Is that Because of Probate?
For a long time, estate planning was driven by one primary concern: estate taxes. If your estate was large enough, the question was how much the government was going to take and what you could do to reduce that number. If your estate was not large enough, many people assumed estate planning simply wasn’t that important.
That mindset has carried over, even though the landscape has changed. With today’s high federal estate tax exemption, most families are not going to owe any federal estate tax at all. As a result, a lot of people have come to the conclusion that estate planning is no longer a priority.
That conclusion is where the real problem begins.
Because for most families, the highest cost after death has nothing to do with estate taxes. The real cost comes from the process your estate is forced to go through, and for many families, that process is probate.
Probate is one of those things that sounds simple when it is described in theory. In practice, it is time-consuming, expensive, and far more involved than most people expect.
“Probate Is No Big Deal”
Several years ago, I had a gentleman attend one of my estate planning seminars. He was engaged during the presentation, asked thoughtful questions, and clearly understood the difference between a Will-based plan and a trust-based plan by the time we were done.
After the seminar, we had a conversation about his situation. He explained what he owned, how his assets were structured, and what he wanted to accomplish for his family. Based on that discussion, I told him plainly that relying on a Will alone was probably a mistake for his situation. It was not illegal, and it was certainly not uncommon, but it was not the approach I would recommend if his goal was to make things easier and less expensive for his family.
He appreciated the conversation and told me he was going to think about it.
At some point after that, he spoke with his real estate attorney. That attorney gave him a very different perspective. He told him that probate was “no big deal” and that there was no reason to complicate things with a trust. In fact, he went even further and told him he could simply download a Will online and complete it himself.
From a short-term perspective, that advice sounded appealing. It was simple, it avoided upfront costs, and it created the impression that the situation was under control.
Before moving forward, the gentleman sent me an email letting me know what he had decided. I responded and told him, in writing, that based on what he had shared with me, relying on a Will alone was probably a mistake for his situation. I also told him I respected his decision and wished him the best in following the advice he had been given.
That was the last I heard from him.
The Conversation His Children Had to Have
Several years later, his children walked into my office.
They brought two things with them: their father’s Will and the seminar materials I had provided. Based on what they found, they assumed that I had prepared the Will and that this was the plan I had recommended.
They sat down and asked a direct and understandable question: why was this set up this way?
I explained that I had not prepared the Will and that this was not the recommendation I had given their father. To make that clear, I showed them the email I had sent at the time, explaining that a Will-based plan was probably not the right fit for his situation.
That answered their question about how the decision had been made, but it did nothing to change what they were now dealing with.
What Probate Actually Looks Like for a Family
By the time they came to see me, the probate process was already underway. What they were experiencing was not unusual, but it was far more involved than they had expected.
They were dealing with court filings, required notices, and procedural steps that had to be followed in a specific order. There were timelines that could not be shortened and requirements that could not be skipped. Decisions that seemed like they should be simple required additional documentation or formal approval.
On top of that, there were the costs. Attorney’s fees, court costs, and administrative expenses began to accumulate over time. By the time the estate was fully administered, the total cost had reached tens of thousands of dollars.
Nothing had gone wrong in the legal sense. There was no dispute, no litigation, and no unusual complication. The estate went through probate exactly the way it was designed to.
That is what made it so frustrating for the family.
The Cost No One Plans For
When people hear that probate can cost four percent, six percent, or sometimes even more of an estate, it often sounds abstract. It is easy to assume those numbers are exaggerated or that they only apply in extreme situations.
But for the families who go through it, those percentages become very real very quickly. They represent money that could have stayed in the family, time that could have been spent focusing on more important things, and stress that could have been avoided entirely.
Probate is not expensive because something went wrong. It is expensive because of what it requires: court involvement, procedural compliance, and time.
The Better Question to Ask
The question is not whether a Will works. A Will does exactly what it is supposed to do. It directs how your assets pass through the probate process.
The better question is whether that process is something you want your family to deal with at all.
When you frame the decision that way, it stops being a question about documents and becomes a question about outcomes. Do you want your family dealing with court involvement, delays, and significant costs, or do you want to structure things so those issues can be avoided?
If You Want to Understand How to Avoid This
If you would like to see, step by step, how to structure your estate so your family can avoid probate and the costs that come with it, I have put together a free course that explains the process in plain English.
You can access it here: www.FreeTrustCourse.com
It will give you a clear understanding of how these decisions play out in the real world so your family does not end up learning the hard way.