Anne Heche Dies With Conflict Around Her Will, Leaving Her Sons & Estate In Legal Limbo—Part 2

Actress Anne Heche died this August following a tragic car accident, leaving behind two young sons: Homer Heche Laffoon, age 20, and Atlas Heche Tupper, age 13.

Last week, in part one, we covered the way uncertainty around Heche’s estate plan is creating conflict among her loved ones and resulting in her estate going through the lengthy, expensive, and public court process called probate. In part two, we’ll discuss two additional issues related to Heche’s death and the results of her failure to work with a lawyer on her planning.

Probate: What It Is & How To Avoid It—Part 2

Unless you’ve created an estate plan that works to keep your family out of court when you die (or become incapacitated) many of your assets must go through probate before those assets can be distributed to your heirs. Like most court proceedings, probate can be time-consuming, costly, and open to the public, and because of this, avoiding probate—and keeping your family out of court—is often a central goal of estate planning.

To spare your loved one’s the time, cost, and stress inherent to probate, last week in part one of this series, we explained how the probate process works and what it would entail for your loved ones. Here in part two, we’ll discuss the major drawbacks of probate for your family, and outline the different ways you can help them avoid probate with wise planning.

Probate: What It Is & How To Avoid It—Part 1

Unless you’ve created a proper estate plan when you die many of your assets must first pass through the court process known as probate before those assets can be distributed to your heirs. Like most court proceedings, probate can be time-consuming, costly, and open to the public, and because of this, avoiding probate—and keeping your family out of court—is a central goal of most estate plans.

During probate, the court supervises a number of different legal actions, all of which are aimed at finalizing your affairs and settling your estate. Although we’ll discuss them more in-depth below, probate typically consists of the following processes:

Will Your Estate Plan Actually Work When Your Family Needs It?

If you’re like most people, you likely think estate planning is just one more task to check off of your life’s endless “to-do” list.

You may shop around and find a lawyer to create planning documents for you, or you might try creating your own DIY plan using online documents. Then, you’ll put those documents into a drawer, mentally check estate planning off your to-do list, and forget about them.

The problem is, estate planning is not a one-and-done type of deal.

How to Fund Your Trust to Avoid Probate

A common estate planning mistake many people make — including celebrities like Michael Jackson — is not ensuring the trust you have created holds all your assets. Unfortunately, most lawyers simply do not make sure this is properly handled for their clients, so if you’ve worked with any law office other than ours, you need to double check this critical issue. If you do not transfer your assets into your trust, it is an empty shell and does nothing to accomplish the objectives you had in mind when you established it.

TrustErica EndykeSeptember 30, 2019trust, probate court

The Real Cost To Your Family: Having No Estate Plan At All

When it comes to putting off or refusing to create an estate plan, your mind can concoct all sorts of rationalizations: “I won’t care because I’ll be dead,” “I’m too young,” “That won’t happen to me,” or “My family will know what to do.”

But these thoughts all come from a mix of egoic pride, denial, and above all, we imagine, a lack of real education about estate planning and the consequences to your family. Once you understand exactly what planning is designed to prevent and support, you’ll realize there really is no acceptable excuse for not having a plan, provided you are able to plan and truly care about your family’s experience after you die or if you become incapacitated.

How Can A Probate Attorney Help With An Estate?

probateErica EndykeAugust 23, 2018probate, probate court, probate in massachusetts, executor, personal representative, beneficiary of a will, beneficiary of an estate, estate property, heirs, creditors of an estate