WHAT EVERY FUTURE WIDOW SHOULD KNOW
(AND WIDOWER TOO)
by
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BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE-AVOID PROBATE To die is bad enough. But to die leaving only a will, or without a will, is much worse. Your spouse or executor, or personal representative, as it is called in some states, will have the frustration and expense of dealing with an attorney and the probate court in order to carry out your wishes. A widow will feel very powerless if she needs an attorney in order to collect that which is due her according to her husbands wishes. If you or your spouse die without leaving a will, the State will choose your heirs. You certainly do not want that to happen. If you die leaving a Will, that Will must be probated in a court. Probate is the state court procedure to distribute a decedent’s assets according to his Will. All Wills require this probate procedure. If the decedent has property in another state, his estate must go through the probate process in that state as well. All probate proceedings are open to the public scrutiny. All your financial affairs become open to the public. By contrast, if the decedent has a Revocable Living Trust there is no probate procedure required and no facts become public knowledge. The Trustee of the Revocable Living Trust has full power to distribute the decedent’s assets without requiring the services of an attorney or seeking permission from a court. Probate can be both time consuming and expensive. Legal fees can average between 3% and 6% of the total assets of the deceased. The probate procedure can last months or even years before the deceased’s assets are distributed. As your husband’s survivor you will feel frustrated in your inability to collect your husbands assets without the services of an attorney and with the time delay of court proceedings and the expense of legal fees. You do not want to go through that hassle and expense. There are only three ways to transfer assets owned by a deceased: Examples of such transfers: Assets owned individually by decedent must be probated distributed according to Will Assets owned as joint tenants with right of survivorship distributed to surviving joint owner, without probate Assets owned as tenants in common decedent’s share distributed according to Will survivor’s share continues as before Assets held "In trust for" distributed to named beneficiary Assets owned by Revocable Living Trust distributed, WITHOUT PROBATE, according to terms of the Revocable Living Trust.
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About the Book
This is the only book on the subject written by a certified public accountant that has been an executor of many estates and is familiar with the financial and tax problems encountered by a surviving spouse. The objective of this book is to take the mystery out of what you believe to be complicated subjects and to make them simple for you to understand.
About the Author
Harry Mautner is a Certified Public Accountant practicing in New York and Florida, specializing in estate planning and taxes. He has lectured extensively on these subjects on television, in universities and has conducted seminars on cruise ships. He was a major stockholder and officer of publicly held corporations. He has been executor or personal representative of several estates in New York and Florida. He lives with his wife in Hollywood, Florida. His immediate family includes their two sons, daughter in law, and two grandchildren.