Quote Originally Posted by 1980saguy View Post
While not life insurance, make sure your bank accounts have a payable upon death name listed. In that situation the bank pays to that person and the accounts don't have to be probated.
POD accounts are the way to go if that's all they have. For a house or land, make sure they have a transfer on death dead filed in the county. Any fifth year lawyer could be able to draft those, or if they are in the estate planning business it can be made fairly quickly by a first year. I'd quote about 1k on that but it really saves time and headache. Probate is slow, it can be extremely costly, and creditors really suck. Another thing you might consider if no body does anything while living is try a small estates affidavit. There is a certain criteria to meet if the deceased person does not have a will, so if push comes to shove get in touch with a probate lawyer.. not a personal injury or criminal defense person.