Oh! Not Again! The Need for Ancillary Probate

As we’ve discussed elsewhere, in an almost knee jerk way, people want to avoid probate. And for some good reasons. But what if I told you there were a possibility your heirs might have to go through two or even three probates? It’s true. If you own titled property, especially real estate, in another state than the one you live and die in, your personal representative is probably going to have to file probate papers in all the states where that property is located. And with that comes the added expense of additional attorneys and such.

It’s called ancillary probate, ancillary because its subsidiary or supplementary to the larger probate, the one in your state of residence where presumably most of your property is located. You can avoid ancillary probate a variety of ways. If the out-of-state property is real estate, you could simply make sure that another person is on the deed with you with rights of survivorship. That way, when you die, the property passes automatically to that person, without probate.   Or you could title the property using a so-called transfer on death deed, which are allowed in a number of states. Or you could hold the property in a revocable or living trust.

The trust approach is my preferred method because, unlike the other methods, this one makes it easier to direct the property to where you want it to go once the property is held in the name of the trust.

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