When a loved one tragically passes away, we know it is a difficult season, and distributing the decedent’s assets is the furthest thing from your mind. Our team understands your desire to honor their estate plan wishes and distribute their personal and private assets how they would have wanted.
You may have heard that probate can be a time-consuming process and, while this is correct in many legal situations, it is not always true. Many probate cases get bogged down when the surviving spouse or estate administrator is ignorant of their roles and properly continuing legal proceedings.
When you work with The Legacy Lawyers, we strive to handle your complex probate matters and answer any probate questions you have. Below are three practices we employ to speed up the process of probate from our expert legal advice.
Open Probate Quickly
According to California law, you should file a will through the probate court within 30 days of the decedent’s death. Therefore, we get to work as soon as you contact us and legalize their wishes. The longer you wait to get the probate case started, the longer it will take and, if issues were to arise, they would only cause further delays in the case.
If you cannot avoid probate and aspire to become the will’s representative, it is critical to initiate the probate action quickly to get this approval. Waiting too long allows others to seek this role or force a judge to appoint a different administrator, so you must file as soon as possible to retain control.
Give Proper Notice
The real estate administrator must provide all interested parties with appropriate notice of the probate action, including beneficiary family members and estate creditors. Failure to provide a required party with proper notice will cause significant delays in the probate process. Therefore, we assist in notifying all parties and following all legal requirements correctly for your purposes only.
Maintain Accurate Records
It is imperative that you maintain accurate and thorough financial records that are important to support final accounting. They also protect you from allegations of wrongdoing or estate/asset mismanagement. We ensure that you have proper documentation supporting all of your actions during the probate case.
Our Experienced Team Knows the Probate Process
As a personal representative or estate administrator, you have specific legal responsibilities with little room for error that our team can educate you on. We are an expert force of personal strengths and talent that can answer all your probate process questions and help you speed it up.
We know the probate process can be an overwhelming task to take on, especially with a loved one’s death, but do not despair. We have assisted hundreds of cases similar to your unique situation and are happy to discuss your legal circumstances by calling 714.963.7543.
