Whatever we accumulate or earn on this earth, we will have to leave back upon our death. To deal with our legacy is given for others to deal with. At this juncture, a probate lawyer near me will be of immense help to a family member or friend to assist with the probate process.
Also called as estate attorneys, probate lawyers assist their non-lawyer clients to fulfill various roles like personal representatives, administrators or executors of estates. They can guide their clients through the complete probate process or during the different stages of this process. Probate process can be described as paying of the deceased person’s debts and distributing the estate’s assets in accordance with the will or state law.
The roles of a probate lawyer
A probate lawyer is capable of doing a long list of things. What a probate lawyer will do in a given situation will depend on the needs of the administrator or executor. It will also depend on the nature of the complications in the estate, and if the deceased has left back a will or not. They will deal with all the difficulties connected to the estate property and if there are any legal challenges in front of the debtors and beneficiaries.
What happens if there is a will?
If the deceased person has left back a valid, signed will which was completed before death, a probate lawyer will guide the administrator through the different steps of the probate process according to the terms contained in the will. This role can be described as consultative.
If there are any challenges to the will, if the beneficiary believes that the will is invalid, if the will was signed under duress or someone else’s influence, the probate attorney will represent a party during probate litigation. In such cases, someone can be contesting that they are left out of the will. There can be several reasons why a will must be challenged. However, most wills go through the probate with few problems.
What happens if there is no will?
If the deceased has not left any valid, written will, the situation is explained as the subject having died ‘intestate’. In this case, the state will have to decide who will inherit the estate. Depending on the state’s laws, the surviving spouse will get the whole or half of the deceased spouse’s estate.
In this case, along with the estate administrator, the probate lawyer will distribute the property in accordance with the state laws. Irrespective of what the deceased person had said when they were alive, or how much some of the family members may need the money, the state will take the upper hand in accordance with the state laws to distribute the assets of the estate.
In the situation described above, the probate lawyer can help a loved one to be named as the estate administrator by the court. They can also be hired later to coordinate with the probate process after the probate court judge has named them as administrator.
