Being married doesn’t automatically mean probate isn’t necessary when your spouse dies.

What should you do when your spouse dies?  Many people assume that probate isn’t necessary when their spouse dies, which is often not the case.  Whether probate is required largely depends on how assets are titled as of date of death.  Here are a few things to review after your spouse passes away:

• Real Estate:  If you and your spouse own real property (land, houses, commercial real estate), whether that property needs to be probated when your spouse dies depends on how it is titled.  Review the current deed to determine how it’s titled.
• Life Insurance, Annuities, IRAs, etc.:  Whether these assets need to go through probate depends on how the policies/contracts are written, and whether contingent beneficiaries are named.
• Other Assets:  How assets are titled is generally the key factor when determining whether an asset needs to go through the probate process.

All too often nothing is taken care of after the death of the first spouse.  This usually doesn’t get discovered until the death of the second spouse.  At that point the family members may have to deal with the probate of two separate estates.  If more than two years have passed since the death of the first spouse and his/her estate requires probate, then it will have to be a more costly and time consuming formal probate.  See our Services page to see how much we charge for a less expensive Informal Probate.

Here’s a link to Vanguard’s Surviving Spouse Checklist that you may find useful: Surviving Spouse Checklist.