Our office receives a lot of calls from our potential clients asking this blazing question!!

The loss of a loved is a very difficult time. Grief, sadness, sorrow, anger and loneliness are some of the issues a loss brings to the family and friends. The additional burden of having to administer the deceased person’s assets through the probate court is a burden that can be avoided through proper planning and implantation of a plan of action during one’s lifetime to avoid the undue hardship of probate administration. The current probate administration could include a one-year administration through the county probate court, is invasive and leaves the family of a loved one with a sense of overwhelming uncertainty to an already trying time in their life.

But it doesn’t have to end like this! Probate administration can be limited to a single one step process if a person has implemented an estate plan that includes a “Trust”. This is the primary reason for discussing your estate plan with a trained professional in the area of estate planning on the benefits of Trusts versus Wills.

Through guidance by the trained professional, a person can implement a Trust which outlines the exact distribution of each asset of the deceased person, who is to oversee these distributions and how they are to be distributed to each beneficiary. The Trust further outlines and permits the Trust administrator to make distributions immediately without the supervision of the probate court.

Why doesn’t everyone do a Trust? Without the knowledge and direction of an estate planning attorney, a person may not be aware of this valuable planning tool and its true value…. AVOIDING PROBATE.

Louise Griffith

Advanced Certified Paralegal