estate planning fees
Probate Avoidance with Proper Estate Planning
Probate is the Court-supervised process of passing title and ownership of a deceased person’s property to his or her heirs. The process consists of assembling assets, giving notice to creditors, paying bills and taxes, and passing title to property when the judge signs the order. Probate can cost your loved ones a sizeable portion of your estate. The biggest portion of the costs are the fees charged by attorneys and personal representatives for their services for the estate, in addition to filing fees, costs of publication, fees for copies of death certificates, filing and recording fees, bond premiums, appraisal and accounting fees, and so on. Often the fees of attorneys and personal representatives are based on an hourly rate, and while they can tell you what their hourly rate is, they cannot tell you the number of hours their services will take, so they cannot tell you what their total fees will be. Like surgery, probate can be simple and easy, but frequently probate can have very drastic and damaging results. Accordingly, like surgery, because of its uncertainty in terms of both the potential for problems and high costs and fees, probate is something best to prepare for if you can. You can avoid a substantially larger probate process by having an estate planning lawyer review your assets and prepare an estate plan that can minimize this cost substantially, which will result in a much larger distribution to your heirs.
Protect your assets from an ineffec¬tive estate plan. Don’t depend on pre-printed “cookie cutter” form kits or document prepara¬tion services for your estate plan. Contrary to what you may have heard or read, one size does not fit all. You may think you have precisely what you need. But you will never know — because your family members will have to clean up the mess. You see, after you die, your family members will try to use your documents to settle your estate. And if the documents weren’t drafted correctly, they will cause additional expense and long delays because a probate will have to be done to convey title to your assets.
http://mikealanestates.weebly.com
About the Author
Michael Alan Silberman, Chapman University School of Law and ULCA graduate
http://mikealanestates.weebly.com
Does a real estate agent with inactive status pay professional dues &other fees(local/national MLS & desk )?
Hi, All ,
I realize that the real estate market is souring in the US (it is the buyers’ market). However I still like to get my real estate agent’s license and then go as an inactive agent right away. If my RE agent status is inactive do I still pay all dues and desk fees for the broker? Let me try to explain briefly about why I am doing this? In 2006, I passed AMP (national & state) test, then I was planning to find a supervising broker& apply for my license, unfortunately right then, my family member was diagnosed with cancer, so I dedicated 100% of my time & savings for him. Now I can get my license within a month and/or after a month I have to take the exam again, which costs money, lots of reading, time etc., Please get me right, even I passed the exam, it does not cover this kind of stuff. This is a real life if I do this situation. Can anybody give me any advice? I appreciate your time and message. Thank you.
I don’t see which state you live in but in Texas and likely your state, you only pay local/national fees when you join a local Board. The same is true of MLS fees. If you’re inactive, then you don’t have a broker so no fees there either. Just as a side note, it’s easiest if you continue your education along the way.
P.S. Prayers to your family member with cancer.
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