Probate is the legal process for distributing the assets and property of someone who died. If the deceased (called the “decedent” in legal settings) left a will, the probate court will validate the document and appoint an executor to distribute the decedent’s property to beneficiaries and pa...
Often those looking for a bank account number are doing soafter someone has died. This gets a little trickier since banks are instructed to only give this information to those on the account. If you can't find the information in the deceased's records, you'll need to take a certified co...
Judges are involved in divorce to apply laws that pertain to the division of assets and care of children. In the majority of cases, they simply look over your divorce papers (settlement agreement) and approve them. Keep your divorce records even after the process is over. These will be ...
Here’s a look at the pros and cons of each:3 Living trust Pros: Allows you to designate a trustee to manage the assets you put in the trust should you be unable to do so If it’s an irrevocable trust, the assets are protected from estate taxes and from creditors. Avoid probate, ...
Title-holding trusts are used as a way for property owners to maintain anonymity and keep valuable assets out of probate. They can also provide a number of other estate-planning benefits andprotect assets from judgmentsor liens. This can be especially useful for the very wealthy, celebrities, ...
Failure to name beneficiaries in a will can tie up your property inprobate, potentially for years. It can leave the decision about how to distribute your assets up to the state in which you live. In either case, the people for whom you wanted to provide financial support after your death...
Before you draft your own will, however, you should be sure that you can effectively dispose of your property the way you want without any legal issues complicating the probate of your estate. If you have a relatively small and simple estate, want to dispose of your property to specific peo...
accepts the will for probate, the document becomes accessible to the public. Although wills arepublic records, they are not always easy to locate. In California, the wills of smaller estates may be difficult to find because estates less than $150,000 can be settled outside of probate court....
So the solution to that is you look at the body of the deed. A lot of deeds will say where the person lived and then you just have to go to that county and see if you can find some probate records. back in the day, people didn't move as much as they do now. So it's not...
Older records can only be found by calling the county's general information line and inquiring with the probate division's file counter. Callers will need to have the name of the person and know their date of death to help make the search easier. The court clerk's office can look up se...