Linda C. Ashar - How to Settle a Simple Estate Without a Lawyer: The Complete Guide to Wills, Probate, and Inheritance Law Explained Simply

How to Settle a

Simple Estate

Without a Lawyer

The Complete Guide to Wills, Probate, and Inheritance Law Explained Simply

By Linda C. Ashar, Attorney at Law

A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bears memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

• Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.
• Support local and no-kill animal shelters.
• Plant a tree to honor someone you love.
• Be a developer put up some birdhouses.
• Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.
• Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.
• Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.
• Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.
• Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.
• If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.
• Support your local farmers market.
• Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

Dedication and Acknowledgments

For my family

Huge appreciation and grateful thanks goes to the Lorain County Probate Court of Ohio, Honorable James Walther, for having its Court forms and other estate information available on the Internet for the public and practitioners. I also appreciate and thank all the many other jurists and courts around the country, many used as reference for this book, who possess the creative foresight and dedication to make the legal process user-friendly for the public they serve. Professional legal advice is important and an attorneys representation has a place in assisting non-lawyers in court, but the process of law in our judicial system should be available to all people.

Introduction

It was Benjamin Franklin who coined the well-known adage, nothing is certain but death and taxes. The fiduciary of a decedents estate deals with both these certainties and many other things as well.

In modern society, every person who dies leaves something to be handled by the living. In many cases, a person leaves property, personal possessions, final wishes to be resolved, and loose ends to be tied up. Some people prepare in advance and organize the process for those left behind; others do not. Regardless of the decedents forethought, it falls to someone to take charge and manage these final affairs. Depending on the specific facts and local court procedure involved, this person is known as the decedents estates personal representative, executor (man) or executrix (woman), administrator, or other similar title conferred by the probate court. The general term, applicable in all cases, is personal representative or estate representative, the terms used in this book.