By: Matthew J. Abraham, Esq., Michigan Estate Planning Attorney
When families lose a loved one, the emotional stress and grief can make it difficult to focus on financial issues. Unfortunately, surviving family members might need access to assets of a breadwinner’s estate to provide for their basic financial needs like the home mortgage, school tuition, utility bills and even basics like groceries. When the assets of an estate are tied up in probate, the value of the estate can be diminished substantially, and access to money can be delayed for months or even years if the estate is subject to a contested probate proceeding. These are just a few reasons that most people try to avoid the probate process. While the probate of a will can raise significant issues, such as probate costs, delays in distributing residual assets and privacy violations, the situation can be far more problematic when an individual dies with no will or trust at all.
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