Family Estate

Is anyone here knowledgeable when it comes to probating an estate in MN?

Only know enough to know it’s a mess and a person most likely will greatly benefit from getting a family law attorney involved.

Secure any and all property of value if there are grubby relatives involved, or items will quickly disappear.

Sorry for the loss.

Grouse

I used to do some estate accounting, filings, so indepthoutdoors knowledge but not in depth knowledge.

I’m in WI and there are different laws here than MN. The concept is the same, but I would contact an attourney specializing in estates. I glanced at the MN website and saw similarities to what I had to do. Simple case to fulfill a will. In that case I was appointed the exectutor which the informal probate process recognizes. Its basicly the court appointing you to that posision and you can begin to distribute assets as the will describes. If there is no will and there is a sizeable amount of assets or multiple siblings involved, having an attourney to guide you is very important so the distribution is fair and without legal challenge.
Sorry I can not be of more help. Sorry for your loss and best wishes to you all

I learned something new in regard to estate planning the other day. Its called a Transfer on Death Deed ( TODD ) It works similar to a POD on bank accounts. My understanding it Transfer the ownership of a property direct from one party to another upon the Death of the owner. Its keeps the property from having to go thru the whole probate process. If you looking into estate planning I’d look into this more or ask your Estate planner about it. One thing to be aware of is that because the property transfer immediately upon death the new owner will need to secure their own insurance on the property immediately as well. There was a landmark case in Orr Minnesota on this. The insurance that was under the original owners name did not carry over to the new owner and their was a Total loss of the property prior to the new Owner obtaining new insurance on it. The courts ruled that the insurance company was not obligated to pay the loss claim.

Thanks for all the replies.

Spend the money for a good estate planner, it’s worth it.
Going through this right now with my mom & stepdad.