The probate process can be full of unknowns for people who have never gone through it before. If you find yourself facing the probate process unprepared, you may need some help figuring out how to properly navigate everything. These are just a few things you can expect throughout the probate process.
Petition for Probate
The first step towards getting through probate is getting into probate. This involves presenting a court with a petition to begin probate on the individual’s estate. When doing so, you’ll need to include the individual’s will and death certificate. This allows the court to review the information and officially begin the probate process. The next step for the courts will be to declare an executor of the estate who will handle the inheritance process for the individual. Once an executor of the estate is appointed, they will be in charge of handling the rest of the affairs until the probate process is completed.
Take Care of Remaining Debts
Once an executor has been appointed, one of their duties will be to take inventory of the assets within the estate. They also need to acquire proof of ownership on the assets as well. Depending on the size of the estate, this task can take months to complete. Once all the assets have been inventoried, the executor will be able to sell some of them to pay off any remaining debts the deceased may have accumulated during their lifetime. At this point, the executor will also have to pay any taxes that still need to be paid on the estate before the estate can be distributed.
Final Distribution of the Estate
Once the proper paperwork has been completed, and any remaining tasks have been completed, the executor can distribute the estate to the different beneficiaries. Depending on the stipulations of the individual’s will, this can take a variety of forms. This process may be as easy as issuing each heir a certain sum of money. This can also become more complicated, especially if there weren’t any specific stipulations as to who inherits the property and house itself. In this case, selling the house can be a logical next step to take. To help the process end sooner, consider selling the home for cash with a reliable cash buying company like Forrest Buys Houses.
The probate process is difficult to go through for many reasons. For starters, there is a lot of emotion surrounding the loss of someone dear to you. Secondly, it is incredibly time consuming to work through every remaining asset in an individual’s estate. If you need to sell a property to shorten the probate process, consider selling it for cash.
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