Minnesota Small Estate Administration | What Can Keep an Estate Small and What That Can Mean

Doing a summarized probate case might be what you’re interested in attempting. It might not be an option, nevertheless, depending on how large the estate’s worth really is. It’s also not up to you to have the final say in whether or not such a case can be conducted in a summarized format.

What you can do is try to check into the value of the estate and see how things add up. It might be easy to simply group together everything the deceased owned and check how much everything is worth, but that may include all of the assets that should transfer outside of this incoming probate law case. On the other hand, it could very well be that the deceased made plans for something to transfer automatically and their plan has come to a screeching halt.

Know What Adds Up

Assets which don’t transfer outside of a Minnesota probate are going to be what drives up the estate’s value. This is why titles, irrevocable trusts, and various other forms of ownership can be so handy, as they can enable things to not add to the overall estate’s cost. Just to be safe, however, you should ideally look into every asset that the deceased owned. Anything that no longer has a title on it because of the recent passing will have to be treated like other forms of property.

The deceased may have had their name on it, but in their absence, the vehicle or home may now lie in a kind of limbo state.

Certain items may also have special beneficiary designations. This doesn’t apply to all items found in wills because some of those are, oftentimes, simple items which only have the will to guide them. Note that wills themselves don’t escape the probate process. Life insurances policies, however, are one such asset which can be inherited without having to go through the probate process. It’s when there was no beneficiary designation made outside of what was said in the will where things can become more complicated.

Just because something could be held within a title doesn’t mean that they will be held under such a form of ownership. There’s a handful of ways which an item could be held in a special kind of ownership so that it transfers automatically, but it’s when things don’t that you need to step in and make a change.

Small Estate Administration | Look for the Uncommon

Beneficiaries can pass on at any given time. Estate planning documents aren’t always set up to account for this. That said, you may need to double check that everything that had a beneficiary designation added to it and that said beneficiary is still here. If there is no one alive to inherit the property, it might be treated as little more than a vehicle without a title. That’s when you assume that such items will be bundled to the rest of the estate and go through probate along with them, further increasing the estate’s value. Items which didn’t have someone around to inherit them will need to be addressed.

Say that one of the beneficiaries passes. What they would have inherited from the deceased is now without its primary beneficiary. Yes, perhaps there’s someone else who’ll be listed to take the asset, but that’s assuming that backup was set in place and that a backup remains. The less and less info that you have concerning who should inherit a given asset will only mean that it’s more and more likely to need to be brought into the probate case. It may not matter that the deceased listed two different people to inherit from them. The chance stands that both of these may no longer be treated as being able to lay claim to the property.

Minnesota Small Estate Law

While some assets may transfer outside of probate regardless of which state they’re in, there’s still the fact that state laws can dictate what makes a small estate and what qualifies as a large estate. One size doesn’t fit every probate case, and it’s possible that what was a minor probate case in one state was a considerably larger case in another state.

If the deceased moved and wanted to keep things small, they may have kept up with how the laws help to account for everything. Should they have been successful in maintaining things to a compact size, perhaps things will work out to allow you to file for a summary probate case. Moreover, this may not be only a thousand or a hundred dollars difference.

It’s possible that certain states qualify a large estate as twice the overall pricing of the estate compared to other areas. That means if you pass on with half of the estate that you had another in part of the country, it might not be treated any differently. One small loop hole is that the house may or may not impact the estate too much. Certain states allow assets that are left for family members to not change the matter while others may have a limit on how much the house can be worth before it needs to be taken into account. In latter states, it would be best to have it appraised to be sure of the pricing.

No Free Passes

Small estates may have things easier, that much can be very true. Being able to summarize the estate and not having to distribute too much can make things take less effort and time. But everything may still need to be distributed through probate. Just because an estate is rather small in size may not mean that it can completely negate the probate process itself. The assets may get off easy, but that doesn’t mean that the deceased’s possessions got off without much effort or cost.

Don’t surprised if you find yourself in legal trouble if not everything has been carried out properly. It’s one thing to pass on an asset, but stuff probably has to still get documented. The court will probably be curious as to why they weren’t alerted about certain items being passed on. If something was truthfully supposed to go to someone and there wasn’t anything blocking them from inheriting it, the court should agree that it’s to go to the person who was intended to take possession of it. The court probably isn’t trying to take away the property unless they’ve got good reason to do so. Making things look smaller on paper may only lead to bigger problems down the line.

Minnesota Small Estate Lawyers

Working out the estate could take quite a bit of time. Things in probate may be meant to happen within a certain time frame, but that’s assuming that all can go to plan.

Whatever part of the estate you find yourself having trouble with can be dealt with. To get and keep you out of trouble, work alongside a Minnesota probate attorney from Flanders Law Firm LLC. One should be able to come onboard once you call 612-424-0398. You might not like the thought of having to dig out several levels of abandoned clothing or unwanted dishes. That said, having an extra person to assist might make the tasks before you a lot easier

Call the firm today at 612-424-0398.

Stealing from the Probate Estate | What to do

Theft is a dark word. Should that be related to the circumstance that you’re dealing with in accordance to a probate law case, you may have to prove why something shouldn’t belong to someone rather than why it should belong to you.  Stealing from the probate estate is more common than you might think.

The Minnesota probate process is meant to either give to the debtors to which the property may now rightfully belong or to the beneficiaries so that they can have something as remembrance of or as sustenance from the deceased. What was said in the will is sometimes relative to what the court decided and what kind of assets there were.

It may feel like the debtors stole from you or that someone got a larger portion than you, but all of these things are money games. The executor or administrator must balance a checkbook for the deceased and figure out how they’re going to do the right thing. Debts can swallow up properties like how a child may swallow up a slice of cake. What was meant for you might not end up being available to you.

Economic Forensics

Knowing that a beneficiary stole from the estate is one thing, but having a forensic accountant check over the details is another thing. This is a step that you might want to take in case you’re looking to have as much evidence as possible. Almost every aspect of probate either boils down to assets or doing paperwork pertaining to those assets. That said, should you have paperwork on the stolen assets, someone can work on checking to verify what should be there but went missing.

Two specific types of records, property records and financial records, are probably what they’ll be looking at. Any accounting done by the executor or similar bits of information might be what the forensic accountant. Moreover, assuming that you’re a beneficiary who didn’t steal from the estate, you have the right to ask the executor for an accounting. It’s one of your perks.

Stealing from the Probate Estate | Always Check the Assets

A final accounting will need to happen eventually. It may be far off in the future. Such might be the case should the beneficiary have taken or sold something off too early on in the probate process.

Checking over the assets and comparing what was lost is incredibly important. Almost nothing should be touched or changed from how the deceased kept it, unless something needed to be done to maintain things or keep something from being destroyed. Getting a new insurance policy on the home is actually expected and completely understandable.

If you think that the bank accounts were tampered with, check if there were withdrawals. Verify whether or not the deceased actually sold the home and inquire with the executor about its sale. Actually, check with the executor about any sale that takes place pertaining to the estate regardless of size of the purchase.

They’re at least going to need to know what happened for their own records. Perhaps they’ll even be able to clue you in as to whether or not theft took place.

Get Your Evidence

If something really was stolen from the estate, you must begin to gather your evidence. Speaking to the probate court should be one of your top priorities. Knowing which probate court to speak to, the one that handled the case, is of the utmost importance.

They should have most of the official documents. You’ll probably find yourself having to prove that their documents are false before you can make a solid claim against what they may believe to be true. They’re who probably gave the executor or administrator their power after all.

A second step to take would be to talk with the administrator or the executor. Should they agree with your claims or raise an issue with them, you can plan how you want to respond from there. Not only should have the administrator or executor viewed the documents pertaining to probate, they could have been the one who helped fill them out as in the case of a final accounting.

For something to have slipped, it might have missed their eye or been something they were unaware of. In truth, it’s completely possible that the beneficiary was just unaware of how the probate process worked and assumed what they took was rightfully theirs.

That said, the executor or administrator should be the one to help you figure out if there really was stolen property or not. If the court or administrator or executor can’t help you, you must consider the validity of your claim and what other options you might have remaining.

Making Legal Moves

Once you have come to a decision that it’s time to peruse legal action, evidence is what you’ll need. Copies, copies, and more copies is what you need to procure.

Get the will as soon as you can. If no will was used in the case, you must assume that the document cannot be used in any way towards the claim. Stating that the will was unused or wrong may mean that you have, at least in part, a different kind of issue.

Disputing a will is a real kind of issue, but it doesn’t always mean theft took place. However, you may need to establish that a will was supposed to be used for probate before you can even validate your claim of theft. If the document which says someone stole from the property proves false, you probably have no claim.

Where the right will wasn’t utilized, you must consider having mercy. The administrator, in the case of a wrong will, or the executor, in the case of the absence of a will, may have been acting with what knowledge they had. Having a will or not having a will doesn’t make a probate case anymore or less legitimate until otherwise proven.

No one is, more or less, the owner of any property that needs to be probated until after the court has approved everything. You need to actually prove that something actually should go to someone else.

MN Probate Lawyer Questions

For the specifics on Minnesota probate laws, you may want to reach out to a probate lawyer. You can ask them and see what can be done about the matter.

Perhaps they can advise you on how to deal with a bond that was taken out or how to see if everything is in order. This isn’t to pretend like everything is going to be easy.

That said, having their help may make things easier overall. There might be a lot of legal documents, but they should be able to help you narrow down which ones apply to your situation.

There’s one at Flanders Law Firm LLC who can help you, and if you want to know more about doing what’s right in a probate case, call them at 612-424-0398.