How to Probate & Settle an Estate Yourself, Without the Lawyer's Fees: The National Probate Kit

by Benji O. Anosike

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Average Customer Review: 4 out of 5 stars

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4 out of 5 stars

A generic estate administration guide that only covers the basics and does some serious complaining about lawyer fees!, 2007-10-13

As estate administration books go, this is one of the better ones. I liked it pretty much. However, I very much disliked all the anti-lawyer comments used throughout the text. There was no need for them. The book has the potential to be a wonderful nuts and bolts guide for an executor to use to familiarize herself with an uncomplicated estate administration. If it stuck to that simple objective and had been less wordy, then I would have given the book a 5-star rating. Instead it gets just 4 stars from me.

The book includes 13 official chapters and then 7 unofficial chapters in its appendix:

1. Introduction
2. Probate procedures and estate settlement
3. Can you be an estate executor?
4. Are you going to be an executor for someone's estate?
5. How to probate and settle an estate in any particular state in the nation
6. Opening the estate when there is a will
7. Opening the estate when there is no will
8. Assembling and evaluating the estate's affaires
9. Paying off administration expenses and estate debts
10. Distributing the balance of the estate to the beneficiaries
11. Making final accounting to the court
12. Probate procedures when no court administration is required
13. Probate procedures when decedent's estate is located in a "foreign" state
A1. Summar of basic probate rules in all 50 states
A2. Laws of intestacy in all 50 states
A3. Spouse's right of election rules in all 50 states
A4. Taxes: Federal estate tax determination and procedures
A5. Taxes: State estate tax procedures in all 50 states
A6. Guardianship appointment procedures in probate
A7. Glossary of terms

I would have liked the book better if chapters A4 and A6 had been made "official chapters" following Chapter 13. I liked chapters A1-A3 and A5 which sumarized the various laws in the different states. Of course, the information contained in those chapters will always be subject to change, and should be verified by visiting a public law library at the county court house. And the Glossary at A7 was adequate.

The book retails for a heafty $31, and really is not all that long. And if you plan to use the book as intended, then you are expected to order "State Forms" for $25 plus shipping costs. Not exactly what I would call inexpensive published help.

The big problem with the book as I see it is that someone who uses it and does not use a lawyer might do something wrong. There is no mention of Disclaimers. And if real probate work is necessary, this book is not going to help. It's one thing to file an application for probate, file an accounting, and file proof of debt and tax payments, and then apply to have the probate matter closed. And it's entirely another matter when the will is contested. When the beneficiaries can't agree on who gets what. When there are minor children involved and nobody will step up and take care responsibility for them.

Another problem with the book is that it does not cover income taxes that an estate usually owes the US and the state where the decedent had her estate. And the ins and outs of filling out and filing the estate tax returns is not covered sufficiently to satisfy me. 4 stars!

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