McDannold Law
  • Home
  • About
  • Practice Areas
    • Estate Planning
    • Guardianship of Persons with Incapacity
    • Probate & Estate Administration
    • Veterans Benefits
  • Blog
  • Contact

GenXLaw.com

Thoughts about legal issues that affect Generation X.  Or, really, everyone.

What is Probate?

6/24/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture
Probate is a court-supervised process for finding and gathering the assets of a deceased person, paying any debts, distributing the remaining assets to beneficiaries, and winding up his or her affairs.

If the decedent had a will, it must be deposited with the clerk of the circuit court within 10 days of death.  However, the probate process doesn’t begin until a petition is filed, and the decedent’s will has no legal effect until it is admitted to probate by the court.  Whether or not there was a will, probate is required to pass ownership of the decedent’s assets to the persons who are entitled to receive them.

A personal representative, known elsewhere as “executor,” is appointed by the judge to administer the decedent’s probate estate.  Serving as personal representative is a responsible job, and mismanagement of the estate can result in personal liability to the beneficiaries.  For this reason, it’s important to consult a probate attorney who can provide legal advice to the personal representative and represent him or her throughout the estate proceedings.

Contact McDannold Law to learn more about the probate process.
1 Comment
Zachary Tomlinson link
7/15/2020 01:55:50 am

Thanks for helping me understand what probate is and how it works. I had no idea that you can use this to distribute the assets from a deceased person and pay any outstanding debts from them. My friend's uncle passed away because of COVID, and now he told me that he's entitled to receive one of his old properties. I'll share this with him and suggest that he hire a probate attorney for legal advice.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2020
    February 2020
    June 2019
    October 2017
    August 2017

    Categories

    All
    Estate Planning

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Practice Areas
    • Estate Planning
    • Guardianship of Persons with Incapacity
    • Probate & Estate Administration
    • Veterans Benefits
  • Blog
  • Contact