Everyone has a day where they think about what happens to all their estate if they die. Will your family members get all your assets, or will the lenders try to take them away? You need to take some time and answer all these questions during estate planning with your probate lawyer’s help. It is very common for people to plan for their vacations, parties, and even buy a car or a house. But when it comes to the most important part, to plan the estate, they are not at all bothered to spend a few days.
If you do not have a strong and reliable estate plan, your family members will have to face many problems during the probate process. Therefore, it is paramount for every individual to plan their estate as soon as possible and not wait for the unpredictable future. Below we will look at how effective estate planning can help your family have a simple probate process.
Choose Your Beneficiaries Wisely
If anyone dies without an estate plan, it is most likely that there won’t be any Will to their name. Since there is no Will, it will be difficult to determine which family member gets what part of the estate. Estate planning helps determine your assets’ bifurcation and how it will be divided during the probate process. If there is no Will of the deceased, the court will follow the intestate succession laws to distribute the assets.
Protect Your Family
Whenever a loved family member dies, the rest of the family members will have to go through a difficult time. It is never easy to heal properly after the funeral fully. At such times, no one will want to enter into a complicated probate process. Therefore, everyone needs to meet their lawyer and plan a reliable estate.
A good estate plan will help secure the rest of the family’s future by protecting your estate, especially If your children are dependent on you. Many lenders try to claim your assets during the probate process, even though they do not have a right to claim. In such situations, an estate plan helps to protect your assets and the beneficiaries’ rights.
Hire Probate Lawyer To Avoid Paying Taxes
It is quite simple to understand the taxes part of the estate process. Taxes are directly proportional to the estate value. The larger your estate, or if your estate is a lot, you will have to pay a lot of taxes during the probate process.
If there is no estate plan in place, you or your estate end up paying a lot of money to the government in the form of taxes. There are numerous ways that you can try to use in order to avoid paying a huge sum of money as taxes. Some of the ways to lower your estate value and pay fewer taxes are as follows.
- Give away small assets as gifts.
- Set up Irrevocable trusts.
- Make small charitable donations.
- Establish a family limited partnership.
- Fund A Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT).
Hire Probate Lawyer To Protect Your Assets
When your estate enters the probate process, it will enter into public information, and the creditors will be notified to apply for the claim. Depending on federal laws and your state laws, the probate will use your estate to pay off all your liabilities. Again, as per the law, not all loan/credit should be included in the process.
For example, the credit card companies will not have any claim on the estate, even if there are major dues. In case there is no proper estate plan, even such creditors will try to recover their money from your estate. To avoid such scenarios, it would be best to hire a probate lawyer and set up proper plans to protect your assets. And to make sure that most of your estate goes to the beneficiaries and not the creditors.
Conclusion
We have seen that the probate process can be very complicated if we do not have a proper estate plan. A lot of things can go wrong, and the family members will have to face problems all on their own. We should do everything in our power and make sure to protect our family and make a strong estate plan. We have also seen that having a good estate plan will help a lot to make the probate process smooth and avoid complications. So, it is time to hire a probate lawyer and start on your estate plan as soon as possible.
