Why It’s Important for Your Family to Know Where Your Assets Are
By Barry Zimmer on October 19th, 2017 in Probate
Cincinnati probate attorneys at Zimmer Law Firm provide invaluable help to family members when someone has passed away. After a death, assets must be transferred during the probate process. This process can be complicated and time consuming, with Investopedia estimating the costs of probate can total anywhere from 3 percent to seven percent of the value of the estate. The process can also take around a year’s time, with some simple estates being probated quicker and others taking much longer.
One of the key factors that can make the probate process take longer is when family members do not know where estate assets are and when the executor of an estate must take a long time to try to find the estate assets so wealth can be passed on. In many cases, when assets are not easily findable, the probate process both takes more time and costs more money as investigations must be conducted in order to find missing assets.
It is very important for family members to both know what assets you own and to know where those assets are, if you want the probate process to go smoothly. Zimmer Law Firm can assist with the creation of a comprehensive estate plan that allows you to help your family make the probate process easy by making clear exactly what wealth you are passing down and where your assets are located.
The Importance of Creating a Comprehensive Estate Plan
There are myriad reasons it is so important to make sure your loved ones know where your assets are. One of the key reasons it is important is so the assets can be accounted for quickly after you pass away and so they can be more easily transferred through the probate process.
Making certain that your assets are accounted for and findable during probate can also be helpful so there are no questions about whether assets were taken improperly. If there are assets which cannot be found, this could raise concerns that the executor of an estate who is supposed to be protecting assets has mismanaged them or intentionally taken them. It could also raise concerns about whether any other family members may have improperly taken the missing assets. You don’t want to sow tension and discord among your loved ones after you have passed away as a result of assets being impossible to find.
Zimmer Law Firm will help you to ensure that there are no problems regarding finding estate assets and facilitating the transfer of those assets to your loved ones. We can also help you to decide if the best way to transfer your wealth is through your last will and testament or if you should use other estate planning tools such as pay on death accounts, joint ownership, or trusts to facilitate the transfer of assets.
By making a comprehensive estate plan, you can ease the probate process because your family will know exactly where all of your wealth is and will know exactly what your wishes are in regards to what should happen to that wealth. You can also opt to transfer assets entirely outside of the probate process through the use of many of the other estate planning tools available to you.
Getting Help from Cincinnati Probate Attorneys
Zimmer Law Firm offers comprehensive, personalized advice with all aspects of the estate planning process. When you want to make probate easy for your loved ones and avoid family fighting or confusion over missing assets, we can help you to put the right plans in place.
We can also provide assistance during the probate process if you are an executor of an estate or if you are one of the potential heirs or beneficiaries. We help even in complicated probate cases where there are questions about where assets are located or where there are concerns about the potential that missing assets have been taken improperly.
To find out more about the many ways in which our legal team can assist you with your estate planning or with all aspects of the probate process after a loved one has passed away, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at 513.721.1513 to get personalized help with your estate plan or with probate from our Cincinnati probate attorneys. Call as soon as you can after a loved one has died so we can begin working with you immediately to make probate as quick and simple as it can be.