Utilizing Jewish Funeral Home Advice To Avoid Probate

You approach East Brunswick, NJ Jewish funeral homes to help you plan funeral services, even possibly pre-planning your own ahead of time. But you also can ask for advice on other matters. Your funeral isn’t the only thing you will want to plan. You’ll also want to take care of your estate to ensure that things don’t have to go through probate. While probate isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it can take time and be costly. You’d rather your family have their inheritance right away and without a chunk missing. Here are some strategies funeral home professionals have seen at work. Consult with an estate planning lawyer to see what works best for you.  

Strategy 1: Piecemeal 

If you use this strategy, you will go through your assets one at a time and ensure that everything is jointly owned by one of your heirs. You can also set it up so the ownership transfers right away upon your death. That way, you have no assets that are owned solely by you, which would force them into probate. If you have a small, simple estate, this can be easy enough to do. If you have quite a bit, it can be a lot harder to not leave anything out.  

Strategy 2: Create Trusts 

This option is more thorough and effective since it can protect an entire state against probate. When you create a revocable trust, it will encompass all of your assets. This legal structure holds your property on behalf of your interests and the assets are then managed by a Trustee, whom you get to appoint. You can be the trustee until you pass on, at which point an appointed successor will take over. The holdings within the Trust will be distributed upon your passing based on your instructions and with no interference from probate courts. Heirs get their inheritance a lot faster and without any money being taken from the accounts. While this strategy takes time and effort to initiate and follow through on, once it is established, it is adaptable in the future if you have changes in your family or finances. You can keep it updated and plan your taxes and other things in advance. It also protects your family against disputes in the future.  

While your East Brunswick, NJ Jewish funeral home isn’t able to set up Trusts for you, or help with Piecemeal strategies, we can give you resources for lawyers who can do just that. We’re here to help you plan your final services and get you as prepared as possible for the future. It’s in the best interest of your family. When you’re ready to start with the service portion of the pre-planning, contact Mount Sinai Memorial Chapels. We’re located at 454 Cranbury Rd, East Brunswick, NJ 08816 and you’re welcome to stop in and see our facilities. You can also call for a consultation at (732) 390-9199. Our funeral director is happy to answer your questions about any type of service you wish to plan.