I am a only child. My mom passed away years ago and my dad passed away last month. Now his house, land, bank accounts needs to go through probate.
I was his POA beforehand. Now I have been appointed as executor of the estate by the county court.
The court gave me a list of things to do the first being a inventory of the estate.
Why do they want to know how many chairs, couches, coffee makers, vehicles and even lawn equipment he has?
I don't see why it matters as I was listed in his will to get the house and land. My name was not on the house or land.
When I read about probate it says it is done so that property is transferred, paying off debts and distributing any remaining assets in accordance with an estate plan.
I am a only child and there is no other family, there is nothing to transfer or distribute and his will stated I get everything.
Do they want the estate inventory to tax me on it at a later time? I already had to give them a inventory to pay the probate fees.
He was very good with money so he does not have any outstanding bills.
I am going to ask a lawyer if I need to go through all this.
I'm only 40 and too young for this. :(
The same procedure was required for foreclosure litigation, at least when I worked on those kinds of lawsuits.
But i see what you are saying the court does not know that.
Which still leads me to wonder why they need a inventory of house furniture etc if they can't tax me on it since it's not over $11 million.
Probate can vary from State to State, County to County. My Dad had a Revocable Trust/Will and a half dozen other legal documents drawn up by his Elder Law Attorney. Because Dad forgot to add some assets to his Trust, the estate needed to go through Probate. I also am an only child so it would be on my doorstep anyway.
Probate was so complex that I had my Dad's attorney do all of the work, and charged the estate. Fill out this, fill out that. Inventory as of such and such date. Rinse. Repeat. For me, it took two years before the Probate ended [County was backlogged as we were in a large metro area].... in the mean time I still needed to pay IRS taxes on the estate until the Probate was finalized.
After everything was done, I tossed all the paperwork into a box and never looked back.
here in the UK when someone dies, regardless of whether they left a will or not, the administrator/executor must complete an Inheritance Tax Form that asks about every little thing about the deceased, including items of furniture and equipment in their property,
once submitted they then decide how much of the total value of Assets they want paid in Tax.
it sounds like thats what ur talking about!
crazy - everything the deceased had had been taxed at some point but governments do it again for their own benefit.
in UK think total value of estate is taxed once it totals £300,000 anything less than that total value, think they write to say no tax is due but the form must be completed for government office to decide.
Your dad has an $11 million exemption for his estate, so I doubt you'll be paying any taxes.
This is why you make a trust, not merely a will. All of this probate mess could have been avoided with a trust.
I'm guessing that dad didn't think it would go through probate since he had a will and it says i would get all the estate.
I blame his lawyer that made up the will he should have know what would happen.
I still don't see why i need to go through probate as a only child and with his will stating that i get everything.
I will be asking a lawyer.
The inventory was very broad. We did household furnishings, appliances, musc houshold goods and clothes. She didnt have any land property And just eyeballed the value if I were to sell secondhand or garage sale. I was told to be vague as court records were publicly searchable and would be safer.
I'm guessing it's all so they can tax me on what i report.
Didn't know that about that being public. Thanks for the tip!
What do i do about his power bill? Do i put it in my name or just pay for it with the estate checking account.
No one is living at the house but power is always going to be needed. His other accounts have been closed already.
"Assets" are not what they have in mind. Stocks, CDs, real estate, vehicles are "assets". The "stuff" is personal property and can me listed/lumped under that category. At least that's what we did. I am not a lawyer.