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If you are preparing a will, it is important to know as much as possible about the probate process. How else can you be sure that probate is for you? To find out whether you want your estate plan to have to go through probate, here is what you need to know about the disadvantages of probate.
No Immediate Access to Inheritance
When there is a trust involved, beneficiaries usually have immediate access to funds. When you set up a will, you may be considering how your family is going to be able to pay for funeral costs, medical bills and other costs that may have come at the end of your life. You may hope that some of the inheritance can go towards these costs. Perhaps you simply want your beneficiaries to have access to their inheritance as soon as possible.
With probate court, no one has access to the money right away. There is no quick sum of cash that your beneficiaries have access to. Distributions do not occur until after the probate process is over.
All Records Are Public
Do you worry about others seeing your will? If you’re worried about beneficiaries fighting or if you are worried about anyone finding out how much your beneficiaries inherited, then you may not want to go through probate. Probate is public record. This means that your entire estate can be accessed by anyone. In addition, anyone can access how much money or which assets your beneficiaries received.
Probate Is Supervised by the Court
Probate has a lot of different rules and procedures that must be followed. Court approval is necessary through every step of the process. The court will approve inventory, settle disputes and more throughout the probate process. In addition, if there is real estate that needs to be sold, then the court may require an appraisal, a court bidding process and you may even need court approval for the sale.
When you have a trust, you have more flexibility. Those who make a trust are able to decide how the property and assets are distributed without having to worry about the formalities of the probate process.
When it comes to your estate plan, it is important that you make a decision that works best for your circumstances. In some cases, it is important to avoid probate. To find out more about how to avoid probate, consult with an estate planning lawyer, such as Patterson Bray, today.
