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With the proper estate planning documents in place, one can avoid the pitfalls of two types of
probate. One is known as living probate and the 2nd one is known as death probate.
Living probate is the legal proceeding
which we will go through if you become incapacitated and you have assets that
are titled in your name.
Because you're incapacitated you could no longer manage these assets; therefore, a court
will appoint somebody called a conservator and a guardian over you.
A conservator is the person that the judge will point to manage your affairs for you
while you're incapacitated.
The guardian is the person that the
court will appoint to make sure that your physical needs are being met and the
hospital has taken care of you physically.
This is a public proceeding,
it's very costly and it can be very time consuming.
The other type of probate is known as death probate.
Death probate is the legal proceeding which we will go through if you should die
and there are assets in your name
that exceed the death probate threshold amount.
In the state of Arizona the threshold probate amount for personal property is
$50,000 dollars and for real property it's $75,000. If your assets, accumulated,
amount to more than these two threshold amounts, then we will open up a
death probate for you, whether you have a will or do not have a will.
This is a very time-consuming process. It can take anywhere from 9 to 24 months.
It's also very expensive.
The average in America today, according to the Wall Street Journal, for a formal death probate,
is about 7.4% of the total value of your estate
and the 3rd problem with death probate is it is a public proceeding.
The #1 crime in America today is identity theft.
We don't want all of your information out there to be reviewed
by the general public, we want to keep everything private.
There is a much better way to ensure that we avoid these 2 types of probates.
We can avoid these probates through a vehicle known as the revocable living trust
and other estate documents, which we can create for you. The revocable living trust
is a vehicle where we will re-title all of your assets in the name of the trust to ensure
that if you do become incapacitated, or pass away, there are no
assets titled in your name; therefore,
the court does not have to become involved. There's no living probate, there's no death probate.
We save on the time, expense and publicity
of these humiliating processes.
We also have the proper health care documents in place, to ensure that no
guardian needs to be appointed over you to take care of your physical needs.
You will have a mental health care power of attorney to ensure that if you do become
incapacitated you have the right people in place
to take care of your mental needs. You also have a health care power of attorney in place
to ensure that if you are taken to the hospital, that your health care decisions are being made
by the person you want to make them for you.
You'll have a living will to ensure that you have a positions directive in place
that wiill make sure that you do or do not stay on life support according to your wishes
or your desires and you will also have a HIPPA document, which will ensure that those that
you want to have access to your medical records will have access to those medical records in your time of need.