Probate

Introduction. This will be a painful time for you and your family. While grieving, you still have the responsibility of handling all the final financial affairs of your loved one. You might face bureaucracy, multiple court forms, and other family members who are grieving or might be angry. We can guide you through this every step of the way.
Read more . . .

Purpose of probate: Probate of the estate serves several purposes. It starts with identifying the heirs of the estate, continues with identifying the assets owned by the decedent, continues with paying the claims of the estate and is finalized by distributing the remaining assets to the required beneficiaries. Every single step of this process may end up with unexpected complications.

Identifying proper creditors: During the probate process notice must be given to all creditors of the estate, and those creditors must be allowed an opportunity to file a claim against the estate. The Executor of the estate reviews each claim and either approves or denies it.

One of the hardest parts of losing a loved one is dealing with the financial aftermath. While your family and friends are aware of the passing, the rest of the financial institutions are not and they will keep sending the bills. Gym memberships, subscription wine club memberships, student loans, credit cards, Netflix subscription, utility bills, etc. – all of these have to be addressed.

1. Make sure you have authority to act and get a document to prove it.

Pre-Planning is best, because it eases the burden on your loved ones. If you have specific wishes (i.e. – scattering your ashes over Yukon, Canada or getting buried under a specific tree) you should at least write these wishes down and ideally arrange for their execution. However, that is not always possible and millions of people each year are faced with the daunting task of planning funerals while grieving a loss.
Read more . . .

I was recently interviewed on Serene Home about how to put your estate planning affairs in order. Please read the article below.

https://theserenehome.com/estate-planning-katya-sverdlov-esq-talks-to-the-serene-home/

You must be very careful to store your Will properly, otherwise, if it cannot be found, the court is likely to consider it revoked and your assets will be distributed in accordance with intestacy rules.

In recent case In Re Scollan (2018), in which a valid Will could not be found, the court ruled that a presumption of revocation of the Will was not overcome.

There is a strong presumption that a Will known to be in the decedent's possession that cannot be located after the decedent's death was destroyed by the decedent with the intent to revoke. The retention of a copy of the Will by the decedent's attorney, decedent's statements regarding testamentary intentions, and suspicion that the Will was fraudulently destroyed (without supporting facts and circumstances) are not sufficient to overcome the presumption.

If you are afraid that your Will is at risk of being lost or destroyed (due to memory issues, the behavior of omitted beneficiaries, or any other reason), then your Will should be stored either in your attorney's office, a safe deposit box, or with a trusted friend.

More than 50% of the adults in the US do not have a Will. Most assume that that they do not have enough assets to bother with one, or that they will write one when they are older. Yet dying without a Will results is going to result in the person’s assets being divided in accordance with the state’s laws rather than the person’s own wishes. As a result, not having a Will leads to delays, expenses, and family battles, not to mention hours of headaches and paperwork..

Most people want to pass down their assets in accordance with their wishes, with minimal costs, minimal delays, and minimal strife amongst the heirs. Yet there are several problems with using traditional Wills to accomplish these goals. These problems include: not having one’s wishes honored because of losing one’s Will; or having your the Will challenged by heirs; not addressing the distribution of all the of your assets because the Will was written years before death and new assets have been acquired; and high costs of lawyers, h costs needed to pay to lawyers, courts, and executors to finalize the Will.

CryptoWills, which use blockchain, may address some of these problems. First, if the data is stored on blockchain, it cannot be lost.
Read more . . .

Once you stop to think about it, you might will realize you have more digital assets than physical ones. These include online banking and brokerage accounts (banking and brokerage), photo storage sites, social media accounts, and cryptocurrency. If you were to die tomorrow, does anyone have the right to possess these accounts? Will they know the necessary steps to access them?

Online providers handle the accounts of deceased users differently. Some, (like Facebook,) have created a legacy contract, which enables one to designate a person to manage one’s account after death. Others do not have such a clear policy, and there are federal laws (such as The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and The Stored Communications Act) that severely limits provider’s’ ability to share personal account information with others.
Read more . . .