Avoiding probate in Stillwater, Oklahoma is a great idea, because probate can be slow and costly. It can also tie up your estate for months or even years and consume a significant amount of the estate that you intended to leave for your loved ones.
Avoiding probate can give you a number of advantages in terms of insuring that a greater portion of your estate passes on directly to your decedents without lengthy complications or expensive legal fees.
There are various ways to avoid probate in Stillwater, but there is no one-size-fits-all method. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and you should survey as many of the various options available before deciding which is best in your case.
Here is a brief survey of three of the most common strategies employed in avoiding probate in Stillwater.
Joint Ownership
If you and your spouse own assets together, when one of you dies, the property passes on directly to the other without going through probate.
To use this method of avoiding probate effectively, you should make sure that title to any property held jointly is done so in the proper manner with respect to Oklahoma property law.
Name Beneficiaries for POD and TOD Designations
POD designations can be added to bank accounts and certificates of deposits as a way to have the funds transferred directly to a named beneficiary upon your death. In this way, the funds bypass probate.
The same thing may be accomplished for securities and mutual funds simply by adding a TOD beneficiary to your brokerage account.
A Revocable Living Trust
Setting up a living trust, which is usually no more complicated than creating a will, is one of the most common ways of avoiding probate.
Once you establish the trust, you can hold property in trust without having to surrender control of the assets and without any tax repercussions.
Upon your death, the property in the trust can be dispersed to whomever you named as a beneficiary, without the need of probate.
When all assets in the trust have been dispersed, the trust will cease to exist.
These are the most common, and arguably the easiest, ways of avoiding probate in Stillwater, but by no means is this a comprehensive list of your options. To find out other ways in which you can avoid probate in Stillwater, contact an experienced probate attorney.
Initial Strategy Session: Stillwater Probate Attorney
Contact Wirth Law Office – Stillwater for more detailed information on how you can arrange for your estate to avoid probate.
Get a low-cost and confidential consultation with a Stillwater probate attorney simply by dialing 405-673-1600.
Or submit your question in the “Ask an Attorney” form at the top right of this page.
