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By: Scott Grossman on August 10th, 2017

Valuable Tips During the Probate Administration Process

When administering an estate, there are many issues that can arise that may generate frustration and confusion. Unfortunately, this can make for an overall stressful process for all those involved. It is important to learn valuable tips about how you can avoid potential road blocks while navigating through probate administration.

5 Important Tips to Make For a Smooth Probate Administration

How can you make the administration of your loved one’s estate as smooth as possible? The following are five vital tips:

  1. Remember that a probate administration is often a team process. The estate administration calls for various tasks, and people with a specific skill set or expertise can take over them. Fortunately, you can be entitled to seek help from these individuals rather than navigating through the process on your own.
  2. With that in mind, choose the right people for your team. For example, hire accountants, financial advisors, and attorneys that are properly licensed and have sufficient experience administering estates. It is also important to choose people who are responsive, diligent, and easy to communicate with. A good relationship among the parties involved goes a long way towards an efficient estate administration.
  3. Understand the motivations and intentions of your loved one when creating his or her estate plan. In some cases, the instructions left for the person in charge of administering the estate may be vague or completely missing. If you are able to gain a sense of what your loved one desired, it is often easier to make decisions as they arise. For example, if your loved one clearly expressed that his or her children can remain living in the family home, you could decide to hold off on selling the property until later in the administration process. It also may make it less likely that your decisions during the estate administration will give rise to anger, frustration, or resentment among the heirs or beneficiaries.
  4. Before beginning the estate administration process, get as organized as possible. This includes researching whether your loved one owned any additional assets, gathering contact information for banks, financial institutions, and heirs, and setting up a bank account for the estate. The more organized you are, the smoother the estate administration process is likely to go.
  5. Be patient, but act diligently. This is perhaps the most important tip to remember. The probate administration process is often lengthy. You may find that it takes months or years to fully complete the process. Unfortunately, many people that are going through the probate process, think that it is completed in a matter of weeks. This is not the case. At the same time, it is important to act diligently when fulfilling your duties. By carrying out the necessary tasks in a timely manner, you will minimize the overall amount of time it takes to complete the administration.

Carrying out a probate administration is not always an easy process. Fortunately, we can help. We encourage you to contact us today at (888) 443-6590 for more information.

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