Searching for Missing Heirs – Part 3
The last 2 weeks I have written about the increasing number of estate administration matters in our office in which there was no will and it is not clear who the heirs are. These are cases where the decedent had no spouse or children. We may know of the heirs on one
Searching for Missing Heirs (Part 1)
There have been a number of stories in the media about an epidemic of loneliness among the elderly. This is in part because families are smaller and more spread out. From an estate administration perspective, this means that many of these same people are dying alone and without apparent or at
Considerations When Leaving Estates to Non-U.S. Citizen Beneficiaries – Part 3
In my last 2 weeks’ blog posts I have been discussing the issues related to leaving your assets to beneficiaries who are not U.S. citizens. This week I want to cover a couple of recent scenarios in our office. One involved a decedent who was a U.S. citizen, died without a will
Why Does Estate Administration Take So Long? Part 3
In this week’s post explaining why estate administration takes so long, I cover the scenario when there is no will. New Jersey law establishes who has the first right to serve as administrator and who inherits the estate. Often, however, identifying the correct individuals is not easy. An administrator is tasked with the
Why Does Estate Administration Take So Long? (Part 2)
In my post last week I addressed a common question concerning the process of administering the estate of someone who has died. Why does it take so long? On average it can take 9 to 12 months for most estates to be completed although I did explain last week that easier estates
Why Does Estate Administration Take So Long? (Part 1)
When I explain the estate administration process, I am usually asked, “how long will it take?” The person will often preface that question by first stating that “it’s a simple estate” or “all the heirs are in agreement”. I tell people that, on average, an estate can require 9 months to a
Yet Another Real Estate Problem – Part 2
As I wrote in my post last week, our client is executor of the estate of a decedent who owned 100% of his home - at least that is what the most recent deed shows. When he found a buyer for the home and the title company did a title search,
Yet Another Real Estate Problem (Part 1)
I wrote a few months ago about a real estate sale that hit a snag when it was discovered that one of the record owners had died many years ago (as well as the sole heir to that owners estate and the sole heir to the sole heir’s estate). With our
A Celebrity Estate Plan Lesson (Part 1)
Over the years I have written a number of blog posts about the reasons everyone should have a will and more specifically a formal one. Too many adults don’t and high profile celebrities are no different than the general population. I wrote 10 years ago about the litigation surrounding James Gandolfini’s estate
The Time and Expense of Having No Will
People will sometimes ask me why they need a will if they don’t have any probate assets. This might be because they believe everything is owned jointly with right of survivorship or because they own nothing. It usually turns out, however, that they do own something. It might be a car that is