Should You Avoid Probate?

After you pass, probate is the legal process that your loved ones will go through to distribute your estate. Often, people will advise you not to go through the probate process. It is expensive and can take a long time to distribute anything to your heirs in Oregon. For small estates, probate may not be necessary at all, but for most, it is. The truth is that there is no right or wrong answer to whether you should avoid probate, unless you consider your specific circumstances. The Balance explains that for some people avoiding probate may be helpful, here are the reasons why you might want to.

Money is one of the leading reasons that a person might want to avoid probate. Probate can be expensive and on top of that, you may have attorney fees that your family will have to play. Sometimes smaller estates will cost an immense amount of money in legal fees.

If your family does not have a lot of money, this could turn into a financial crisis for them. During probate, they may have to pay household utilities, property insurance and other fees. Unfortunately, they may not have access to your accounts and hence will have to pay out of their own pockets.

Another reason that you may want to forego probate is if you do not want your assets to be a matter of public record. Probate is public and so all of your assets, liabilities and beneficiary information will be a part of the public record.

None of the above is to be considered legal advice. It is only to inform on some of the disadvantages of probate.