Upon the death of the testator—the person who made the will—probate will be opened if the testator died owning accounts or property in their sole name and without a properly completed beneficiary designation form. Probate is the court-supervised process in which the...
Many married couples share almost everything, including finances. This may be reflected in their estate plan by using one joint living trust instead of two separate trusts. Separate trusts can provide greater flexibility, but a joint trust can be structured so that...
Adding a payable-on-death (POD) or transfer-on-death (TOD) designation to an account allows the assets (money and property) in that account to be passed to a named beneficiary when the original account holder dies. Like trusts, POD and TOD accounts bypass probate....
