Probate, often feared and misunderstood, is a court-supervised process that settles a deceased person's debts and distributes assets according to their will or state law. The concerns around probate ...

Probate is a largely misunderstood but generally feared concept. Over half of the respondents to a recent study said that they have no idea about the costs involved in probate, and that they perceive ...

Understand the probate process and its timeline. Learn about filing petitions, identifying assets, notifying beneficiaries and creditors, and ways to avoid probate.

Christy Bieber has a JD from UCLA School of Law and began her career as a college instructor and textbook author. She has been writing full time for over a decade with a focus on making financial and ...

Texas has an extraordinarily easy type of probate called independent administration, which is used for most probate estates.

This is the third installment of my seven-part series on major estate planning mistakes. The first two are here and here. Not avoiding probate. When an asset passes to others through a will, it has to ...

Why a living trust isn't the answer for all your assets.

By Brooks J. Hollister The conversation of getting your future affairs in order can be an uncomfortable one, but it is a necessary one, nonetheless. As Father Time remains undefeated, it is important ...