The American Judicial System handles estate matters with the help of probate law. The probate court deals with all the legal issues concerning the assets or liabilities of you or your family members if they pass away.
What is probate law?
Probate law is the legal process that gives power to someone or the executor to distribute the assets laid out in a will. The probate law also determines the validity of choice.
How does probate law work in the United States?
There is a specific way to operate probate law. They work in the following ways-
- It allows one to determine the executor of an estate.
- It has the power to acknowledge the validity of a will.
- It allows one to determine whether the executor can handle all the assets or if there is a need for the court’s involvement in making a decision.
The court finds ways to rectify the problems that may arise when an event does not follow the rules dictated by the probate law. Therefore, probate law has issued regulations for many legal matters.
The executor is the person who plays a vital role in the probate process. The deceased person’s trust or will has an appointed executor. This individual will act as the personal representative of the dead person. The designated executor will be responsible for transferring money or closing bank accounts because they are the one who owns private property like a house and a life insurance policy payable upon death. To distribute the assets appropriately and according to the decedent’s wishes, the executor must follow the decedent’s wishes stated in the will.
The steps involved in the probate process in the USA-
Step 1-
The initial step is before the probate takes place. This involves figuring out who is going to be the personal representative. Most of the time, cases will have a section where the personal representative or executor of the estate will be mentioned. The probate court might choose a close family member or surviving spouse as the personal representative when the will doesn’t say an executor or the person who died doesn’t have a will. That individual will legally own all assets belonging to the deceased. They will be responsible for distributing everything accordingly.
Step 2-
The second step will be filing a petition with the state court. The county fills it where the decedent lived when they died. The schedule of the hearing is 30 days after filing the petition. In some states, the scheduling process will take longer, depending on the court’s availability. This process can vary from state to state. But the petition filing will remain the same for all the states.
Step 3-
Everyone else must be made aware of the death by the court after the petition is filed. All family members, heirs, and creditors to whom the deceased might still owe money need to know that they passed and the estate has gone to probate. Therefore, this notice of the hearing is published. In addition, a note must be mailed to all potential legal heirs when there is no will.
Step 4-
The executor is responsible for collecting any property under the estate. All the properties of the deceased may not be for probate. The personal representative must supply an inventory of all estate property required by the court. For example, the personal representative is responsible for transferring a car if a deceased owned a car that needs to be shared. But the executor does not have to give the court a detailed list of every knick-knack the deceased owned.
Step 5-
The owned legitimate debts must be paid, and creditors can submit a claim within a few months of the estate going into probate. Before everything gets distributed to the heirs, the creditors get paid by the money or assets that are still a part of the estate only if the claims are valid.
Step 6-
The personal representative is not liable on a personal level if there are unpaid income taxes or estate taxes. So, these taxes must be paid before any money is distributed to beneficiaries. The executor can have legal ramifications if the taxes are not paid and the estate has been distributed anyway, leaving no money to pay any remaining taxes.
Step 7-
The last stage is the closing of the probate. The personal representative submits an invoice of the transactions to the probate court once all the transactions are done. Next, the executor files a petition containing all the actions they took and any fees they paid. Finally, for any accounting objections made by heirs or beneficiaries, the court will decide whether they are authentic.
Conclusions-
All the states in the United States follow a slightly different probate law. Therefore, the person filing a petition for the probate process needs to know how to contest a will or work with an attorney. But we know that most of the probate proceedings are not that expensive compared to the areas of managing an estate. It also may not take a very long time if all the documents filed and taxes paid are appropriate.
