Potential Probate Issues and Avoiding Them

The events that take place during probate might not fuel your campfire ghost stories, and it’s not likely that most spirits return to correct their estate planning documents. That said, if you’re looking to not wind up with your own probate law horror story, perhaps this article will offer some advice on how to make things right.

There might be a handful of issues you might run into. Not having a valid will or any will to begin with might be an unavoidable circumstance, someone might get greedy, and the assets might not be so neatly sorted. So, here’s hoping for better days and less problems.

Probate Inventory

Unless the deceased left proper records of how much they owed and owned, you may have found it hard to find all that they owned and what remains to be paid. This problem could have been partly or mostly solved by the deceased leaving a rather qualitative will. What you can do, regardless of a will being there or not, is gather qualitative records now. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and they may help prove that certain items were once inside the deceased’s home. Take pictures now if they’re not already on your person. Maintain copies of the estate planning documents as well.

When working on the inventory, you may be well aware that you need to check most items for their worth. That may sound like an optional part, but if some items aren’t checked that should have been, that will further lengthen the process. You don’t want to have to apologize for promising or giving assets that should have been sold off to pay debts. Don’t forgo checking the debts either. You’ll need to know how much is actually owed to know how much can be kept.

Greed Sets In

There’s the chance that someone can get a part of the estate, and certain laws may help sections to be kept by the surviving spouse. When looking at and implementing those, nevertheless, consider the ramifications seriously. You should be willing to tell the court everything that you’ve done and not bring any sense of guilt. Items which are under your title or have transferred outside of probate are some examples of the stuff that you don’t need to worry about. It’s the objects that didn’t escape probate which may cause concern may set in.

Don’t humor anyone who says that any items have been gifted to them if they fail to provide serious evidence. The will may state that they’re to inherit the given item, but the will probably won’t allow anyone to get a cent until this process has been completed. Sure, the will could be deemed to be valid by the court and be the one that the deceased crafted. That’s not the concern. The concern is that someone may not want to finish things and give everyone a chance to inherit in light of the remaining debts. Who has priority over the inheritance should probably be discussed and settled later on.

Minnesota Wills and Probate

Sometimes less really is more. This stands true if you’re looking at which will is going to be used or should have been used in the probate case. You may want to think that you could piece together several handwritten wills to create one large will, but such a thought doesn’t take into account all of the contradictions a given will may possess or the concern of proving such documents as valid. The issue may not lie in the validity in any will while you may find that the compatibility the will and reality raises continual issues. What’s written on paper may only be theory to what can actually be done.

Be wary also about other interested parties getting wind of any other wills when there could be ones that are false or potentially problematic. You still want to be honest and probably bring these to the court’s attention. You must not, moreover, let others try to hide some of the wills and try to skip over ones that could have otherwise proved legitimate. Legal battles over estates are a real possibility that can draw things out and increase the overall cost. These aren’t always simple spats as one fight could divide your family and the estate’s value.

Lack of Proof

The following could technically happen when there’s no will or when the will is being contested, and you shouldn’t be surprised if the family wants to fight over an estate that has a will tied to it. When there’s malice involved, things might get rather heated and nasty. While in the previous section there was concern over what can happen when there are too many wills, not having any will can lead to everyone trying to lay claim to the estate or make false statements about how things should be handled. And going back to the concern over greed setting in, you might have trouble rebuking them if they have proof and you don’t.

You might have heard this a thousand times, but it will never hurt you to do more research on the case when you have free time. Just because you have something that looks like a will doesn’t mean that it actually qualifies as such. And not everyone uses a will or only a will. You might have to find a trust, you might have to check for life insurance policies, and you might have to check for homes that the deceased owned in each of these fifty states. Having a bad inventory, to make things a little brighter, is still better than not having anything to go off for an inventory. Yeah, it’s probably time to locate those documents.

Minnesota Probate Law Firm

Dealing with a troublesome case doesn’t mean that things need to slow down or stop. It might be good to take a break or have a family vacation. Then, once you’re all set for getting back on track, you may want to seek a probate lawyer from Flanders Law Firm LLC.

Should you ever need to ask a question, 612-424-0398 should get you in contact with someone to assist. It’s advisable to contact someone before the horror stories can be drafted. You may not be responsible for what has happened, but you’re still responsible for how you react to the situation. To boost your self-confidence, if someone assigned you to work on their probate case, that might even be a sign of their good faith in you to do the right thing.

Contact the Minnesota probate lawyers at Flanders Law Firm for your free initial consultation:  call at 612-424-0398.

1
Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *