they were to pass away there's no owner on that account anymore so someone has to go to the probate court and they have to petition the court to be appointed by the court as the executor of the estate and it can't nothing can happen until that that occurs uh the bank won't let anyone access the account unless they have that appointment from the probate court uh if it's a joint account with a married couple and one of them passes away then the surviving spouse becomes the owner of the account and it's the same situation if that spouse passes away then there's no owner on the account and then a probate would be needed in that situation so having a will with an executor and beneficiaries doesn't avoid probate it's good to have that to make sure that someone's in charge of your estate and that you know where your assets are gonna go but it doesn't necessarily mean that you're gonna avoid probate so if you'd like to talk about this more with me or someone else here at lance law you can give us a call at 508-998-8800 or if you want to learn more about this maybe you can visit the website at lancelawinc.com alright take care
Thanks for your comment Venetta Hopewell, have a nice day.
- Thanh Wallis, Staff Member
do I really need to go through probate estimate experienced estate planning attorneys we focus our practice on keeping families out of court and I don't just mean fighting I mean out of probate court altogether we utilize planning techniques and help you avoid the probate process completely because we think the decisions are best made in your family room or your living room or your dining room but not a courtroom because the decisions are best made by you however if you don't do any planning or if you're planning wasn't done in such a way that you don't avoid probate you're going to be there whether you want to be there or not and then you're going to be faced with the time that it takes to do that you'll be faced with the judge and you don't know making decisions on your behalf you'll be faced with the fact that it's a common process and you're gonna have to put everything out there either in the newspapers we public record from people to come and see and you're going to be making decisions or being decisions are going to be made for you in a courtroom not your living room you
Thanks UtdaagjeC your participation is very much appreciated
- Thanh Wallis
About the author
I've studied near eastern archaeology at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting and I am an expert in cultural studies. I usually feel smart. My previous job was athletic trainer I held this position for 10 years, I love talking about wargaming and racing. Huge fan of Bill Smitrovich I practice snorkeling and collect artist trading cards.
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