what if heir dies

When someone who is an heir or a beneficiary of an estate dies while that estate is still pending, Georgia probate law says that the property that was supposed to go to that person will be inherited that person’s estate instead. For example, let’s assume your spouse’s parent passes away first....

Probate inventory

What is a probate inventory? Once you become appointed as executor or administrator of an estate, you may be required to file an initial inventory and ongoing annual returns.  This is an area that trips up a lot of personal representatives, and I don’t want you to be one of them. In...

How does probate bond work

If you’re handling an estate, you may be required to obtain a bond before the probate court will allow you to serve as executor or administrator.  But, how does a probate bond work and who pays for a probate bond? At first, the idea of a bond may seem unusual or even scary.  In this artic...

executor of estate

If you are an heir or beneficiary of an estate, and believe the Executor is not fulfilling their responsibilities you may have a right to challenge their actions in probate court. An Executor owes certain duties to the estate. The main responsibilities of an Executor are to act i...

petition for discharge of personal representative

A petition for discharge of personal representative is something to take very seriously. This petition asks the court to release the personal representative of his or her duties to the estate. As a result, it can have serious consequences.  Most importantly, the personal representativ...

executor living in estate

What does Georgia probate law have to say about an executor who lived with the deceased prior to death and continues to live in the estate home while administering the estate? What if the administration is delayed as a result? What can you do if you’re a beneficiary watching all of this happen and...

co executor not cooperating in georgia

In many instances, when two people are named co-executor of the estate and required to act together, the co executors disagree about how to manage the estate, and co-executor problems can arise. In some instances, what should be nothing more than simple disagreements turn ugly and one executor may g...

consent of heirs

We're going to talk about three things in the estate process, and these three things are going to have a large impact on how complicated the estate is, how expensive it is, and how long it takes. My name is Erik Broel, I'm the founder and CEO of Georgia Probate Law Group. We're a law f...

Three phases of an estate

I have an important topic to talk to you about today: The three phases that every estate goes through in the Georgia probate process. After reading about these phases, you’ll have an overview of the steps to probate a will in Georgia, from the beginning when we open the estate, to the end wh...

forged will

  There are many types of disputes that could erupt when settling an estate, and one common type of dispute is a will contest. A will contest happens when one party files a will for probate that another party does not agree with. There could be any number of reasons why someone believ...

ownership

Today’s probate law question comes from Atlanta, Georgia. What happens when a business is started by a father and son, the father dies, but the business documents are not clear about whether the son owns any part of the business? To make things more complicated, the father has other children. Does...

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