Probate avoidance planning is something not many people have heard of, but about which everyone should be aware. If you do not take steps to avoid the probate process, your assets will almost assuredly transfer through through probate after you pass away. There are significant downsides to your money and property being transferred through probate, which is why it can be smart to take steps to ensure this doesn’t happen.
Parman & Easterday can assist you with taking steps to ensure your assets transfer outside of probate. Please give us a call to find out about how we can help with your personalized probate avoidance planning and ensure your heirs or beneficiaries can inherit from you without having to go through probate.
Benefits of Probate Avoidance Planning
Probate avoidance planning provides substantial benefits, some of which may be specific to your situation based on your assets and family relationships. Some of the general benefits of making plans to avoid probate include:
- Reducing the costs associated with transferring your assets: The probate process can be a costly process, with Investopedia estimating that it would cost between three percent and seven percent of the value of your estate for assets to be transferred through probate. It can be far less costly for assets to be transferred through other processes, such as trust administration. If you want more of your money to go to heirs or beneficiaries and less of it to be lost to the expenses of probate, probate avoidance planning makes sense.
- Reducing the time it takes for assets to transfer: Investopedia also estimated it takes around a year for a typical probate to be completed. This can be a long time for loved ones to wait to receive an inheritance and to move on with their lives. If you do not want your family to be stuck waiting many months to get the money and property left to them, you should take steps to expedite the transfer of assets to your loved ones.
- Reducing the stress of transferring wealth: It can be stressful for the executor of an estate to be put in charge of managing estate assets and overseeing the probate process for months on end. It can also be stressful for your loved ones to have to deal with court proceedings that may only compound their grief about your loss. Because other methods of transferring wealth can take place outside of court, you can spare your family this stress and aggravation.
- Allowing wealth to transfer more privately: If probate proceedings take place, they occur in court. This means court records will be created and these records become public records. You and your heirs or beneficiaries may not want every detail about the transfer of your assets becoming a matter of public record. To avoid this, you can facilitate the transfer of assets through other means that do not require court proceedings.
You should talk with Parman & Easterday about your property and assets and to whom you are going to leave everything so your attorney can help you to determine if probate avoidance is something about which you should be concerned. Our firm can also help you identify the legal tools you should be using to avoid probate.
Getting Help from Estate Planning Attorneys
Parman & Easterday can help with probate avoidance planning and much more. We will assist you in taking the necessary steps to provide for your loved ones, protect your assets, and make sure your future is secure. To find out more about the assistance our legal team can offer as you make plans for what happens as you get older and after you pass on, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call today at (405) 843-6100 or contact us online to get your probate avoidance plans underway.
Since founding Parman & Easterday in 1985, Larry has led over 1,000 free, community-service education programs and helped more than 10,000 Oklahoma families go from putting off their estate plan to getting it done. His goal for every client is the same: to become the person their family calls "the one who took care of everything."
Larry is the author of three books: The Straight Shooter's Guide to Estate Planning; Estate Planning Basics; and Guiding Those Left Behind in Oklahoma. He served as Oklahoma's Secretary of State and Secretary of Commerce, and his firm is the only member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys in the state.
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