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Today I wanted to talk to you about what does a beneficiary do during probate? The first issue to address is what is probate?
Probate is the formal, court supervised process whereby a person’s will is validated and supervised to make sure it’s compliant with.
What’s a Beneficiary?
Next what’s a beneficiary? Well, a beneficiary is a person or entity designated in the will to receive money or other assets from the decedent’s estate.
What Does a Beneficiary Do in Probate?
So what does a beneficiary do during the probate process? Well a beneficiary does not have an affirmative duty to do anything during the probate process. The actual responsibility of moving a probate forward actually falls upon the personal representative.
Beneficiary to Do List:
However a beneficiary should do some things and has rights to other things.
- For example a beneficiary should stay up to date with the probate process.
- When you receive something in the mail you should open it review it make sure you are aware of what’s happening in the probate process.
- You also have certain rights. For example as a beneficiary you have a right to receive a copy of the will. You have a right to receive an inventory of all of the assets within the estate.
- You have a right to know how much debt the estate has.
- You have a right to know how the estate is planning to pay for that debt. You have a right to receive a copy of the estate’s 706 tax return showing you specifically all the things that are reported to the IRS.
- And you have the right to request ongoing information from the personal representative throughout the course of the probate.
These are requirements that the personal representative has in their role.
Often times during a probate process litigation can occur. At Bloodworth Law we represent beneficiaries and personal representative in probate litigation.
So, again, my name is Reed Bloodworth. If you have a question about probate litigation, give me a call. Let’s talk about what happened to you.