Probate Lawyer Cheyenne, WY

Cheyenne Probate Lawyer

If you need a qualified Cheyenne, WY probate lawyer the legal team at Davis, Johnson & Kallal can help.

Planning for your future is important – both for yourself, and for your loved ones. Fortunately, our lawyers are ready to walk you through probate, including what it means for your family and friends when you’re no longer with them. Read on to learn more about the probate process, and reach out for a free consultation to see what we can do for you.

What is probate?

Probate is the process through which your estate is divided across your beneficiaries. In plain English, this means how everything you own is split up between your surviving relatives (and others you’ve included in your will).

Probate takes several steps.

Probate isn’t a simple process. First, your will needs to be validated by a probate court. Next, your beneficiaries will need to be tracked down and informed that they’ve been included in your will. What follows is a lengthy, frustrating procedure of valuing your assets, paying your outstanding debts, and finally giving your friends and family what you want them to have. It can be frustrating, so it’s helpful to contact a Cheyenne probate lawyer before diving in.

There’s plenty of potential for legal challenges.

When you create a will, you’ll have to name an executor you can trust. This executor is in charge of handling the entire process, and you need to be sure he or she is capable of dealing with all the stress. You also need to make sure that your choice of executor is someone that your family and friends can agree with. If not, it’s just inviting disputes over your appointments and over your assets.

Your will needs to be valid.

One of the first steps of probate is ensuring your will is legally-binding. A will is more than a piece of paper with a list of assets and people. It needs to be legitimate in the eyes of the court before any further action is taken. This means that you’ll have to have your will notarized, and (just to be safe) looked over by an experienced estate planning lawyer who can make sure everything is correct.

Probate isn’t free.

There are a number of fees that need to be paid during the probate process. When your assets are valued, your executor will need to contact professionals to look over your properties and investments. This costs money, and it’s just one fee out of many. Your executor will also have to handle the paying of any outstanding debts, as well as your final taxes.

Contact Us to Learn More

At Davis, Johnson & Kallal, we’re serious about estate planning and probate. Whether you’ve recently lost a loved one and just need answers about how to proceed, or you’re trying to establish a will so your family and friends know what to do after your death, we’re ready to help. Reach out to us today, and see how a Cheyenne probate lawyer from our office can help you plan your tomorrow.

Minimizing the Complexity of Your Estate’s Probate Process

One of the reasons why it is important to connect with an experienced Cheyenne, WY probate lawyer when crafting an estate plan is that virtually every estate in Wyoming must be subjected to the probate process to one degree or another. Meaning, it is important to plan ahead so that the probate process – which your loved ones will almost inevitably be faced with – is as low-stress and straightforward as possible for them.

The dedicated legal team at Davis, Johnson & Kallal, we provide both estate planning and probate services. As a result, we can help families plan for the future and deal with the challenges of the present when terrible losses occur. We do all we can to encourage our clients – whenever appropriate, of course – to plan ahead. We’ve seen what a difference such efforts can make for loved ones who are grieving and have no energy to navigate a complex probate process on top of everything else.

Why Trusts Are Effective

As our Cheyenne probate lawyer team can explain in greater detail, one of the primary exceptions to the need to subject an estate to broad probate processes occurs when the deceased has passed on their assets via a revocable living trust instead of a will. Whereas the contents of a will must be subjected to probate, the nature of a revocable living trust is such that its contents can bypass the probate process.

As a result, it may be worth exploring whether you and your loved ones could benefit from setting up a revocable living trust. Although this arrangement won’t make the rest of your estate planning needs seamless, it will allow your loved ones to focus on their grief instead of probate once you’ve passed away.

Clarity and Recency Are Key

The two other primary tools that you can use to your advantage when preparing for the likelihood of probate are clarity and recency. Estate planning documents are only as valuable as they are clear about the creator’s intentions and current. Meaning, if you draft a will at the age of 20 and die at the age of 80 without ever updating your will, you may place your loved ones in a situation wherein the court is required to honor your wishes, as most recently expressed at age 20, and to resolve all unaddressed assets, etc. via state law.

Estate plans are meant to be living legal resources. You can update most estate planning documents as often as you need to in order to ensure that your wishes are accurately reflected in the text. By ensuring that you have a clear, updated estate plan in place at all times, the court will (hopefully) need to engage in little to no intervention in the administration of your estate. Taking this approach should also save your loved ones stress when it comes time to navigate probate.

Should you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out to the Cheyenne probate lawyer team at Davis, Johnson & Kallal for assistance. We are always happy to help.

5 Reasons to Work with a Probate Lawyer

Although probate is not something anyone looks forward to, having a reliable probate lawyer Cheyenne, WY families trust can be beneficial and help the process to be less painful and costly. Give us a call today at Davis, Johnson & Kallal to schedule your appointment where you will have the opportunity to ask questions, explain your situation and get legal advice, begin the process, and more.

1. Save Time
   Unfortunately, the probate process is typically not fast and could take some time. However, having an experienced lawyer working on it will keep things moving and help to make the process go through more quickly. It can be hard to provide clients with a certain time frame of when things will be completed since it can vary depending on multiple factors, but we can assure you that we will work to get things wrapped up and keep you informed along the way.

    

2. Save Money
   The probate process will cost some money, but having a lawyer who knows the complexities of the probate legal system will be very beneficial in completing the process in a more monetarily efficient way. In the long run, having a lawyer can help you save money by avoiding costly pitfalls.

    

3. Avoid Common Probate Obstacles
   The probate process is very complicated with many legal loopholes and obstacles. Your Cheyenne probate lawyer is well aware of the potential obstacles and has the experience to know how to avoid them before they impact your probate process. We’ve been through this before with success for our clients, and we can do the same for you.

    

4. Reduce Stress
   We know that this can be a stressful time for you after having lost your loved one and now having to deal with the tedious probate legal process. Let us handle the legal process while you grieve and focus on your emotional and mental health. There is no need to stress yourself out trying to become versed in the probate legal process – we are here to help by offer legal advice and knowledge and answering all of your legal questions.

    

    

5. Prepare During the Estate Planning Phase
   There are some steps that you can take during the creation of your estate plan that will help probate to go more smoothly. You can set your family and loved ones up for a better experience by working with a probate and estate planning lawyer who knows and can use some estate planning strategies that will prepare your estate plan for this ahead of time. 

Wherever you are in the process of estate planning or probate, don’t hesitate to give us a call at Davis, Johnson & Kallal to get started and schedule your appointment to discuss your estate planning and probate needs with an experienced Cheyenne probate lawyer. Get answers to your questions, solid legal advice you can count on, and more. Call us today to set up your appointment!