When someone passes away without a Will, the court initiates a process called probate or estate management. Meanwhile, the court decides who should legally inherit deceased property and assets. If an individual has his Will drafted and plans his property to be funded by a living trust, the court will not intervene in administration. The trustee will administer his property and divide it among the rightful beneficiaries in compliance with the probate and estate regulations.
However, we have encountered many cases where disputes have taken place despite having a well-drafted Will and testament. NY probate & estate laws are not easy to comprehend; most problems arise from people’s incompetence in comprehending these regulations. People commonly have the following questions because they do not understand these regulations.
Can someone object to the well-drafted Will?
If someone claims to have a stake against a well-drafted Will, the situation is called a Will contest, which commonly happens during a probate process. Meanwhile, others’ participation makes the litigation even more costly. According to the NY probate laws, if someone has to contest a Will, he or she has to take a legal stance by raising objections followed by a court notice. Such occurrences are expected when surviving children receive uneven shares under the Will or when distribution alters from a previous Will to a newer Will. Disputes among blood relatives are also common because of disproportionate sharing. Will contests become more hectic when the executor takes sides?
Is it possible to administer deceased property through probate?
A primary procedure via which title is changed from the deceased to the name of the recipients, and as per the NY probate & estate laws, it is called probate. The following are called non-probate properties that require no probate intervention:
A property holding titles mainly as joint tenants with survivorship rights and these properties are passed down to the co-owners without requiring probate laws New York City. Meanwhile, retirement accounts like IRA & 401K accounts are designated for the receivers only in case the account holder dies. Living trusts also enjoy ownership of deceased estate as the property passes to the rightful trustees without any interference from NY probate & estate laws. Cases like this do not require a living trustee to do a probate and distribution of assets.
What is the cost of a complete probate? How long does it take?
The probate process can be lengthy if the number of will contestants is large and depends on several other notions like the value and difficulty of the estate. The survival of a will and the property’s location also decide the duration of the proceedings. Thus, in such cases, it would be better to have a local estate attorney in Queens, NY, supervise the matter if no living trustee or executor is present. The proceeding will not conclude if creditors come after the property and dispute with potential beneficiaries.
In such instances, the cost of the litigation will increase, further delaying the matter for another term. These expenses include the fees of the executors, lawyers, accounting fees, court fees, appraisals, and bonds, as stated in the NY probate & estate laws. These costs add up to the property’s total value of up to 2 – 7 %, and generally, the probate finishes around 9 to 18 months in the absence of litigation.
