Quote:
Originally Posted by retiredguy123
In my case, I had a will, signed by my mother, leaving everything she owned to me. The only asset to be probated was her house. There were no other heirs. The only reason for probate was that a title company would not prepare a clear title to a buyer, based on a will. I thought it was outrageous for an attorney to ask for a $4,500 fee for less than an hour of work by a legal assistant. That is why I did it myself.
I will also add that negotiating an "hourly" fee with an attorney is not good enough. You need to negotiate the total fee, or you may be shocked by the bill.
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I'll let the attorneys speak for themselves, but in my experience with family, as well as living in a family of lawyers, there's more than an hour's work. They have to open the estate, gather all bills from everyone (doctors, hospitals, power company, gas company, funeral director, banks, loan company, credit card company, etc., etc.) and make sure they are paid out of the estate FIRST, file the Federal and State taxes for all the relevant states, contact any and all potential heirs, etc. Things can get messy if there's a long lost "someone" that may be due an inheritance (e.g. stepchild from a long-ago marriage). My spouse's birth father had 5 wives from 4 legal marriages over his lifetime and 3 sets of kids (some adopted, some not). Then there's the battles between heirs about the terms of any will, whether the will is valid, who gets what, who agrees to sell the "farm" vs keep the "farm", who gets "mom dining room table, dresser, etc." When it comes to family and money, things get really messy, especially when you die, and they decide to go to your home and start removing things before probate!!! IMO, retirement assets, mutual funds, etc. are the easiest because you can (and should) assign beneficiaries for each account, which should take them out of the equation. As for putting children on checking/savings accounts, etc., do you REALLY want to make them co-owners and risk their debts sacking YOUR money? For property such as farms, you can put them in an LLC set up with a right of survivorship, and over several years give them an interest in the LLC and they just get the property upon death. Bottom line, when YOU ARE DEAD, do you really care about a few thousand spent to settle the rest of the estate that wasn't covered by having beneficiaries or LLCs? To them, it's free money! Let the lawyer absorb the grief from family rather than family fighting over things.