You hear it time and time again…you have probably even said it at some point in your life, “I want to avoid probate!” I find that few people understand exactly what that phrase means. And fewer understand the true impact of probate avoidance, or why they want to avoid probate. As you learned in [...]

The court process of “probate” that we will discuss in this article only deals with a person’s “probate” property and the Massachusetts Probate Courts do not have authority over or even care to know about “non-probate” property in most circumstances. So, in order to fully understand probate, I think it is imperative we first [...]

Maybe. Just because you do not have a Will, does not mean you are going to have probate assets at death. For example, if your assets are comprised of a bank account, investment account, retirement account, and stocks, you may have added beneficiary designations on each of these assets. As a reminder, probate property [...]

Okay, by now you are certainly sensing a theme…the answer again is “Maybe.” What is an often ENORMOUS hole in someone’s estate plan is the proper ‘funding’ of one’s trust. The concept of funding is retitling assets during your life into the name of your trust or naming the trust as a beneficiary. You [...]

Maybe. If all marital assets are jointly owned by the spouses or have beneficiary designations, then usually there is no probate at the first spouse’s death. But, if any of the assets are individually owned, without a beneficiary designation, then there will be a probate at your death, even if your spouse is living. [...]