A Step-By-Step Guide to Settling a Loved One's Estate You?ve lost someone close to you, and now you?ve been named the executor of the estate. What does that entail? What does that even mean? The Complete Executor's Guidebook takes you step-by-step through the confusing probate process from start to finish. This book explains everything you need to know to successfully serve as an executor of an estate in a simple, easy-to-understand way. --I?m not a lawyer. What do all of these words mean? --Do I have to be the executor of an estate if I?m named, or can I turn it down? --What exactly does an executor have to do? --What if I make a mistake? --Can I get in trouble? --How long will the entire process take? --Will I get paid for being an executor? --What if there is something wrong with the will? --What if there isn?t a will at all? The Complete Executor's Guidebook will help you through the entire process and keep you from making some very costly mistakes. This is the best book to give you the legal support you need at a time when you need it the most. ?This easy to read, well-organized and practical guide for executors is...written from personal experience by an estate planning attorney who knows his stuff.? -John Palmer, Host, The Prudent Advisor, Retirement Living Television and former news anchor, The Today Show

The Executor's Handbook, Third Edition is a step-by-step guide to settling an estate for personal representatives, administrators, and beneficiaries.

Many of you, regardless of your feelings on the matter, will eventually be appointed as executor of your parents’, spouse’s, or another’s estate. Just calling an attorney isn’t enough. Settling a decedent’s estate may require the combined expertise of accountants, appraisers, auctioneers, realtors, bankers, brokers, insurance companies, a myriad of bureaucrats, and, yes, even lawyers. Where do you start? How do you empty a house crammed with a lifetime’s worth of knick-knacks, bad art, and unopened mail? How do you deal with long-lost relatives who think you’re taking too long or charging too much? And how do you oversee those professionals who know so much more than you about the process? The Essential Executor’s Handbook not only explains the steps involved in settling an estate, but it shows you how to get all these professionals to do the work for you. You will learn everything you need to know about the basic laws and procedures involved; all the legal definitions you could possibly want; and why each professional is necessary, what they do, what they charge, and where to find them. No matter how little you know about law, accounting, and the rest, The Essential Executor’s Handbook will lead you by the hand through the settlement process.

The best legal guide to wills and estates—with more than 80,000 copies sold—now updated to cover the current asset protection options and estate laws. Whether grappling with modest or extensive assets, The Complete Book of Wills, Estates, and Trusts has long been the indispensable guide for protecting an estate for loved ones. In this completely revised third edition, updated to cover the latest changes in estate law, attorney Alexander A. Bove, Jr., clearly explains how to use a will to avoid probate and legal complications how trusts work and how to use trusts to save taxes how to contest a will and how to avoid a contest how to settle an estate or make a claim against one how to establish a durable power of attorney how to protect assets from creditors In his straightforward and humorous style, Bove shares easy-to-understand legal definitions, savvy advice on taxes, and pragmatic and simple sample forms, all illustrated with entertaining examples and actual cases. The Complete Book of Wills, Estates, and Trusts is the best guide available for defending your financial legacy.

The Essential Guide to Wills, Trusts, and you personal legacy. What you need to know before consulting you attorney.