PROBATE

Ask anyone who has suffered through it: Probate - the Court supervised process of gathering, valuing and distributing your estate if you have only a Will or no planning and assets greater than $100,000 in your name alone - is an expensive, time consuming, and very public process that is best avoided. Probate hearings and files, including asset and beneficiary information that you may not want to disclose, are open to the public. And it is very, very expensive, as you can see in the sidebar.

At Bartsch Law, we can help you avoid probate and save you those thousands in fees by creating a Living Trust where you can place your assets. We can also advise you on the benefits and pitfalls of other avenues of protection.

Organized & Hands-On
Our approach to Probate is organized, aggressive, and hands-on. Our attention to detail and our association with other colleagues in the field enable us to provide the quickest possible probate to our clients. The sooner we are involved, the better the outcome.

Give us a call today. We're happy to answer any questions you have about the process.

Probate costs include:

• Court filing fees
• Publishing fees
• Appraisal fees
• Attorney & Executor fees

Attorney and executor fees are separate but identical, and are as follows:
4% of the first $100,000
3% of the next $100,000
2% of the next $800,000
1% of the next $9 million
0.5% of the next $15 million

All that adds up. For example, an estate worth $1,000,000 would cost $23,000 for attorney's fees and another $23,000 for the Executor. Each additional $1,000,000 would add $10,000 to both the attorney and the executor fees and other fees may apply, depending on the circumstances of the estate.

Ouch!