Elder Law Report
Elder Law Report
Probate: The Real Life Horror Story You Can Avoid
Probate doesn’t just slow things down—it can turn a time of grief into a grind of court dates, public filings, and creditor claims. We sit down to unpack why probate so often feels like a maze and map out practical ways to keep your family out of it with clear, simple planning moves that protect what matters.
We start with the human cost: how an open estate can freeze a home sale, stall car title transfers, and complicate insurance and mortgage payments. From there, we explain what probate really is—the court-supervised, public process for transferring assets—and why it commonly lasts six months to two years. You’ll hear how notices to creditors can pull medical bills and other debts into the mix, shrinking what beneficiaries receive and stoking family tension during an already hard season.
Then we shift to solutions you can use today. We walk through beneficiary designations on bank accounts, IRAs, 401(k)s, and brokerage accounts, showing how they transfer directly and bypass probate. For North Carolina homeowners, we outline the enhanced life estate (Lady Bird) deed that works like a beneficiary designation for your house, keeping it out of probate and simplifying transfer. We also break down revocable living trusts—how funding the trust by retitling assets like your home, accounts, vehicles, and even a boat can create a faster, more private, and more controlled path for your loved ones. Along the way, we highlight common mistakes, like leaving titles unfunded or ignoring contingent beneficiaries, and share a simple checklist to review your assets.
If you’re ready to trade uncertainty for clarity, this conversation gives you the tools to act. Book a free consult at our Shelby, Charlotte, or Hendersonville offices, call 1-888-999-600, or visit www.mcelderlaw.com. If this helped, subscribe, share with a friend who’s planning ahead, and leave a quick review so more families find their way to a smoother plan.
Good morning. I'm Attorney Haley Matson here with Attorney Jordan McIntyre. And welcome to our Elder Law report. We're going to talk about probate, the real life horror story that you can avoid. So, Jordan, I guess we'll start off with some things that we might want to avoid by using probate, and then we can get into some of the horror stories that we've seen.
Jordan McIntyre:Yeah, absolutely. So imagine this: you've just lost a loved one, emotions are raw, grief is heavy. And just when you think it couldn't get any worse, right? You find yourself trapped in this legal maze called probate. You've got court dates, there are delays, bills are piling up, there's family tension, and what should really be this time of healing, um the family should get together. It really can turn into a nightmare. So we'll get into what probate is, um, why it can be a horror story, and really how we can avoid it. Um and I'll explain what probate is, and then Haley can get into good ways to avoid it and why it can be so bad. But probate is just a default process, it's the court supervised process of transferring a person's assets after death. And it might sound harmless, but it's not. It can take anywhere from six months to two years. It is public. So once you open up the probate estate, you're gonna run a notice to creditors. Creditors, right? If mom or dad or a family member pass with medical debt, these creditors will come in, assert claims, and then they will take whatever is passing through the estate. And that can be expensive, right? You might want to hire an attorney to assist you with going through probate. And uh, while all of this is happening, loved ones and beneficiaries are waiting to receive assets and maybe are fighting over it. And uh, I'll let Haley talk about this, but there are great ways to avoid this horror story.
Haley Matson:Yes, there are. I mean, just for example, some of the horror stories can include just being stuck and not being able to sell or divide a family property. There may still be mortgage payments that are due, but yet there's nothing you can do about them. Can't transfer the house, can't transfer the cars, can't drive the cars. So if you've been driving the decedent's car and you can't get titled to it, I mean, you can't really drive it. You won't be able to get insurance on it. So there's all sorts of stuff like that, but it is definitely avoidable. Um, some tactics that are really easy to avoid probate for certain assets would be beneficiary designations on all of your financial institution accounts, bank accounts, checking, savings, IRAs, 401ks, pension plans. You can put beneficiaries, which are specific individuals that you name, on pretty much all of those accounts. All of those that are beneficiary designated will automatically transfer to the beneficiary upon your death. They do not get counted as a probate asset, so they don't need to be included in whatever the creditors can pay. Likewise, if you have a home in North Carolina, we have the enhanced life estate deed, the Ladybird deed. It's essentially a beneficiary designation for your house. Keeps your house out of probate, so you don't have to deal with property splits, no claims can touch it, no Medicaid claims or anything. It's just that real easy direct transfer. If you have a lot of assets or you're just interested in a trust, a trust is also a vehicle that can allow you to skip probate for most of your assets. You're gonna want to retitle the assets that you don't want to go into probate into the name of the trust. So your bank accounts, your car, your house, your boat. Really, it depends on what you have. Anything that goes through the trust will not end up going through probate.
Jordan McIntyre:Yes. And then what Haley is getting at is um do something, right? Doing nothing is the scariest option of all of these. Um, you can avoid this probate horror story and you really want to meet with an estate planning attorney. Haley's great. Um, I'd love if you meet with Haley, meet with me. Uh, and we'll we'll review all of the assets, right? If mom or dad are struggling to get into the office, we offer virtual consults, we can do phone calls, but we'd love to help your family um see what assets you have, your family has, and figure out how to protect them so you don't have to be stuck in probate for months or years. Um, we'd love to help your family, and we have multiple locations. So come meet with us and have a free consult in Shelby, Charlotte, or Hendersonville, or give us a call at 1-888-999-600, or visit the website at www.mcelderlaw.com. Uh, we'd love to see you. Thank you all. Have a good day.
Haley Matson:Thank you.