In the last 35 years of my experience handling probate I have seen this process become more difficult, take much longer and become more expensive for my clients. The probate court is like any other government bureaucracy. It is not designed for speed or efficiency. They have no such incentive as a private business would. This is why in recent years I have been advising most of my clients to set up a revocable living trust to avoid probate. In general, administering an estate with a trust after the person has passed away is much easier, gets completed much sooner and the money is distributed to the beneficiaries long before it would be if we had to go through probate.
You can also avoid probate with what is referred to as a TOD (transfer on death), POD (pay on death) or joint tenant account arrangement. For a small estate with just a house, one or two bank accounts and a car, this may be the better estate plan. However, there are disadvantages to this type of estate plan as compared to a trust. I have seen many of these types of estate plans end up with unintended distributions and other problems.
For more information on Probate, visit my website page on Probate.
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