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    How to Settle a Simple Estate Without a Lawyer: The Complete Guide to Wills, Probate, and Inheritance Law Explained Easily
    How to Settle a Simple Estate Without a Lawyer: The Complete Guide to Wills, Probate, and Inheritance Law Explained Easily
    How to Settle a Simple Estate Without a Lawyer: The Complete Guide to Wills, Probate, and Inheritance Law Explained Easily
    Ebook335 pages2 hours

    How to Settle a Simple Estate Without a Lawyer: The Complete Guide to Wills, Probate, and Inheritance Law Explained Easily

    By Linda Ashar

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    About this ebook

    If you have been charged with serving as executor to a simple estate, How to Settle a Simple Estate Without a Lawyer can bring you up-to-date quickly on everything you need to know about wills, trusts, probate, taxes, and much more. This book will help you assess whether the estate under your control can be settled without an attorney. Estates that involve guardianship of a child and complex trusts may require the assistance of a lawyer. Before paying expensive attorney fees to settle a rather straightforward estate, allow this book to explain all the basics you need to know to tackle this project on your own, saving you thousands in the process.

    In this book, you will learn about identifying the different types of trusts such as charitable trusts, generation-skipping transfer trusts, living trusts, and Totten trusts as well as taking the first steps as an executor, navigating the probate process, paying the debts of an estate, and distributing bequests. This book will explain the duties you will perform as the executor, as well as how to set up a filing system for important documents involved with the estate, claim life insurance and social security benefits, read the will, manage assets and pay bills involved with the estate, and transfer property belonging to the estate. The companion CD-ROM is not available for download with this electronic version of the book but it may be obtained separately by contacting Atlantic Publishing Group at sales@atlantic-pub.com.

    Atlantic Publishing is a small, independent publishing company based in Ocala, Florida. Founded over twenty years ago in the company president’s garage, Atlantic Publishing has grown to become a renowned resource for non-fiction books. Today, over 450 titles are in print covering subjects such as small business, healthy living, management, finance, careers, and real estate. Atlantic Publishing prides itself on producing award winning, high-quality manuals that give readers up-to-date, pertinent information, real-world examples, and case studies with expert advice. Every book has resources, contact information, and web sites of the products or companies discussed.

    This Atlantic Publishing eBook was professionally written, edited, fact checked, proofed and designed. You receive the same content as the print version of this book. Over the years our books have won dozens of book awards for content, cover design and interior design including the prestigious Benjamin Franklin award for excellence in publishing. We are proud of the high quality of our books and hope you will enjoy this eBook version.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAtlantic Publishing Group Inc.
    Release dateDec 15, 2012
    ISBN9781601388728
    How to Settle a Simple Estate Without a Lawyer: The Complete Guide to Wills, Probate, and Inheritance Law Explained Easily

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      Book preview

      How to Settle a Simple Estate Without a Lawyer - Linda Ashar

      How to Settle a

      Simple Estate

      Without a Lawyer

      The Complete Guide to Wills, Probate, and Inheritance Law Explained Simply

      By Linda C. Ashar, Attorney at Law

      How to Settle a Simple Estate Without a Lawyer: The Complete Guide to Wills, Probate, and Inheritance Law Explained Simply

      Copyright © 2012 Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc.

      1210 SW 23rd Place • Ocala, Florida 34471

      Phone 800-814-1132 • Fax 352-622-1875

      Website: www.atlantic-pub.com • Email: sales@atlantic-pub.com

      SAN Number: 268-1250

      No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be sent to Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc., 1210 SW 23rd Place, Ocala, Florida 34471

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Ashar, Linda C., 1947-

      How to settle a simple estate without a lawyer: the complete guide to wills, probate, and inheritance law explained simply : with companion CD-ROM / by Linda C. Ashar.

      p. cm.

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN 978-1-60138-614-4 (alk. paper) -- ISBN 1-60138-614-1 (alk. paper) 1. Estate planning--United States. 2. Probate law and practice--United States. 3. Wills--United States. 4. Inheritance and succession--United States. I. Title.

      KF750.Z9A79 2012

      332.024’0160973--dc23

      2012025177

      LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

      TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: All trademarks, trade names, or logos mentioned or used are the property of their respective owners and are used only to directly describe the products being provided. Every effort has been made to properly capitalize, punctuate, identify, and attribute trademarks and trade names to their respective owners, including the use of ® and ™ wherever possible and practical. Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc. is not a partner, affiliate, or licensee with the holders of said trademarks.

      A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

      Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

      We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bear’s memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

      – Douglas and Sherri Brown

      PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

      Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

      Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.

      Support local and no-kill animal shelters.

      Plant a tree to honor someone you love.

      Be a developer — put up some birdhouses.

      Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.

      Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.

      Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.

      Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.

      Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.

      If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.

      Support your local farmers market.

      Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

      Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

      Dedication and Acknowledgments

      For my family

      Huge appreciation and grateful thanks goes to the Lorain County Probate Court of Ohio, Honorable James Walther, for having its Court forms and other estate information available on the Internet for the public and practitioners. I also appreciate and thank all the many other jurists and courts around the country, many used as reference for this book, who possess the creative foresight and dedication to make the legal process user-friendly for the public they serve. Professional legal advice is important and an attorney’s representation has a place in assisting non-lawyers in court, but the process of law in our judicial system should be available to all people.

      Table of Contents

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Chapter 1: Can You Handle an Estate without a Lawyer?

      Chapter 2: The Personal Representative

      Chapter 3: Probate Procedure

      Chapter 4: Wills

      Chapter 5: Estate Management Obligations

      Chapter 6: Debts of the Estate and Estate Expenses

      Chapter 7: Trusts

      Chapter 8: Surviving Spouse, Minor Children, and Other Beneficiaries of the Estate

      Chapter 9: Taxes

      Chapter 10: Settling and Closing the Estate

      Conclusion

      Appendix A: State Facts and Figures

      Appendix B: Sample Wills

      Appendix C: Personal Representative Resources

      Glossary of Terms

      Bibliography

      Author Biography

      Introduction

      It was Benjamin Franklin who coined the well-known adage, nothing is certain but death and taxes. The fiduciary of a decedent’s estate deals with both these certainties and many other things as well.

      In modern society, every person who dies leaves something to be handled by the living. In many cases, a person leaves property, personal possessions, final wishes to be resolved, and loose ends to be tied up. Some people prepare in advance and organize the process for those left behind; others do not. Regardless of the decedent’s forethought, it falls to someone to take charge and manage these final affairs. Depending on the specific facts and local court procedure involved, this person is known as the decedent’s estate’s personal representative, executor (man) or executrix (woman), administrator, or other similar title conferred by the probate court. The general term, applicable in all cases, is personal representative or estate representative, the terms used in this book.

      The decedent’s property owned at time of death is called an estate. The estate’s personal representative is appointed to represent the estate officially and finalize the decedent’s affairs. The news media often report about high profile, complex estates, such as that of the late George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, but most people leave estates far simpler by comparison. This book is intended as a guide for the personal representative of the simple estate. It will provide the reader an overview of the typical, basic considerations that arise in planning and administering estates.

      Case Study: Edith’s Story, Surprising Secret

      by Attorney X

      (Fictional names used to protect privacy and confidentiality)

      Dealing with remains of a person’s life can sound cut and dried, perhaps even tedious. After all, it is a process of lists. Collect the necessary paper, take an inventory of the deceased’s belongings, list who is owed money, list who has rights by law and by will to the property in the estate, and then it is just a matter of dispensing with the lists in the right order. Line up the beneficiaries and tell them where they stand; pay the bills; dole out the property; dust off one’s hands — done. Right?

      Well, in a sense that is a quick summary of the essentials. All of it has to be done by law, through the court process, but in essence, it is a process of organization and accountability of property, payment of debts, and distribution of the remaining property to the lawful heirs. However, a life is rarely that simple. When a person dies, he or she leaves behind a personal story and often, secrets. The story revealed to the estate representative can be shocking, difficult, and emotional, especially when dealing with the effects upon family.

      Edith, an independent widow, came to me for assistance in handling her brother Edward’s estate. Edward, a retired accountant, had never married, had no children, and owned his own home. Edith thought she probably could handle most of what needed to be done but wanted some guidance on the procedure of the estate. She could not find a will. Although this seemed out of character for Edward, who as an accountant understood the importance of estate planning, it is not unusual. Seventy percent of Americans do not have valid wills.

      Edith was the sole heir at law to inherit Edward’s estate, as only her own children were other surviving relatives in the family. The law of every state provides how property will be distributed when there is no will. The law is called the statute of descent and distribution. Spouse and children of the deceased and then their children are first considered. Then come the deceased’s parents and siblings and in turn their children. In this case, Edward’s next of kin was Edith, his sibling. So other than valuing the assets of his estate and determining debts and taxes, managing Edward’s estate seemed it would be a straightforward process for Edith.

      Edith was upset by the loss of her brother, but they had not been particularly close in their adult lives. Edward was several years older than Edith; she described him as a workaholic. He apparently had done well with his own accounting practice and had seemed to be enjoying his retirement because he traveled often. They would have dinner together about once a month, and he would join her family on most holidays, though he usually took a trip over the December holidays, to recharge his batteries for tax season, he would tell her before he retired. It was shortly after his return from a trip that Edward died of a heart attack.

      We opened an estate for Edward. He had bank accounts, real estate, and various artifacts of possible value in his house that would need to be transferred through the court. His car was leased. As Edith was his sole legal heir, having her appointed administrator was no problem. Once Edith was set up as administratrix of the estate, she felt comfortable proceeding with the process on her own. She said she would call me if she had a question.

      It was when Edith started to inventory Edward’s house that the call came. The brother she thought she knew was not the man who lived in the comfortable brick mock Tudor tucked into a cul-de-sac of the city suburb. Edith called to ask me to meet her at the house soon. Her voice was not the usual robust no-nonsense Edith. She would not explain her distress on the phone. I could meet her the next day, I told her.

      In Edward’s house, Edith had found a hidden room of sorts — and another Edward — in plain sight, in his office. Edith showed me beautiful enclosed oak cabinets that lined the walls with locked doors. Edith had found the keys on Edward’s personal key ring. These oak cupboards contained hundreds of leather-covered journals filled with Edward’s precise writing, books, photographs, and videotapes. The journals contained explicit detailed accounts of Edward’s sexual experiences during his many travels and apparently as part of his association with a private club that engaged in a variety of sado-masochistic sexual parties in various parts of the world. The videos represented a timeline of Edward’s activities; numerous private videotapes and DVDs documented personal activities and professionally made productions. The books ranged from those of art quality photographic publications to genre S&M fiction and graphic, sexually explicit photographs. Some of these involved people of both sexes, others, homosexual males. The presence of the journals and the photos in which Edward himself appeared, either with other men, or with younger people of both sexes, that completely undid Edith. Drawers behind Edward’s locked doors contained amazing wide variety of sexual paraphernalia.

      Edith wanted to have a bonfire on the spot. She was angry, but I could not tell which aspect of the situation upset her the most: her brother’s secrecy, his activities, the photographs, the videos, or the journals. One thing was clear. Behind the oak doors was an Edward Edith never knew. His lifestyle was as undeniable as it was a secret to his sister.

      Edith was shaken with shock and emotion. She and her brother had not been close in their day-to-day lives, but he was her older brother, and she loved him. She felt betrayed and naïve by the discovery of Edward’s other life. She could not understand his reasons for hiding his lifestyle from her. Because she would not approve and have worried? Because he was ashamed of it? Because he did not care for her feelings or because he did? I listened to her go through these questions, sympathizing with her agony and her anger, and knowing that unless we found something written by Edward himself, there was unlikely to ever be answers to her questions. I suggested she might find some insight among his journals; perhaps among the records of the prurient activities he had also recorded other kinds of secret personal thoughts that might reveal something meaningful to his sister. I doubted, though, if she could get past the secrecy and subject matter. Edith did not want to touch any of it. She had shut and locked the oak doors. Then she asked me what to do.

      I told her first we needed to be sure there was no evidence of crime. Though I doubted it, anything was possible. One huge surprise might lead to another. The first cursory look at Edward’s secret room had not revealed anything illegal. There was no evidence he was engaged in activities involving sex slavery, nonconsensual physical harm, forced sexual activity, or any activity involving minors. Because he apparently had spent a good part of his adult life in this lifestyle, primarily in his travels out of the country, according to the timeline shown by the materials he kept, very little of his lifestyle occurred at his home. If so, he had been very discreet. It was not likely that Edward would have been involved in illegal activity for such a long time while escaping exposure. Still, as officers of the court — Edith as appointed personal representative and I as an attorney — we were required to exercise due diligence. The reason for due diligence as to crime was of course no longer a concern for Edward, the deceased, but rather as to whether his records disclosed evidence of any crime committed by others still living, or whether there was any relevance to crimes unsolved.

      Second, I explained to Edith that although her brother’s collection was abhorrent to her, it had to be valued as part of the estate. Fortunately, review of Edward’s secret collection revealed no evidence of crime. It disclosed the careful documentation of a grown man’s obsession with a certain lifestyle that he had compartmentalized within his life, and his compulsion to keep his lifestyle a secret from his family and colleagues, literally in the closet. His collection disclosed nothing of illegal sales or illegal making of pornographic videos or photos. Discreet inquiries indicated that the contents of Edward’s closet did not have any special intrinsic collectable value either. Although Edith was not about to sell any of it, had there been a collectable value to any of Edward’s hidden artifacts, the value would have been listed on the estate inventory, probably as an S&M genre collection with the appraiser’s value. Ultimately, Edward’s collection was not itemized in the inventory of the estate. It was included as part of with miscellaneous personal effects. Edith had inherited her brother’s collection and what she did with it was her decision and her business. When the estate was closed, I never asked her, though I suspected she may have had her bonfire.

      Edith’s story is not that unusual insofar as surprises can be revealed about a person after death. There is often more to handle in an estate than property and forms. There are people and with people come the full range of human deeds and emotions that go with them. Edith suffered first the shock and grief of her brother’s sudden death, and then the exponential aggravation of those emotions with anger, surprise, be wilderment, questioning, and concerns that arose from the discovery that Edward led a life he scrupulously kept a secret from her. Starting out to handle his estate on her own, she confronted something shecould not handle legally or emotionally. In this situation, she did obtain legal counsel for those aspects of the estate that were beyond her capabilities to manage. A significant part of assisting Edith with estate management was helping her deal with Edward’s secret life.

      Although the focus of this book is the simple estate, nothing is simple, that is not

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