Estate Settlement: How it Works?
What happens when a person leaves the world? They leave their loved ones behind. Who is going to take care of their loved ones? Thankfully, people prepare a will to distribute the assets equally. But there are chances that there may not be a will in place. Some unfortunate events might take place, and people might lose their families earlier than they thought. Life is unpredictable, but there are ways to distribute the assets without a will in place. It might take some time, but it is possible.
What’s an estate settlement?
Estate settlement is also known as liquidation. Following the passing away or death of an individual, the liquidation or the settlement of the estate should be carried out.
Certain steps ought to be followed here, and it’s done as per the law.
Any movable and immovable property of the deceased goes to the heir or any person mentioned in the will.
A liquidator is assigned to take care of everything from contacting the banks, heir, or the notary.
Estate Settlement Procedure
It’s a step-by-step procedure, but we would like to give you a gist of it.
The first thing you do is collect all the information or documents like will search and death certificates.
Once this is done, the verification of the will (notarized) shall begin. It could be a will before the witnesses or a holographic will. Verification of the will is crucial.
The next step is to identify the heir or heirs. What if there are none? Usually, it’s mentioned in the will who should get the assets.
Once the heirs have been identified, liquidators are identified and appointed. The deceased person mentions the liquidator.
The procedure does not end here, as there is a liquidation of the deceased’s estate patrimony, then the tax declaration process begins. Once payment towards the creditors and rendering accounts steps have finished, the property goes to the heirs.
If you find it difficult to understand all the technicalities, feel free to get in touch with an estate lawyer Litvack Dessureault LLP.
Concluding Thoughts
Estate liquidation is not an easy process. You need professionals to handle this.
In case you wish to understand the procedure and speed up the process, consider hiring an estate lawyer. They will explain to you in detail the procedure, and the heirs will get the assets well in time. However, please note that it takes time to transfer the property to the heirs because there is an entire procedure to follow.
