How much long will probate take? Often times, people think there probate will only take a few months or be a simple application process with the court. However, the total length of a probating a loved ones estate depends on a number of factors, including most importantly any conflicts that arise between loved ones.

First, lets review probate. A probate is what happens when a loved one dies holding assets over a certain amount. The reason the estate is in probate court is because the deceased person either did not prepare any legal documents ahead of time, or they died having only a Will in place.

Let’s review a case we recently probated in our office to see what the facts were and what the outcome was as an illustration.

For purposes of this example, we will call the person who passed away “E”. In this probate proceeding, E was a father and husband. He left behind a surviving wife and 2 adult children. His sole asset was a real property owned in his name alone as married man owed sole and separate. This means his wife was NOT a co-owner of the property and her name was not on title.  E passed away not having prepared any legal documents.

If you recall, in the past we have done another case study with the exact same facts. However, the result in this case is different. Let’s find out why.

Who Inherits E’s property?

His estate will pass to his loved ones via testate succession because E prepared and signed a Last Will and Testament. Prior to his death, he signed a Will giving 100% of his estate to his wife. The word testate means that he has a legal documents with instructions for the court to follow, so a judge will follow his instructions instead of the law. This is how this case varies from the case analysis we did months earlier with the same facts.

According to his will, his wife will be 100% beneficiary.

How much does Probate cost?

In this particular probate, the property was valued at $350,000 by the probate referee (appraiser working for the court). I want to stress that although the probate was done in 2021-2022, E actually passed away in 2011, hence the low valuation on the property. It took a while for the family to initiate the process of probate and they had a lot of hiccups along the way, including hiring a ‘document preparation company’ to do the probate, paying them $3,000 only to find out they ran off with the money and left them high and dry.

The probate attorneys fees are statutory (written in the law) and they are based on the value of the estate.

4%         (100,000)          $100,000                         $4,000

3%         (100,000)          $100,000                         $3,000

2%         (800,000)          $150,00                            $3,000

Total Compensation                  $10,000

 

The total attorneys fees on this case were $10,000

In addition to the attorneys statutory ordinary fees, if the wife had decided to sell the property or any conflicting petitions were filed, the attorney would also have the option of charging extraordinary fees which are charged at the attorney hourly rate agreed and approved by the court.

In addition to these fees, the court also approved the costs of the probate (i.e. filing fees, appraisal fee, other court fees) at $ 917.95.

Now, it is important to note that all of these fees must be presented to the Judge and approved.

Summary.

We jumped into this case after the initial file was done by the non attorney service the family hired. So we had to do some clean up work before we can move the case along. We This probate took a total of a year and 9 months to complete, from the moment we came onto the case to closing.

The property at the end of the probate was re-titled and owned by the following people:

Wife                    100% interest in the property.

Total cost out the door $10,917.95. (but remember, they got swindled by the random non attorney company to pay them $3,000 up front and ran off with the money leaving them high and dry?), so out the door it costs them $13,917.95

If E had seen an attorney ahead of time and done an estate plan, his average estate planning costs in addition to administration legal fees at his death would be somewhere around the ballpark of $6,000 to $8,000. His loved ones would have saved major money.

The wife in this scenario went one step further after the probate was complete. She was smart enough to see the headache of the 2+ year ordeal on her children who helped her throughout this process. She quickly contact our office and we put together an estate plan for her. Now, at her death, this property will pass WITHOUT GOING TO PROBATE to her loved ones, saving them time and money. Contact our office for a free consultation.