Divorce | Wills | Living
Wills | Estates and
Probates | Trusts
This material is intended to be a general
statement of estate and probate laws in Pennsylvania and is not
a detailed guide. Be sure to consult with an attorney if you have
specific questions.
What is Estate Administration?
What is Probate?
Is
it possible to avoid Probate?
How Long Does It Take to Settle an Estate?
How Much Does It Cost
to Administer an Estate?
Can an Executor or Administrator Handle the Estate without an
Attorney and Avoid all those Fees?
What Is Estate Administration?
Estate administration is the collecting of Estate assets,
the payment of Estate liabilities, payment of the Pennsylvania
or Federal death taxes, filing of appropriate paperwork and
getting the right assets to the right people.
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What is Probate?
"Probate” is technically the filing of a Will, or
opening up an Estate, at the Office of Register of Wills at
the Courthouse
in the County in which you live.
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Is It Possible to Avoid Probate?
The answer is, “It depends.”
Probate is not something that should be avoided like cancer.
Probate provides a mechanism, regulated by law, for handling
your assets when you die. If your assets are large or if
there are any problems with heirs, it is probably best
to go through probate.
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How Long Does It Take to Settle
an Estate?
This question cannot be answered easily, but here are some
guidelines:
1. If you are married and nothing unusual is going on (e.g.,
all your assets are “jointly” held with your
spouse and you don’t have a business in your name)
an Estate can be “settled” by filing the death
certificate at the Register of Wills of your home county.
2. If you are single and have very few assets, filing
the death certificate might be all that is needed.
3. If you have a house or other assets in your name, singly or
jointly with a person not your spouse, a Pennsylvania Inheritance
Tax Return must be filed within nine (9) months of your death.
It usually takes Harrisburg 90-120 days to approve or disapprove
the Return. Sometimes, however, if an Estate has relatively few
assets or for other reasons is easy to administer, a Return can
be filed within a few months. My general rule is that it takes
at least eight to twelve months to administer and close up an
Estate.
4. If your Estate is large or otherwise complex it can
take years to administer. As noted, a Living Trust is
usually not the answer to estate planning problems. Usually
it
just creates more problems.
The best advice for anyone engaged in estate planning
is to consult a knowledgeable attorney and follow his
or her
advice!
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How Much Does It Cost to Administer an Estate?
There are three kinds of fees generally associated with
Estate Administration:
1. Probate Fees.
These are set by the Register of Wills of the County in
which you live. The larger the Estate, the higher
the fees. You can call the Beaver County Register of Wills at
(724)
728-5700 for more information.
2. Inheritance Tax.
These are set by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
There is no tax on assets from one spouse to another,
and to
qualified charities. There is a four and a half percent
(4 1⁄2 %) tax on assets from parent to child, grandparent
to grandchild, child to parent, etc. There is a fifteen
(15%) percent tax on assets from sibling to sibling, or
between people who are not related. Jointly held property
is taxed at lower rates.
3. Attorney’s Fees.
These are set between the personal representative
of the Estate (the Executor or Administrator) and
the Attorney.
Pennsylvania rules require that the fee agreement
be in writing and that the client receive a copy
of the agreement.
Most attorneys charge a fee based on a percentage
of the gross assets of the Estate. Some simply charge
a flat fee.
However, if a problem arises between the personal
representative and the attorney over fees, the Probate
Judge of the County
can sometimes set the fee.
The best answer to this question is, “It all depends.”
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Can an Executor or Administrator Handle the Estate without
an Attorney and Avoid all those Fees?
Not quite. You will still pay Court costs and Inheritance
Tax or Estate Tax. There are plenty of filing deadlines
and paperwork requirements that a non-attorney is unfamiliar
with and will probably mismanage. It is often far simpler
to pay an attorney to do all the worrying and handle everything.
Besides, a “do-it-yourself” person should always
remember Abraham Lincoln’s famous line: “A
person who represents himself has a fool for a client”!
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For more detailed answers on these
or any other legal matters,
please feel free to contact me at my office.
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