I love watching TV. TV makes everything simple. Bad guys get caught and go to jail. People fall in love and live happily ever after. TV is fun, but it isn’t real. I was watching a movie where the plot started with people being called into the attorney’s office for the “reading of the Will.” The attorney then proceeds to give paperwork to the man and woman the former owner had thought of as her children, who of course don’t like each other at first but eventually fall in love.
In California, there is no “reading of the Will.” Instead, we have Probate Court. There is no meeting where the Judge will read the Will from the bench. Heirs will receive a formal notice that gives the time and date for a hearing to have the Will admitted to probate. The heirs will need to read the document themselves. Once the Will is admitted and an Executor is selected, there are many things the Executor needs to do and papers to file before there is a Final Accounting and Distribution. The average probate takes 18 months, but I have had cases last over five years due to disputes and creditors.
I wish that real life was like TV and that the process only took a few weeks. If your loved one recently passed with a Will, Trust, or nothing at all, I can help you through the process. If you are lucky and your loved one created a Living Trust and did everything right, it will be like on TV. But if not, I will make the long, complicated process as painless as possible.
