What is Probate?
The court ordered process hereby it administers and distributes your assets after death. Therefore, probate is either passing with a will or a plan for the court or passing without a plan which means the court determines everything on your behalf.
Here are our top 5 reasons to avoid probate:
1. Complete Loss of Control
The court has all the power. The appointed executor has no authority. They only have the authority that a court grants to them, if any. The will you may have meticulously prepared, is merely a letter to the court. Your will needs to be filed and recorded with the court and a judge will then take your “requests” or “wishes” under advisement. Simply speaking, thanks for your suggestions, I’ll see if I agree after I look at your creditors and hear what your family has to say about your requests.
2. Time Consuming
The probate process is extremely time consuming. This is often a shock to families most as the process typically takes about 12 – 18 months to complete the process from start to finish. It takes time for your personal representative or executor appointed to administer your estate on behalf of the probate court. This administrator has to deal with and endless amount of paperwork to produce all of the checks and balances that your particular judge requires. If you know anyone whom has ever had to go through probate, they will most certainly have an estate plan and zero desire to ever enter this process.
3. Costs to Much
Between court fees, attorney fees, bond fees, publication fees, filing costs, processing fees, etc, and estate will lose approximately 8-10% of the total assets of the estate through in an uncontested probate estate in Illinois. The total cost always depends on the size of the estate, the number of heirs, whether it is contested or uncontested, how efficient the administrator is with documentation. Instead of this money going to your heirs and beneficiaries, it is simply lost to the court process. All of these fees could have easily been avoided with an proper estate plan. In terms of probate, the more assets you have the more money you will spend thru the process.
In the words of the late great Notorious BIG: “more money more problems.”
4. Entirely Public
All of your assets and liabilities are fully on display for the world to see. Are you curious about this? Open your search engine and search the probate estate of some celebrities such as Chadwick Boseman, James Gandolfini’s , Aretha Franklin, Prince, etc. You will find detailed information on their finances, property, creditors, and family members. Probate court requires what is called an accounting and inventory.
The administrator is responsible for determining the value and ownership of real estate, securities, bank accounts, investments, vehicles, business interests, and debts and judgments. All of this information is submitted to the court and on full display for the public to see.
5. “I Disagree” Let’s Contest It
As it is a matter of public record, it’s open for suggestion. So if you wanted to exclude someone from their inheritance, you had better hope they agree with your wishes. If you are separated, have not completed a legal adoption, have no children, when you die all of your family members can contest an executor or administrator’s suggestions. Did you want your family home to stay with a particular person? Did you want a vehicle going to a grandchild? I hope everyone agrees with this after you are gone which rarely occurs.