Hosting an Estate Sale Without a Probate Could Cause Big Risks
Video Transcribed:
Can you host an estate sale without there being probate in Muskogee? Hi, I’m Eric Strocen. I’m a Muskogee attorney with the Wirth Law Offices here to explain. It is risky to deal with assets of a decedent without probate or some other estate planning mechanism meant to distribute property per the law. When you do things informally, if someone disagrees, that person could then probate the estate, if they’re an interested heir and you could run into big problems.
Another issue is, we don’t know who the creditors are. We need to give notice to creditors, let them know, “Hey, this person’s passed away. The estate has some property and you have the potential to get paid.” By selling these assets or taking other means to distribute the property informally.
You take a big risk that puts your family’s time, energy, and money at risk, because eventually you will be in a position if something goes wrong, where you’ll have to go to court anyway, and it could be for probate, you could save a lot of time and money to just do it on the front-end and not have to stress out about it on the back-end.
Recently I, myself had to show up to an estate sale that was conducted illegally with a writ signed by the judge and file the sheriff, instructing people to shut it down. That person placed all of that money into that estate sale to only have it broken up by me and the sheriffs.
So you really, really ought to be careful and use the tools that the law provides before you make decisions as it relates to estate property. If you need a confidential consultation on any topic related to estate planning or probate, please reach out to the Wirth Law Office. Visit us online muskogeeattorney.pro.
