Isn’t it great when you can look in the rear view mirror and know you made critical moves before death that will protect your family from enormous hassle and grief? Within our category of “Legacy Checklist After You Reach 60″… this is a must for you to consider. Maybe you haven’t known anyone who personally had to go through Probate, but it’s normally a horrid tale. This link will explain how Probate is required in cases where there is no Will but also when there is a Will, but not a Trust. Having your all of your property in a Trust is the only way to avoid Probate, but if you live in one state and have property in other states, you would have to go through Ancillary Probate for those states where you have additional property outside of the Trust. That typically means you need to hire an attorney in those states as well. Ugggh!
However there are 2 simple ways to avoid Ancillary Probate: 1) Own the property as Joint Tenants with someone else – so when you die, the property passes on to them and avoids Probate. 2) Place all of your properties in a Trust. Read more in the link below!