Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York

Re: How to handle probate

If the estate is under $20,000 you can start a small estate proceeding to probate the Will in the Surrogate's Court in the County in which she lived. Call the Clerk and I am sure that you will be helped. The notice requirements will be explained.

There may be some equity left in the house and that has to be taken care of. The bank can help you there.

If the assets are insufficient to pay the bills, then they will not be paid. You have no obligation to pay them out of your funds.

All this can be done from your home state and there is no need to be present in New York.

Re: How to handle probate

Your first step should be to find out if she had a will. You should find out whether her attorney passed on his practice to another attorney to handle his matters.

Whether or not there is a will, you can probably handle the estate on your own from AZ. You should contact the appropriate surrogate's court clerk and request the appropriate forms to initiate the probate/administration proceedings. They are usually very helpful.

Contact your aunt's accountant, bank, broker, etc. to determine her assets. If the value of your aunt's estate was below a certain threshhold amount, then you can file for a small estate adminsitration.

Although you can probably handle most of this from AZ, if you would prefer a NY attorney to assist you with this matter, feel free to contact my office for a free cosultation.

Re: How to handle probate

First, the Will must be probated, which can be done through the mail. Contact the Surrogate's Court in the County in which she resided at her date of death, and they can send you the necessary forms (may even be available on-line if you ask them) and instructions. Once the Will is submitted for probate and accepted, you can get the Surrogate to publish a notice to creditors, which will advise of the death and who to contact with any claims. There may be some equity in the house, even with the reverse mortgage (depends upon what she borrowed and house value). If there are no assets to cover the debts, you should notify the various creditors to this effect, so they can terminate the accounts. Sounds like you have your hands full, with no assets in the estate.

Re: How to handle probate

You should check the beneficiary designation on the insurance policy. If she named a beneficiary other than herself or her estate, you may be able to keep the proceeds away from the funeral home. You should check to make sure there is no equity in the home. Otherwise, it may make sense to do nothing. If doing a bunch of work isn't going to translate into any benefit for you or any other relative of your aunt, I'm not sure it makes sense to spend your time helping a bunch of creditors. You have no obligation to publish a notice to creditors. The reason for doing so is to cut off any unknown creditors from making a claim. But, because your aunt's estate has little or no assets to preserve, you probably don't need to worry about unknown creditors.