Three Common Mistakes Made When Trying To Avoid Probate

As you think about an estate plan are you concerned about your family having to go through probate when you pass away?  Have you heard that the probate process can take a long time and be costly? What options do you have and what happens if mistakes are made when you are trying to avoid probate? Are there any solutions?

To begin, does your South Carolina estate plan include a last will and testament? If your answer is yes, that is excellent news. However, the fact that you have a will does not, by itself, allow your estate to avoid probate. 

Did you realize that when you created your South Carolina last will and testament and chose your personal representative you actually left a set of instructions for him or her? Your will instructs your personal representative in regard to the distribution of all of your assets, which may include a house, a vehicle, bank or brokerage accounts or personal items. However, your will with all your instructions does not change the fact that your assets may be subject to probate. Therefore, your personal representative will be required to probate your will, and this could possibly take time and money from your estate. So, how can you avoid this?

You can avoid probate and not make any mistakes, by meeting with your South Carolina estate planning attorney and letting her advise you about other estate planning tools. One of the other planning tools she might advise you to consider is a trust.  Your attorney may recommend that you create a revocable trust to avoid putting your estate through probate. Upon completion of your revocable trust you can put all your assets into the trust. 

Now, this is where the first mistake may occur. If you make any changes in your assets, these changes must be reflected in your trust.  For example, you may sell some assets and acquire some assets but forget to put your new assets into your trust, this is a common mistake. Be aware that only the assets in your trust will avoid probate. Any other assets you may have acquired but forgot to put into the trust will have to go through probate. You can avoid this mistake by annually meeting with your South Carolina attorney to update your documents. 

The second common mistake that may occur is in regard to changes in your family not reflected in your trust. Births, deaths and even divorce may impact your trust. Again, key to avoiding probate with your revocable trust is to update with your South Caroline estate planning attorney any changes to your family. In fact, we recommend annually updating your trust and estate plan.

Finally, the third common mistake is when the information in your will does not match the terms of your trust document. In that case, your trust document may prevail. If there are any inconsistencies they may have to be reviewed by a probate court. The key to this mistake is, again, to annually update all your estate planning documents.

At Jabber & Isaac, we are dedicated to providing the best legal counsel in a caring and compassionate way. If you are looking for a premier law firm in the Midlands area of South Carolina, look no further than Jabber & Isaac. To learn more about our firm, we encourage you to contact us today to schedule an appointment to meet with one of our attorneys.