At the time of your unfortunate passing, the trusted individual you named in your Last Will and Testament document will assume their responsibility. That is, they will go to the Orphans’ Court Division, appear before the Register of Wills to be sworn in, and ultimately initiate the probate process. Here, the Pennsylvania probate court will supervise how your executor transfers ownership of certain assets to your named beneficiaries. For this, please follow along to find out which assets are supposed to go through the probate process and how one of the proficient Butler County probate attorneys at Heritage Elder Law & Estate Planning, LLC can provide you with legal options for potentially sidestepping this court intervention.
What assets go through the probate process in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?
Generally speaking, the assets that are expected to go through the Pennsylvania probate process are the ones that were owned solely by you and do not otherwise have a built-in beneficiary designation or survivorship feature. Without such automatic transfer mechanisms, the court holds a responsibility to oversee your executor’s manual transfers and the process as a whole. More specifically, you can expect the following types of assets to undergo probate:
- Your individually owned checking and savings accounts.
- Your vehicles that are titled solely in your name.
- Your real estate property that is held solely in your name or as a tenant in common.
- Your personal belongings and family heirlooms.
- Your sole proprietorships or shares in businesses.
What types of assets are allowed to evade the Pennsylvania probate process?
You may not wish to burden your loved ones with the hassle of probate. After all, you may have heard that this process has a reputation for being time-consuming and costly, with the potential of creating tension and emotional rifts amongst beneficiaries, or between your beneficiaries and executor. All of this to say, you may prefer for your assets to bypass these court proceedings entirely and go through a more direct line of transfer. Well, you may be surprised to learn that this is entirely possible for some. Below are examples:
- Your property that is held jointly with rights of survivorship (i.e., your jointly owned home or bank account).
- Your assets with designated beneficiaries (i.e., your life insurance policy, retirement account, and payable-on-death account).
- Your assets that you have used to properly fund a revocable or irrevocable trust with its own distribution terms and conditions.
With these types of titles and accounts, you must ensure that they are set up legally in the first place and kept up to date thereafter in order for them to evade the Pennsylvania probate court effectively. To conclude, if you wish to explore your legal options moving forward, please allow one of the talented Butler County probate attorneys from Heritage Elder Law & Estate Planning, LLC, to be your guiding force. Please schedule your initial consultation with our firm at the first chance you get.
