When a loved one passes away with debt, their estate is supposed to settle any outstanding financial obligations. Part of the probate process involves consolidating assets and paying off the deceased creditors before distributing the estate to the heirs. Usually,...
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Probate
How do I protect the assets in an estate?
The assets that comprise someone's estate will determine the legacy that they leave for others. Their property can help support their spouse and children or even fund a nonprofit organization or a scholarship that will change lives. However, the assets in an estate...
How do you handle valuable assets in probate?
When your parents made their estate plan they named you the executor because they wanted to provide for you and your siblings after they were gone. They also wanted to ensure that some of their more valuable items ended up in the right hands. Now, the time has come...
What if there is no beneficiary?
Creating an estate plan, naming beneficiaries and updating the documents regularly will help ensure that your assets are distributed based on your wishes after you pass away. However, what happens if someone dies without a will or named beneficiaries? How will their...
What assets are subject to probate?
When there are assets left in a person’s estate that have no way of passing on to an heir or beneficiary without the court-based probate process, those assets are probate assets. Probate assets do not have their own beneficiary designations, so it’s unclear how...
Are Minnesota probate records public?
After someone dies with valuable personal property or real estate in their name, their remaining assets become their estate. That estate will need to pass through Minnesota state probate courts. The will, trust or other estate documents will receive a judicial review,...
I’ve heard there are different types of probate: What are they?
You don't avoid probate by writing a will. Instead, the will helps direct the probate process. The court oversees this as they divide your assets and take other steps to ensure that your will is followed. There are two different types of probate that may be used. It's...
How long does probate take, and how much does it cost?
When someone dies, the property that was once theirs becomes the property of their estate. The executor or personal representative of the estate will need to go through probate proceedings to properly handle the assets and debts someone leaves behind when they die....