Paul Rabalais' Louisiana Succession Law Blog

Is Louisiana Succession Really Necessary When Deceased Left a Clear Last Will?

 

We work with some great families getting estates settled after the death of a loved one. Occasionally we are asked, "Is a Succession really necessary if someone dies with a Will and they are clear about who the heirs are?" Sometimes they ask, "Can't we just take my Dad's Will and a death certificate to the bank and ask the bank to give us Dad's money?"

Well it does not work like that. A Succession is necessary even though the deceased left a Will when there are assets titled in the name of the deceased. The Will is filed at the courthouse along with a number of customized Succession documents including the detailed list of assets and debts, petitions, and a Judgment.

If the judge's office determines that all of the procedural rules have been followed, the judge will sign a Judgment of Possession which orders banks and others to transfer assets from the name of the deceased to the heirs named in the Will and in the Judgment of Possession.

We work with phenomenal families from all 64 Louisiana parishes in order to get estates settled. The fact that we embrace technology in our office allows us to get this done in lickety split, keeping suriviving heirs from suffering through delays and other stresses.

Ancillary Successions in Louisiana Explained

Over the weekend I received a call from an attorney in Mississippi who needed some assistance with probating a will for a deceased Mississippi resident who held property in Louisiana. Probate is the term used to describe the court procedure that distributes a persons estate the heirs after their death. In Louisiana we use there term Succession to describe this same court supervised process, but ultimately the result is the same, distribution of the person's property according to their will.

Typically, only one probate or succession procedure needs to take place because most people only own property in one state. However, when a person owns immovable property (real estate) in more than one state, then a court supervised procedure must take place in each state where that person owned property.

In this particular circumstance the deceased owned property in two states, Mississippi and Louisiana. The primary probate procedure will take place in Mississippi, meaning for the majority of the persons property, their vehicles, and banking and investment accounts, this Mississippi probate will be all that is needed. However, in order for the named heirs to gain possession of the property in Louisiana, another court procedure needs to take place in Louisiana. This court procedure is called an ancillary succession. This is a simple procedure that takes place after the probate is completed in Mississippi and only involves a few court filings outlining the will and describing the single piece of property in Louisiana. Without this ancillary succession, the heirs will be unable to sell, lease, or make improvements to the property in Louisiana.

This sort of two state probate can be avoided using a Revocable Living Trust. If you own property in multiple states including Louisiana, you may want to start thinking about your options to avoid dual successions. If you would like to discuss your options give me a call in the New Orleans/Metairie Area at (504) 247-1980 or send an email to chris@rabalaislaw.com. On the Northshore, contact Brent Durham at (985) 246-3020 or brent@rabalaislaw.com. In Baton Rouge, contact Paul Rabalais at 225-329-2450 or paul@rabalaislaw.com.

Chris Kane, Attorney

Director, New Orleans Office

     

 

What To Do After the First Spouse Dies to Avoid Estate Tax After the Second Death

I spoke with a daughter today. Her father died recently and she wanted to know how to handle his Louisiana succession (what she needs to do, how much, the usual).

I asked her about her parents' assets. When we added it all up, it was a little over $1 million. I asked her what her father's Will said and the will left everything to his surviving wife. This is commonly referred to as an, "I Love You" Will, because it simply leaves everything to the surviving spouse.

I knew that could be a problem. I told her that if everything gets lumped into Mom's estate, then there is the potential for some hefty federal estate tax when Mom later dies since she will likely own more than $1,000,000, and since the tax law provides that starting January 1, 2011, everything over $1 million will be subject to a federal estate tax which starts at 37% and creeps up to 55% quickly.

I suggested that before the family do anything, that Mom should at least consider disclaiming some of Dad's estate. Whatever she disclaims (or "renounces" or "refuses") will go straight to the children and will not be lumped into Mom's estate for estate tax purposes when she dies.

Even though the new law does not take effect until January 1, 2011, you need to start planning for it. Decisions that are made today can have adverse tax effects in the future if those decisions are not made with future tax laws in mind.

If you are an executor of a Louisiana succession, or if you are the "decisionmaker" of an estate, and would like to speak to us about how we can quickly and efficiently resolve and complete an uncontested Louisiana succession - and if you'd like to avoid or minimize estate tax along the way - give our office a call at 225-329-2450 - or send me an email at paul@rabalaislaw.com and in the subject line write - NEED AMAZING SUCCESSION LAWYER.

Paul Rabalais

Grandchildren Inherit When Child Predeceases Parent in Louisiana

I received an email last night from a woman who wanted to know if she had any succession or inheritance rights from her grandmother. Her grandmother died in 1998 without a last will and testament, but domiciled in Louisiana. Prior to her grandmother's death, her mother died.

The woman noted that her grandmother's two other children "split the estate." The woman wanted to know if she had any rights to inherit under Louisiana Succession Law.

Louisiana Succession Law has something called "Representation." When a Louisiana resident dies without a last will and testament, their estate goes to their children. If a child dies before the parent, then that child's share is to be divided among that child's children.

In the previous example, I don't understand how the two surviving children split the estate. Perhaps Grandmother only owned bank accounts and one of the two suriviving children had signature authority over Grandmother's accounts so they were able to access the funds without a court order. Or perhaps one of the children petitioned the court and was appointed as the Administrator of the Succession and was then permitted to open an estate account and move Grandmother's funds into an estate account which they could access. The first "perhaps" is the most likely scenario.

If there was real estate involved, then Succession pleadings would have to have been prepared which should have indicated that the deceased child's children were representing their mother in the grandmother's succession. A judge should have signed a Judgment of Possession which would have transferred the real estate to the heirs in the proper proportions. All of the heirs would have been made a party in the succession - including the grandchildren who were representing their mother - before this real estate could have been transferred.

Our Clients are Worldwide

I spoke on the phone yesterday with a client. He was in Italy. His father recently passed away while a resident of Louisiana. We went through the steps that were necessary to transfer title of the father's home so that it could be sold. We also discussed putting his mother's assets in a trust so that it would be simple to transact her assets in the future - given the fact that the son lived in Italy and it is difficult for him to get documents notarized in a foreign country where he resides.

With technology making Louisiana Succession so simple, we never even see many of our clients. Often parents die and their children live out of state - or in this case out of the country.

While I enjoy visiting with our many valued clients in our office in Baton Rouge, we also enjoy serving our out of town clients using the telephone and the internet. In fact, it's pretty cool somedays to go to work in blue jeans knowing that we can impress our clients and give exceptional customer service (as evidenced by the many written testimonials on this blog) without having to meet them face to face.

If you are an executor or an heir of an uncontested Louisiana Succession, feel free to contact me - paul@rabalaislaw.com - to discuss how we can assist. You'll have a no-cost initial visit by phone or in person, and I'll lay out a step by step customized process for completing the Succession. And I'll quote you a reasonable fixed-fee quote - to the penny. No surprise bill at the end. No hourly rates.

Or, if you have questions or comments, simple post a comment to this blog post.

Paul 

Complete an e-Succession from the Comfort of your Home

Lawyers in general have done a poor job of structuring their businesses to make it simple for consumers to get high quality legal services easily - particulary since technology allows us to do so many things electronically.

You can open and maintain an investment account online, you can monitor your bank accounts and pay bills online, and you can even find your soulmate online.

Until now though, the only way to get Louisiana Succession legal services is to hire a lawyer the old fashioned way: you find a lawyer that you hope can help you; you take off work or take time away from your family to visit the lawyer's office; you describe your situation to a lawyer while he handwrites notes on his legal pad; and you then leave the office hoping the attorney gets the work done while billing you at enormous hourly rates. You call or visit the lawyer's office when there are problems or questions due to the fact that the lawyer does not have detailed in-office written systems for his business. The whole process (including hourly rate billing) begs for inefficiency and delays, and it does not utilize today's technological advances like the investment firms and banks.

We've made it simple to complete an entire uncontested succession from the comfort of your home. Here's how it works:

1. Go to www.SuccessionAttorney.com and download your Report, "How to Avoid or Minimize Taxes, Probate Costs, Executor Fees, Attorney Fees, Family Conflicts and Delays After the Death of a Loved One. It's jam packed with information that will help you breeze through a Succession.
2. Download our Confidential Succession Questionnaire and fill it out online. I've set it up so that once you complete the form and click, "Submit Form," then www.acrobat.com will deliver your questioninnaire immediately to my personal email inbox. We may contact you to gather any additional information we may need to develop a written plan for you.
3. At no cost to you, we'll send you a detailed step-by-step plan for completing the Succession, along with a Legal Services Agreement which details a fixed fee quote for completing the Succession. We guarantee you will not find a lower fixed fee quote, and we will give you a 100% refund if you are not satisfied with our services.
4. Sign and submit the Legal Services Agreement and we will prepare all of the Succesion legal pleadings. We will email them to you and the heirs for signatures, and you will send them back to us so we may file them for you at the courthouse.

It's that simple. To get started, go to www.SuccessionAttorney.com for valuable information and to prepare and submit your Confidential Succession Questionnaire. If you have questions you can email me at paul@rabalaislaw.com, or give my office a call at 866-491-3884.

Paul Rabalais

Deceased California Resident Owned Louisiana Real Estate - Ancillary Succession

Was speaking yesterday with a nice women that lived in California. Her father (also a California resident) died without a Will but leaving behind several children. Her parents owned a piece of real estate in Louisiana. She wanted to know what was needed to get the succession done and the property sold.

I told her an ancillary succession was necessary. The easiest way to get this property sold was to:

1. Have an Administrator appointed. Since there were many heirs, it was not going to be possible to get an "Independent Administrator" appointed.
2. Have the Administrator petition the court to allow the listing of the property.
3. Have the sale of the property approved by the court. This requires two advertisements in the parish where the property is located.
4. The Administrator and the surviving spouse can then sell the property. Since the property was community property, half the proceeds would be payable to the surviving spouse, and half payable to the Succession. The Administrator must open a Succession bank account at any Louisiana bank and deposit the succession funds in the account.
5. The surviving spouse will be entitled to the usufruct of these Succession funds until her death or remarriage. At that time, the heirs will be entitled to ownership of these funds.

If you'd like to talk to us about completing an ancillary succession because a deceased lived out of Louisiana but owned real estate in Louisiana, feel free to comment, give us a call at (225) 329-2450, or shoot me an email at paul@rabalaislaw.com. We'll do our best to help.

Paul Rabalais