Why Hire an Attorney When Someone Dies?

By Deirdre Wheatley-Liss​, Porzio Bromberg & Newman P.C.

The loss of a loved one is a terrible thing. You are sad, moving through the long process of mourning, comforting others and seem to have 1001 new things to deal with – paying bills, social security, pensions, mowing the lawn, dealing with final medical bills, taxes, house cleanout and on and on and on. An attorney may not have known your loved one, but they have one thing you don’t – experience.

You have likely never dealt with this before, or maybe one other time, and suddenly a new full-time job got dropped in your lap. An estate attorney has represented hundreds of other families going through the same situation you now find yourself in. An estate attorney can outline a plan from start to close of the estate, guide you through it or take the steps for you, how and when you need it. Just like no family is the same, no estate is the same. While the overall steps from open to close will happen, how each step is accomplished and what YOU need to do for THIS estate will be unique to your family. So how does Porzio’s Probate and Estate Administration Team help Executors?

Estate Administration Project Plan
Some executors want to do as much or all of the estate administration by themselves. This is great, so long as you know what your responsibilities are. One service we offer is an in-depth estate administration planning meeting to go over each step of the estate, each asset and liability, and provide the Executor with a written plan of instructions of what needs to be done from probate to payments to taxes to accountings to closure. This works best with a simple estate with a surviving spouse, or children with limited estate assets.

Guided Estate Administration
Other Executors want guidance on an as-needed basis. Here we expand the Estate Administration Project Plan and identify who is responsible for what (ie: the Executor will probate the Will and gather all the asset date of death values, Porzio’s probate and estate administration team will prepare the accounting, tax returns, and terminate the estate and close off the Executor’s liability to the beneficiaries). This works best with Executors who have the time to devote to their new job and want our Probate and Estate Administration Team to handle the tax and legal document and be “on-call” for questions.

Full-Service Estate Administration
Here, our Probate and Estate Administration Team takes the lead and works directly with the Executor and other family advisors to move the estate from start to finish. The Executor is outsourcing much of the work to the professionals. Most families select this when the Executor has other responsibilities or the estate assets have particular complexities. Porzio’s Probate and Estate Administration Team brings its experience to every unique estate administration and supports each Executor from the start to finish of their job.

Deirdre Wheatley-Liss
lakeri@pbnlaw.com