For many people, one of the main goals of estate planning is to avoid probate or at least limit the amount of assets that must go through this time-consuming process. This often becomes a priority after someone oversees a loved one’s estate through the probate process, getting a front-row view of how long it takes and how it chips away at the estate’s value. If you are concerned about how the probate process may affect your loved ones, we can help you plan accordingly. Call Entz Burton & Associates at 405-773-9800 to set up a consultation with our Oklahoma City team.
The probate process serves a number of purposes, which can be helpful to remember when you’re stuck in the endless slog of paperwork and documentation. When someone dies with assets and debts, their debts must be reconciled before their beneficiaries can gain access to their assets. The probate process gives creditors a chance to make claims against the estate, beneficiaries a chance to locate and validate the will, and tax agencies the opportunity to square up any debts the decedent had with them.
Estate planning is not a one-size-fits-all process. Everyone has different goals, and a good attorney will understand that. If streamlining the probate process or avoiding it entirely is one of your main goals, we’ll work with you to make that happen. We may set up a revocable living trust to hold your assets, which would allow those assets to pass to the successor trustee upon your passing. Those assets can then be distributed without going through the probate process.
A strong estate plan will account for all possible hiccups in the process and have accommodations in place. This means ensuring that the will is legally valid and easy for beneficiaries to locate, keeping account information conveniently located for the executor to access, and maintaining a thorough list of debts that may need to be settled upon the decedent’s passing. The more work that is done in advance, the less work there is to do after the decedent’s death.
When choosing an executor for your estate, you’ll want to select one who can begin the probate process quickly and work through it efficiently. This isn’t the time to choose your chronically procrastinating beneficiary; the longer it takes to start the probate process, the more complicated it can become. You can also make the process easier for them by doing some of the work ahead of time. Maintaining information on your assets, debts, tax bills, creditors, and beneficiaries limits the amount of time your executor spends tracking this information down. Your estate planning attorney can help with this—remember, they’ve helped countless families wade through the probate process, so they’ll know what can make it run more smoothly.
There are situations in which probate is not necessary. If the decedent’s personal property outside of their real estate is less than $50,000, the beneficiaries can use a Small Estates Affidavit to avoid the probate process and save time. There are also other types of accounts and ownership options that can help you avoid probate. For example, pay-on-death bank accounts, transfer-on-death securities accounts, jointly owned property, and retirement accounts can pass seamlessly onto the named beneficiary after you pass away. It’s important to include these accounts and assets in your routine estate review. Look over the named beneficiaries on your life insurance policies, retirement accounts, and bank accounts to ensure that they will go to your chosen beneficiary.
There are many ways you can simplify the probate process or avoid it entirely, but it’s important to discuss your options with an Oklahoma estate planning lawyer. This is a complex area of law, and you don’t want to leave anything open to interpretation. If you make a mistake in your estate planning, there’s a good chance it won’t be discovered until after you pass—and at that point, you have no opportunity to clarify. When you work through the process with an estate planning attorney, you can avoid these uncertainties and protect your assets.
When you’re ready to review or start your estate plan, the team of estate planning lawyers in Oklahoma at Entz Burton & Associates is here to help. Set up a consultation now by calling us at 405-773-9800 or contacting us online.
J. Michael Entz is the Founding Partner at Entz Burton & Associates and was born on March 27, 1956, and grew up on a small farm and ranch near Hydro, Oklahoma. Michael lives in Hydro with his family and maintains law offices in Oklahoma City and Weatherford.Michael attended the University of Oklahoma College of Law where he obtained a Juris Doctorate degree, and also has received a Bachelor of Science degree from Oklahoma State University in Communications Consultancy. He has been practicing law in Oklahoma since October of 1987.Learn More About Entz Burton & AssociatesEntz Burton & Associates handles cases in Oklahoma City, and throughout the state of Oklahoma involving the following... View full business profile here: Entz Burton & Associates
