8 Ways to Avoid Probate

Did you know? If you plan carefully, your estate may not have to go through the process of probate. Probate can drag on for years, and can easily cost your family thousands of dollars--money that would otherwise have gone to them.

8 Ways to Avoid Probate offers simple and effective methods for skipping the probate process so that property goes directly to the intended beneficiaries. Using the simple, plain-English instructions, you'll learn how to create a savvy estate plan. Find out about:

• setting up payable-on-death accounts
  
• naming beneficiaries, including children, institutions, and multiple beneficiaries
  
• naming beneficiaries for retirement accounts, vehicles, real estate, and stocks and bonds
  
• special procedures for small estates
  
• holding property in joint ownership, and alternatives to joint ownership
  
• using a living trust to avoid probate
  
• making gifts of property and money
  

This edition provides updates to estate and gift tax laws, updated 50-state tables on simplified probate, and additional information on how to bequeath real estate without probate--12 states now offer a special deed for just this purpose.

• Get It Together: Organize Your Records So Your Family Won't Have To
• Executor's Guide, The: Settling a Loved One's Estate or Trust
• Executor's Guide, The: Settling a Loved One's Estate or Trust
• The Executor's Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Settling an Estate for Personal Representatives, Administrators, and Beneficiaries, Fourth Edition
• Make Your Own Living Trust
• Plan Your Estate
• Estate Planning Basics
• Estate Planning for the Savvy Client: What You Need to Know Before You Meet With Your Lawyer (Savvy Client Series) (Volume 1)
• How to Probate an Estate in California
• Make Your Own Living Trust