Approximately 50% of individuals have an estate plan. For those individuals who don’t have one, the estate administration process can become much more difficult.  A lot of people refer to the entire process of dealing with the deceased’s heirs and creditors the “probate process”, although probate is technically only the process of proving the validity of the will,   It is the estate administration process that will help determine where a deceased individual’s assets go after they have passed away.

As the owner of the Thornton Law Firm, an estate planning law firm in Raleigh, I help families prepare for hopefully a shorter and easier estate administration process by not only drafting wills for them, but by going over the process in detail about what that they will encounter while offering helpful advice that hopefully will help minimize the time and effort to administer the estate.  However, despite anyone’s best planning efforts, there are a few reasons that the probate process could become longer than expected.

3 reasons the probate could become longer, whether a family has a will or not, are:

  1. Executor Errors: Errors by the executor (or “estate administrator” if there is no will) can slow the process dramatically. It is important to have an estate planning attorney review the documents that the executor will be filing at the courthouse to ensure they are filled out correctly before being submitted.
  2. Missed Deadlines: Whether there is a will or not, there are certain deadlines the executor or the family must meet. There are a handful of deadlines and they may be confusing if it is the first time walking a person has dealt with this process. It is a great idea to have a Raleigh attorney guide through the deadlines.
  3. Valuation Mistakes: This issue is a little bit more applicable to individuals who don’t have a will because the family is trying to evaluate the value of the individual’s assets so that it can be determined how to divide the estate more exactly and equally. Many families know the value of their assets and include it in the estate plan in order to make it easier for the executor and the heirs once they have passed away.

There are a lot of small details that go into the estate administration process.  Regardless if a family member has died with or without a will in Raleigh, it’s a great idea to hire an estate planning attorney in order to walk through the process with you. I would be honored to help your family! Contact me today and I will help get the process started no matter what the situation is.