What is Probate? If you’ve recently lost a loved one or are planning your estate, you’ve likely heard this term, but what does it involve? In this short video, we’ll walk you through probate explained simply, covering what the process entails, when it applies, and how it can impact your assets and your family. If you’re exploring your options for estate planning in Roseville, CA, understanding probate is a key first step toward making informed, confident decisions.
Transcript:
“Probate is not fun, I can tell you that much. It’s basically when you pass without a trust, when you have assets that have nowhere to go. That’s really what it is. If all you have is a bank account or an investment account and there’s beneficiaries on it, it goes to them. If you have assets that don’t have anywhere to go, such as a home or a bank account that doesn’t list anything or even brokerage accounts, investment retirement accounts – I’ve had people not have updated beneficiaries on them, so they have to go through probate, stocks, bonds, any of that stuff. Any assets that don’t have anywhere to go over the probate amount, which is about 185,000, have to go through probate in order to be distributed. There’s no other way to do that. If you’re under that amount, there’s ways to do it for the probate code, but over that amount you have to go through probate. The probate court is just a process. It’s a huge long process that you have to follow. There’s no shortcuts. You have to go through the motions. Basically you submit a petition, you decide who the executor’s going to be, and then you have to follow all the probate rules of doing inventories and notifying creditors and going to hearings and just there’s a timeline. In California, at best, you can get through a probate in nine months. I think that’s happened once in my life that I know of. It really just depends on how backed up the courts are. Some courts are a month or two out, some are six to nine months out, and so the assets are tied up until then. You can’t utilize them, you can’t protect them, you can’t do anything with them until that very first hearing where the court approves it. Then everything that you do is basically monitored by the court and has to go through court approval. On top of that, there are fees and the fees are statutorily set by law. They are a percentage of the gross value of your estate. If you have a $600,000 house with a $300,000 mortgage, it’s not based on the $300,000 equity, it’s based on the value of 600,000. That’s a percentage that is being eaten away from your inheritance that is not passing on. Then that fee can be doubled if the executor takes it. Then of course there’s all the court costs, the filing fees, and the now mandatory e-filing fees and publication fees and all the fees, so many fees. Really it is a way to pass on assets when they have nowhere to go. That is mandatory, that is costly and time consuming and just generally confusing to people, I think. I try to make it not confusing. I try to make it pretty straightforward, but it’s just a process. It’s just going through the motions and there’s no way around it.”
Contact A Probate Attorney Near You
We hope this video helped you better understand what probate is and how it fits into the bigger picture of planning for the future. If you’re looking for experienced legal guidance with probate or estate planning in Roseville, CA, Patton Law Group is here to help. Contact us today to schedule your consultation and get the trusted support you deserve.
