adopting foster children - how my lawyer did it

3 Main Types Of Probate: Determining Which One You Need

After a loved one passes away, their will has to be proven to be legitimate and then the will has to be carried out. This process is referred to as probate. When a loved one passes away, you need a probate administrator or lawyer to walk you through this process for your loved one. If the deceased did not already have a lawyer to deal with their will, you will have to hire someone. Here are the three most common types of probates that lawyers deal with. You will need to find a lawyer to deal with the type of probate that your loved one's will requires.

Small Estate Probate

This type of probate is the most straight forward to deal with. You should be able to find a fair amount of probate lawyers who are willing to deal with a small estate probate case. In these cases, the deceased estate is really small. If the deceased did not leave a lot of property or cash, this is the most likely road that you will have to take. The amount for a small probate estate case depends on the laws of the state that the deceased lived in. Generally, with small estates, the property that is left by the deceased is passed on to whomever was designed to inherit it within the will. This may involve little to no court time for the lawyer that you hire.

Unsupervised Probate

Unsupervised probate comes into effect when the deceased estate is larger than the amounts set forth by the small estate limits. Additionally, unsupervised probates depend upon all parties agreeing with the distribution of the estate as laid out in the will. 

If this is the case, all that a probate attorney would need to do for you is help everyone collect their inheritance and make sure that everything in your loved one's will is carried out as it was written. This should also be a relatively straightforward and easy case for an attorney to deal with.

Supervised Probate

The third type of probate is supervised probate. These types of probates occur when the deceased has a large estate or when one or more parties are contesting what was written in the will and the distribution of the deceased estates. 

These types of probates tend to take longer because the court has to step in and hear the case that each side is making on their claims to the deceased estate. Then, the court will have to decide how to divide your loved one's estates and who is legally entitled to what. This process usually involves a lot more of your attorney's time and is much more complicated than the other two types of probate explained above. 

If a loved one has passed away, you need to first determine the size of their estate and see if it qualifies for the small estate probate process. From there, you need to determine if everyone in the will agrees with the terms of the will or if a supervised probate will be necessary. This information will help you narrow down your search for a probate attorney (like those at Davis and Mathis). 


Share