Frequently Asked Questions

You can provide for your kids in a variety of different ways:

• Leave them assets in your will or trust – to be held for their benefit until they reach a certain age. Likely the guardian or trustee would hold the assets during their minority,
• Establish life insurance now so that there is money to support your kids after you’re gone, which will pay following your death.
• Give detailed instructions to the potential Guardian now, or have those instructions written down and kept with your estate plan in the event you pass before your kids turn 18.
• Make sure that whoever the Guardian will be, they agree with and respect your parenting method and the manner in which you wish for your children to be raised in your absence.

Having a plan well in advance of any unexpected illness or accident is key.

If you do not appoint a Guardian in a Will, or some other writing executed with the same formalities of a Will, then your family will be able to petition the Clerk for Guardianship – but in that event, the Clerk will have no context or background for your kids or your family, so the person you may not have intended to be the Guardian may end up being appointed Guardian by the Clerk.

If they are minors at the time of the deaths, and if you designated a Guardian for Minor Children in your Will, the Guardian will submit the Will to the Clerk of Court and Petition for Guardianship of the children. The Clerk is required to defer to the wishes of the parents unless the potential Guardian is unfit.

Any personal property assets owned by you, in your individual name, on the date of your death – without one of the non-probate designations:

• Individual bank accounts,
• Personal effects and home furnishings,
• Cash and uncashed checks earned or paid prior to death,
• Debts or accounts receivable owed to you on the date of your death,
• Business interests owned individually (LLC membership interest, corporate stock, or partnership interest – or the business itself if you’re a sole proprieter),
• Vehicles, motor homes, RVs, boats, etc.,
• Farm equipment,
• Any traditionally non-probate assets that are left to your estate.

Non-Probate assets are those owned in one of the following manners:

• Joint tenant with right of survivorship (some joint bank accounts or brokerage accounts),
• Tenancy by the entireties (marital ownership of a home),
• Transfer-on-Death designations (IRA, 401k, 403b, some bank accounts),
• Pay-on-Death designations (life insurance, some annuities and pensions),
• Beneficiary designations (IRA, 401k, 403b, some investment accounts)
• Trust assets

There are three ways to avoid probate:

• Not owning anything on the date of your death – if you have no assets, your estate will have no assets to probate,
• Only owning assets in a non-probate designation (see the next FAQ below), or
• Utilizing trust-based planning to remove assets from your estate.

There are really three potential costs associated with Probate:

• The filing and notice fees (usually $120 and $115-130 depending on the newspaper),
• The Probate fee (0.4% of probate assets up to $6,000), and
• The Attorney’s Fee for assisting with the Probate proceeding ($1,000 – $10,000, depending on the matter and the Attorney).

It can take anywhere from 3 months to several years, depending on the nature and complexity of your estate. The duration will depend on the number of creditors, the types and location of your probate assets, whether there is a dispute amongst your beneficiaries, and whether there is a wrongful death action pending.

The Executor named in your will, and potentially an attorney of their choosing, will be tasked with settling your estate – i.e., paying your debts and disbursing your assets to your beneficiaries. The Executor will have a fiduciary responsibility to your beneficiaries in that endeavor.

Your will must be submitted to the Clerk of Court in the county where you reside, and have plans to stay for an indefinite period of time, on the date of your death.

With a Revocable Living Trust, no. The reason for that is the assets are still reachable by the Trustor, meaning he or she can remove them at any time. In order to achieve a tax or creditor protection benefit from a trust, the trust must be irrevocable.

A Revocable Living Trust has two primary purposes: 1) to avoid probate (see below); and 2) to provide more structure to the distribution of your assets after you have passed. The trust allows all assets titled in the Trustee’s name to avoid the probate process and be capable of use immediately after your death, and it allows the Trustor to put specific rules around how the Beneficiaries should receive the Trustor’s assets and when those distributions should take place.

It’s entirely up to the Trustor, but normally the Trustor will also serve as Trustee during their lifetime. Once they pass away, a Successor Trustee takes over – that person is appointed by the Trustor in the Trust.

Both are created to hold assets for a individual or class or beneficiaries for a variety of reasons – most likely to protect assets from waste and delay gratification for minor or immature beneficiaries. A Testamentary Trust is one that is created at death through your will. It is a direction to the Executor to create a trust if certain conditions are satisfied or not satisfied. For instance, if the intended beneficiary is under a certain age, a direction in the will may create a trust to hold the beneficiary’s share until they reach that certain age. If the beneficiary is already that age or older, the trust would not be created.

A Revocable Living Trust is one that is created during the lifetime of the trust creator is a used to receive all assets of the trust creator, whether by will or by beneficiary designation. This type of trust is generally use in more complex estate plans which require all asset types be governed by a common set of succession and distribution rules.

A Trust is a contract between three parties: 1) the Trustor or Grantor (the person creating the trust); 2) the Trustee (the person holding title to the property of the Trustor); and 3) the Beneficiary(ies). Unlike an LLC or Corporation, a Trust is not a separate legal entity. It is essentially a set of rules the set out how the Trustee is to hold the assets for the benefit of the Beneficiary(ies). The Trustor sets the rules. Trusts can have many different benefits, but are a complex planning technique that is not appropriate for everyone.

Generally speaking, yes, they are legal documents – if they are executed correctly following the required legal formalities in North Carolina. However, while these services may create a legal document, they cannot provide any sort of assistance with the actual planning involved in creating a will – they leave it up to you to know what you want to happen after you pass. This can be very dangerous and can end up creating very unintended consequences, especially if your family or financial situation changes after you create the will. These online providers create a document – what you need is an ongoing relationship to make sure your plan will always work for you and your family. That can only be accomplished by working with an Estate Planning Lawyer.

No, not usually. A will is often called a “ticket to probate”, meaning that it only governs assets that would normally need to pass through the court process of probate in order to be passed on to the intended beneficiary. The answer to this question largely depends on the assets and beneficiary designations of the testator (the creator of the will) at the time of their death. Wills are not generally probate avoidance tools, though.

Technically yes, anyone can draft a will. However, drafting your own will is a risky endeavor because you simply don’t know what you don’t know. Creating your own will makes it much more likely that there will be something left out or unaccounted for, or that a legal formality is not followed. It is always best to consult an Estate Planning Lawyer when considering implementing a Will in your estate plan.

A Will is a legal document, normally prepared by an Estate Planning Lawyer, setting out your wishes for the distribution of your assets after you pass, the appointment of a Guardian for any minor children or pets you may have on the date of your death, the payment of your debts, and the appointment of an Executor to settle your estate. Normally a Will is type-written, signed by you, witnessed by two uninterested adults (people who will not be beneficiaries of your estate), and notarized. This creates what is call a “Self-Proving Will” – meaning the Will itself proves it is legally valid and enforceable.