If you have recently lost someone very close to you, then after the grieving is over, you must take steps to ensure that all of their assets are debts are well taken care of. For doing this you have will go through something called probate and you must go through with this, because unless you do so, the estate won’t be taken care of. If you have heard the word ‘probate’ for the first time in your life then naturally you might have questions relating to the same and you also might wonder how all of this works. We are here to make life a little easier for you, because in this piece we will go through what probate means and we will also enlist all the important things that you must know about it. So without much further ado, let’s get straight into.
For starters : the definition of ‘probate’
Probate is actually a legal process which goes through local courts in the country. The local court is based on the state where the deceased person lived for the majority of his life. Under probate, the court oversees the dispersal of the assets of the deceased to ensure that all the wishes of the deceased have been honored while following the different state laws. Probate is pretty much; more or less the same in very state of the US, but some specific details are a little different when it comes to the state of Arizona. Probates with real estate Arizona is definitely quite different than the probate process for real estate in other states of USA. It is in your best interests to know more about these details in order to ensure that you handle probate correctly and within time.
In what conditions does probate become necessary for Arizona?
Probate is necessarily required by law in Arizona unless the decedent in question has trusted or listed beneficiaries for all the assets in question. Just like all rules, there are exceptions to this rule as well and it is meant for estates where the value of the personal property is less than $75,000. It also applies to real property which is valued under $100,000. In such cases, the estate in question is called a small estate and rules of the probate don’t necessarily apply to small estates.
If the rules apply then the family is required to submit an affidavit detailing all the assets along with a copy of the will which has been left behind by the deceased person. The process of probate gets completed when the court grants the transfer of the property to the people it is willed in the will, and such people are mostly familiar members who are called the heirs. If the property left behind was held in joint tenancy then such a property gets transferred to the owner who has survived and there’s no reason to go through probate. This is also the same case with community properties where the rights of survivorship just don’t apply. Probates with real estate Arizona might get transferred to a beneficial if such a transfer has been mentioned on the death deed.
How long does the entire process of probate take in Arizona
The timeline for the entire process of probate can vary quite a bit much in the state of Arizona and it is mainly dependent on the size of the estate. The time span might extend a little longer if some disputes have been found over the will. In some cases, probate processes can take anywhere from months to several years. At a minimum, if everything goes, then you are looking at something around 5 months.
Is it necessary for all estates to go through probate in the state of Arizona?
It is important for all estates to go through probate unless the assets in question have been placed in a trust or if there are some beneficiaries for an automatic transfer. With estates there is always some type of probate involved but the ‘type’ of probate almost always varies and it is dependent on the size of the estate and also the size of the debt on the estate. The formal probate process will always take more time and the informal process will naturally take much less time.
Here’s how you can avoid probate in Arizona
If you plan well-in-advance and know all the rules and regulations, then yes, legally, there’s a way you can surely avoid probate. In most cases, this happens when the owner has died and the title of the property gets transferred to the trust. If and when this happens, then what happens next is that all assets in the trust in its entirety get automatically transferred to the beneficiary in the trust. The trust from thereon is considered to be a separate legal entity, different and distinct from the person who has died. It is even possible to designate different beneficiaries for certain assets to ensure that such assets get transferred easily without having to go through the entire process of probate.
