Legal Ways to Avoid Probate

Politics/Social Issues - Social Issues - Laws

By: goodselfme 06-Aug-2012

Living Trusts

Avoiding probate allows more money to remain in the hands of the people the individual has selected rather than in the hands of lawyers and the courts. Fees can mount and diminish the total assets to practically nothing if probate is done. Think about living trusts to avoid probate. This is also called revocable trust agreed to by a grantor who is still living. Living trusts are because the grantor wants to still use the funds or property as long as they state. It can be amended or revoked anytime by the grantor.All provisions of a living trust allow the grantor to manage the exclusive rights to change because of a disability, change people in the initial or when that grantor dies. A living trust can be done legally using an online form. One of the sites with the living trust forms is: rocketlawyer.com

Personal Allocation

Personal allocation has two areas to consider. The first one is regarding investing for the future. This includes putting away stocks, bonds and cash to determine what the future can be with some risk. In order to look at the risk a simple formula can guide you.Take your age and use that as a point of reference as investment. An example of this is if your age is 40 then 60% of the money put aside for retirement might be allocated in stocks, bonds and other very changeable areas. The remainder 40% can be allocated into money market, cash and other solid returns. All these should have at least 1 other person on these assets to avoid probate. In the event of the death of the person holding these assets the remaining person on the accounts is the sole owner and it does not go into probate.

Joint Tenancy

Being in a joint agreement means it has been fully reviewed by both or all parties and fully agreed by them as well. Even if there are many people involved in the ownership of the real or paper property,legally it must be specific to circumvent the pitfalls of this agreement to stand up in court upon the death of part of this joint tenancy agreement.Probate can be avoided with joint tenancy because the legal steps have been well detailed before death takes place. In the event of the death of one of the parties in this legal document the courts can freeze the assets that are left to pay outstanding bills if there is fear those will not be paid.

Payable on Death Agreement

Payable on death is also POD. The meaning of this agreement is that all property and money belong to the one person until that person dies. Then the assets become the property of the beneficiary designated as the POD person. Probate is avoided with the POD stipulation.Another way to circumvent probate is to have a separate account in the name of the person an individual selects with routine deposits to satisfy the needs of the ideals of a person wanting to give funds or security to someone else after their demise. An account can be closed at anytime yet remain active and available for deposits as long as desired too.

Entire Tenancy

When a court document is prepared either online or at a lawyer's office,entire tenancy can be given to one or more parties after the death of a person or persons.This way around probate must be documented while the owner is of sound mind to have designated this ownership to entirely another person.Ownership must be clear of titles, liens or probate might enter in to pay back bills of the entire tenancy agreement, thus reducing the amount or value of that property or secure fund amount. Entire tenancy might be coupled with the term tenancy in severalty.This means one person owns more than one property. Another facet of entire tenancy is for the owner to begin giving away to the desired people the things and property they want to be distributed to prior to death.This will avoid probate since ownership is given while living.

Give this list a high five!

Comments

Post a Comment

dptstretch 8/7/2012
Flag This Comment

I get a little scared when I look at lists that have potential for "legal mumbo jumbo"...this one was pretty easy to follow :) thanks!