People often have their own unique goals for estate planning, but certain goals are quite common. One issue that many people worry about is the expense and delay of having their estate go through the probate court.
Not only do family members and other beneficiaries have to wait months, if not a year or longer, for intensive probate proceedings to conclude, but the expenses involved in probate can also drastically diminish the resources you intended for your loved ones.
Many people want to avoid probate, and that goal will directly influence how they plan their estate. In what situations can you bypass probate in Indiana?
Probate is avoidable for small estates
If you don’t have very many assets to leave behind for the people you love, the upside for that situation is that you won’t have to worry about expenses and lengthy probate proceedings eating into that inheritance. For small estates with a total value of under $50,000, it may be possible to avoid probate altogether without any additional planning.
Trusts can be a tool to keep your resources out of probate court
Creating a trust changes the ownership of the resources you placed in the trust. Instead of being your property, those assets become the property of the trust itself. That means that they don’t necessarily go through probate court when you die but can rather get distributed by the person that you named as trustee in accordance with the rules you have in place.
Diminishing your assets now through strategic gifting or creating a trust can both be ways for you to successfully plan to avoid probate court for your assets when you die.
