Minnesota Probate Vocabulary

Useful Probate Vocabulary for Minnesota Personal Representatives

Once someone close to you has passed away and you need to begin serving as the estates personal representative, its a good idea to brush up on some Minnesota probate vocabulary that can help you with your various duties. In fact, you may even discover a shortcut or two as you review definitions for such terms as informal probate.

If you have any questions about specific Minnesota personal representativeduties that are not referenced below, be sure to schedule an appointment with your Minnesota probate attorney — he can provide you with the added guidance you may need while handling all of your various tasks.

Managing An Estate: Helpful Probate Terms & Common Duties Defined

Informal probate. If youre handling an estate for a late friend or relative who didnt own any real property in his (or her) name alone and whose personal property is worth less than $50,000, you may be able to file for informal probate. Be sure to ask your attorney (or the clerk at the local probate court) for instructions on how to handle this type of less complicated estate;
Formal probate. These cases are taken before a District Court judge either as supervised or unsupervised administrations. While youll always need to take much larger estates before this type of court, you can usually bring other probate cases here when parties are questioning the legitimacy of a Will or disagreeing about various critical issues;
The four key duties when managing an estate. Its the personal representatives duty to:

Collect, inventory, and appraise all of the testators/deceaseds assets;
Take whatever reasonable steps are necessary to protect the testators property during the probate process;
Pay all of the estates valid debts and taxes;
Distribute all remaining assets to the proper beneficiaries.

The adjustable gross estate. After youve paid all of the estate debts and administrative probate expenses, this is what remains of the estate;
The adjusted taxable estate. Once youve subtracted such items as the marital and charitable deductions from the decedents gross estate, youll have this remaining property and funds;
Capitalization of earnings. When a testator has left behind a functioning business as part of the estate, youll probably need to hire an expert to help you accurately determine the current earning capacity of the business before you can try to sell it or add its value to the rest of the estate;
The alternate valuation date. When trying to minimize all valid estate taxes, a personal representative is allowed to choose a date within six months of the testators death to determine the value of the estates assets. Be sure to choose a date likely to lower them;
The estate tax base. Before the federal government is going to levy taxes against an estate, you should first deduct all of the legitimate deductions, expenses and exclusions from it. However, you must also add back all adjusted taxable gifts;
Non-liquid assets. These can include such things as business interests, heirloom jewelry, an art collection, and real estate than cannot be converted to cash;
Marital deduction. This process allows you to transfer part of the estate to the surviving spouse free of any estate taxes;
POD accounts. (Payable on death). The testator may have created these types of accounts by naming a beneficiary of a jointly held bank or credit union account;
TOD accounts. (Transfer on death). These include various types of investment accounts that name a beneficiary who will receive ownership of all thats in the accounts upon the testators death, without having to go through probate.
Non-probate property. Hopefully, youre helping a testator whose estate plan provides for most property and funds to be automatically transferred to the beneficiaries through trusts accounts, insurance policies, and other estate planning tools.

Should you have any questions about these or other any terms, be sure to contact your Minnesota probate attorney. You can also visit the following American Bar Association glossary and review a recent New York Times article that provides information about useful Internet resources.

Minnesota Probate Attorneys

Joseph M. Flanders and Flanders Law firm LLC is an experienced Minnesota probate lawyer in Dakota County, Minnesota. Mr. Flanders has worked with personal representatives from many different backgrounds and skill levels to complete a Final Accounting and close out the estate.

For further information, contact the firm at 612-424-0398.