What Do You Need to Know About Probate?

If you have ever considered or participated in estate planning, the term “probate” has likely come up. What is probate and why is it important? Is probate helpful or harmful to your estate planning? Read on to learn more. Simply put, probate is the legal process by which a person’s property is transferred to recipients…

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Who Owns Your Home?

A Minnesota Estate Planning Lawyer Urges You to Verify Who Is On Your Deed.  Betty calls me because her husband, John, recently passed away and she needs help on what she should do now. We meet and I discover that John had a will leaving everything to Betty. Betty explains that their home is jointly…

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You Inherit A Home, Now What?

A Minnesota Probate Lawyer Explains Some of Your Options Upon Inheriting a Home When you inherit a house, your primary concern should be figuring out how to secure and maintain the home until you decide what to do with it. Can family or neighbors help? Do you need to install a security system? Can someone…

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Prince Didn’t Have a Will? Now What?

A Minneapolis Probate Lawyer Discusses the Death of Prince and the Shock Regarding His Estate As you know, music superstar Prince died last week. Yesterday, his sister, Tyka Nelson, filed documents with the probate court stating that he did not have a will. Now what? The court documents listed six siblings or half-siblings as heirs…

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MN Estate Planning: The Power of Joint Tenancy

A Minneapolis Estate Planning and Probate Lawyer Explains the Power of Owning Property as Joint Tenants One of the numerous ways in which you may transfer real property, or real estate, and avoid probate is through owning the property in joint tenancy. Minnesota has two types of real estate ownership where there are multiple owners….

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What Is a Probate Asset?

A Minnesota Probate Lawyer Explains Probate vs. Non Probate Assets Sally calls my office to explain that her husband, Joe, recently died and the bank is telling her that she needs to probate his estate before she can get the money out of his account. She is confused as she thought they owned everything jointly…

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