Attorney Thomas B. Burton answers the following question: Does a Will avoid probate in Wisconsin? Attorney Burton also discusses some of the choices you can make for your assets and estate by choosing to form your own Will in the state of Wisconsin.
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Transcript of Video: Does a Will Avoid Probate in Wisconsin?
Hello I'm attorney Thomas Burton and
today's question is the following does a
will avoid probate in Wisconsin now this
is a very good question one I see comes up
often and there can be confusion about
these terms probate and a will so making
a will allows you to make your own plan
for your estate what it means is you get
to decide who your heirs are and who
your personal representative is going to
be in Wisconsin we call the person who
administers your estate after your death the
personal representative you'll also hear
them called executor in some of the
estate planning literature in other
states so basically if you create a will
you get to choose the person to oversee
the estate and the backup to that person
I usually recommend and then you get to
choose your own heirs if you don't
create a will you're going to fall under
what we call the Wisconsin laws of
intestacy so sometimes you hear someone
say that someone died intestate what
that means is they died without creating
a will so if you don't create a will you
fall under the default rules the
Wisconsin Legislature has written and
generally those rules distribute your
money to your closest living relative so
for many people they don't want their
closest living relative to get the money
or there's a relative they don't really
like or get along with and that person
could end up in the line of succession
if you rely on the laws of intestacy so
a will allows you to opt out of that now a
will does not opt out of probate by
definition a will must be filed with the
probate court within 30 days of your
death so probate is the court
administered process that your will goes
through after your death where the court
examines the will and
distributes the property according to
your wishes so probate can often be a
time-consuming and arduous process for
many people who have gone through it in
Wisconsin by statute the shortest it can
be is six months and the longest is two
years now two years is the longest but
if there's a fight over the estate the
court the judge can extend it and
probates have been known to go even
longer for example celebrities and rich
individuals with fights over the estate
those cases can go for years so a will
does not avoid probate in Wisconsin by
definition if you create a will your
estate will go through probate if you
want to think about avoiding probate I
suggest you look at a living trust and
other options you can check out my other
videos on those topics in fact I have
one specifically on the three types of
plans you can have for your estate which
I call no plan will plan and trust plan
check out that video for an overview of
those and I'll put a link to this video
if you want to check that out as well
so great question thank you for watching
and we'll see you next time.
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Transcript and captions provided for ease of access for the hearing impaired.
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