Should You Avoid Probate? Understanding the Process & Alternatives

Watch Carina de la Torre explain probate alternatives on YouTube.

Should I avoid probate?

This is really a client specific question. We don't take the approach that everyone needs to avoid probate. Instead, we take the approach of educating our clients. We teach them what probate is, what are the good things and the not so good things about probate? And let the client decide what is the best way forward. Probate is a court proceeding, so that means that everything that happens is in the public record. If privacy is important to you, then probate may not be the best solution for you. Probate is like any other court proceeding. It takes time. During probate, assets are identified and protected. Beneficiaries are identified, creditor claims are handled, and ultimately, assets are distributed to the beneficiaries.

Often, probate can take one year or longer to complete. So if taking care of your beneficiaries in a timely manner is important to you, probate might not be the best solution for you. A will does not actually avoid probate. It's one of those myths of estate planning. What a will does is that it tells the probate court what it is that you would want to have happen with your beneficiaries and your assets, but the will alone does not avoid probate. If you want to avoid probate, a more complete estate plan is going to be needed. It could be a will based estate plan and holding your assets in the right way, or it might be a trust based estate plan. We have other FAQ videos that will be helpful to you in deciding what is best for you. But if you decide that a court based probate process is not a good fit for you, then a complete estate plan is the way to go.