Your have found yourself in the probate process and feeling a little overwhelmed. Were do you go next? What are the next steps you need to take to settle the Estate? As a certified probate specialist (Anoka County’s number one probate specialist), I am here to help you out with one step or through the whole process. We can help with everything from property cleanout, estate sales, property repairs, as-is quick sales, leasing the property, selling the property and lining you up with all the professional you will need (Attorney, CPA, etc.).

Below in the images you can see what you can expect for the timeline it takes to settle the probate process and your duties and the Executor or Personal Representative.

Here is a list of some terms you should familiarize yourself with and can expect to encounter during the probate process:

• Administrator
  A person or institution appointed by a court to act on behalf of the deceased person in connection with the administration of a decedent’s estate.
  Administrator with Will Annexed (for Administrator CTA)
  An administrator appointed by a court to act on behalf of the deceased person who left a will, but where no nominated executor is willing and able to act.
• Beneficiary
  The individual or corporation who receives the benefit of a transaction (e.g., beneficiary of a life insurance policy, beneficiary of a trust, or beneficiary under a will.)
• Conservator
  The individual or corporation who legally has charge of the care and management of the person, property, or both of an adult who is unable to provide for his own personal needs or who is substantially unable to manage his financial affairs. Limited conservatorships may be established for developmentally disabled adults.
• Devisees and Legatees
  Persons named by a decedent in his will. A bequest or devise generally refers to real property and a legacy of money or personal property.
• Contingent Beneficiary
  One to whom distribution is dependent upon the occurrence of an event.
• Escheat
  The term which describes the reversion of property to the state in the event a person dies leaving no valid will and no heirs at law surviving him.
• Executor
  The individual or corporation appointed in a will by a testator to take care of the testator’s property after his death. Also called a personal representative.
• Guardian
  The individual or corporation who legally has charge of the care and management of the person, property, or both, of a child during his minority.
• Heir
  The person who inherits property under state law.
  Inheritance Taxes
  The taxes imposed, according to the relationship to the decedent, on the person who receives the property.
• Irrevocable Trust
  A trust whose terms and provisions cannot be changed, modified, altered, amended, or revoked.
• Pour-over will
  A will that provides for the transfer, after or during the probate court proceedings, of all or part of the net assets of a decedent’s probate estate from the executor’s control to the control of a trustee who is in charge of a trust that was in existence immediately before the death of the deceased person (inter vivos trust).
• Probate Administration
  The legal process whereby a probate court supervises the marshalling of a deceased person’s debts and taxes and orders the property distributed according to decedent’s will, or in its absence, to the deceased person’s heirs. The probate court has jurisdiction over the personal representative and the decedent’s assets.
• Real Property
  An interest in land or property permanently affixed to land.
• Revocable Trust
  A trust whose terms and provisions can be changed, modified, altered, amended, or revoked.
• Tenancy In Common
  A form of holding title to real or personal property by two or more persons. Because there is no right of survivorship, the legal relationships and results are very different from joint tenancy. Tenants in common need not hold equal interest, and on the death of a tenant in common, his interest will pass by his will or according to the laws of intestate succession.
  Testamentary Trust
  The trust that comes into being only as a result of the death of a person whose will provides for the creation of the trust after his death, hence, the term “testamentary.” Once in existence, this trust is irrevocable.
• Testate
  Refers to someone who dies leaving a will.
• Trust
  A legal entity established either during a trustor’s lifetime (inter vivos) or at his death (testamentary). The trust is governed by the terms set forth in the trust documents. A trust must have a trustee, a beneficiary, and a “corpus” or property subjected to the trust.
• Trustee
  The individual or corporation who in a trust has bare legal title to the assets and has the power given in the trust to carry out the wishes of the person or persons (trustor or trustors) who created the trust. The trustee has a fiduciary obligation to the trust’s beneficiaries enforceable in court if not carried out. The trustee is subject to strict regulation. Although he has legal title for convenience, the beneficial or equitable title is in fact owned by the beneficiaries. When there is more than one trustee, the trustees are called co-trustees.

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