Pfarr & Rethore provides a full range of trust administration and probate services to its clients. Whether someone dies intestate, with a will or trust, every estate and trust needs to be administered. Unfortunately, there is a misperception by the public that if assets are jointly held or payable on death to someone else, an administration is unnecessary. However, this is not true. Generally, four things need to occur. Assets need to be valued, last illness expenses need to be paid, the division is made, and distributions completed to heirs.

Who needs to administer a Trust and Estate?

Everyone will need to do this at the time of someone’s death. Even after the death of your spouse and everything is jointly owned, an administration still needs to occur. As an experienced estate planning law firm, we cannot strongly encourage you enough to proceed with a proper administration. More often than not, the family needs to address serious personal and financial matters, including issues relating to personal income and estate tax matters, creditor notices and settlement, title transfer of assets, and distribution to any named beneficiaries. The tasks involved may be simply to transfer assets to beneficiaries or to document the new tax cost basis in property to achieve more favorable income tax treatment for beneficiaries or there may be more complex matters that need to be addressed like preservation of the estate tax or allocating the generation skipping exemptions. In any event, some sort of administration will always be required. It will just depend upon the circumstances as to how extensive it needs to be. There are serious consequences to not doing an administration and failure to do so may be a breach of one’s fiduciary duties as Personal Representative of the Estate or Successor Trustee of the trust, which could result in personal liability to you. In short, timing is critical.

Also, be careful who you notify about the passing of a loved one. Many people mistakenly contact banks, utilities, credit card companies, in an effort to remove the deceased person’s name from any account. Doing this without some professional guidance first, could result in the creation of additional challenges that would not have otherwise existed if the contact was never made. For example, most car loans have a provision in the contract that says death constitutes a default under the contract even if the payment is current. Most of us do not want to be fighting repossession simply because you contacted the loan company. The same holds true with utilities. You do not want to be forced to put down a deposit on an existing account simply because you advised them of the passing of your spouse. There is a definite process to what should happen and when. Call our offices and we’ll assist you in navigating through it. It will be time and money well spent.