Paul Rabalais' Louisiana Succession Law Blog

Working With the Courts on Successions Can Be Frustrating

We strive at our office to be prompt, accurate and efficient when we are providing our Louisiana Succession legal services. I have to admit that our client services attorney, Catherine Martinez, does a whale of a job creating and processing all of our succession pleadings and other probate paperwork.

Today I received word that the judge's office rejected two of our Louisiana Succession Petitions for Possession. Just so you'll know, a petition or other court pleading can be rejected if it is not procedurally correct or for another valid reason.

In both matters, the Petition for Possession and corresponding Judgment of Possession was rejected because, as the clerk for the duty judge put it, we did not file the required, "Affidavits of Death, Domicile and Heirship."

So they rejected our documents and sent them back to us to start over. What the law clerk failed to realize was that we had filed the required Affidavits of Death, Domicile and Heirship when we filed the Petition to Probate the Will. Anybody who knows anything about Louisiana Successions would have known to look to see if these Affidavits were previously filed.

The solution has to be to either better train the clerk of court employees who are in charge of handling and processing succession pleadings, or to create a probate court which would exclusively handle succession matters. Since there would be cost and politics involved in establishing a probate court, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

While a Louisiana Succession can often times be a streamlined processing of paperwork at the proper courthouse, any number of things can and often do occur to slow down or stop the process in its tracks. The only way to completely avoid a Louisiana Succession is to make certain there are no assets titled in your name at your death which would require a Louisiana Succession - often done by creating and funding a revocable living trust.

Paul

Why Hire The Rabalais Law Firm To Handle a Louisiana Succession

Selecting the appropriate lawyer or law firm to handle a Louisiana Succession for a family member or other loved one can be one of the most important legal decisions you ever make. Selecting the right lawyer can provide for a quick and smooth transition in the handling of legal, tax, and financial concerns after the death of a loved one. On the other hand, working with the wrong attorney can result in unnecessary delays, conflicts, costs, and mistakes that can strain your most valued family relationships.

There are both some obvious and not-so-obvious reasons why surviving family members should select our law firm when making the all-important decision of who to guide and represent them through this often difficult process.

The following are 11 obvious reasons why you will want to work with us:

1. I have been handling Louisiana successions for more than 18 years;
2. I am a Board Certified Specialist in Estate Planning and Administration, a certification issued by the Specialization Board of the Louisiana State Bar Association.
3. I have a B.S. in Finance from Louisiana State University.
4. I earned my law degree from the LSU Law Center.
5. After graduating from law school, I earned a Masters Degree in Tax Law (LL.M.) from Boston University School of Law.
6. We perform our legal services for a fixed fee which you know in writing up front - never any surprises about legal fees.
7. We have convenient offices and convenient free parking.
8. We stay in touch with our valued clients by writing and providing educational e-newsletters, print newsletters, and events that I conduct.
9. I wrote a book, "Estate Planning in Louisiana, A Layman's Guide To Understanding Wills, Trusts, Probate, Power of Attorney, Medicaid, Living Wills & Taxes," which is available at Barnes & Noble and amazon.com.
10. I maintain a blog that I update weekly regarding Louisiana Succession issues.
11. I attend continuing educational events around the state and around the country to keep myself updated on estate administration issues that affect our valued clients.

The following are 132 not-so-obvious reasons for emailing us, calling us, or coming by our office to discuss our handling your important estate administration needs:

1. We have a passion for providing amazing estate administration legal services.
2. We conduct training sessions EVERY DAY (from 8:30am - 9:00am) for me and our incredible employees so that everyone in our office is up to date on the latest and greatest things that we can do for our valued clients.
3. We have created and maintained written business systems for how we do what we do. This allows us to give high quality predictable legal services to every client we serve.
4. We love to use technology to speed up the delivery of our estate administration legal services. For example, when someone comes in to discuss our Louisiana succession legal services, we already have the initial set of court documents prepared and ready for their signature, even though they have not even retained our law firm yet.
5. We love improving the way we deliver customer service. You won't wait unnecessarily in our reception area. Instead, you will be greeted by name from a friendly service provider.
6. We have hundreds of written testimonials from satisfied clients. If you want to read them all, just come by our office or ask to read them. They are awesome.
7. I'm currently writing my second book for Louisiana residents. It will teach you how to make sure that a Louisiana succession is handled quickly and professionally - from A to Z.
8. Our mission is to use our Louisiana succession legal services to enhance the relationships of Louisiana families.
9. We abhor hourly rate work. This promotes inefficiency and delays.
10. We intend to transform our broken legal services industry.
11. Our clients are invited to monthly educational events (teleseminars, webinars, live events).
12. We can't stand to get in the middle of messy family disputes. We'd much rather see family members communicate professionally and improve relationships.
13. Since all uncontested Louisiana Successions DO NOT require a single court appearance, we can handle successions in ALL 64 LOUISIANA PARISHES.

If you want to look into how we may assist you with your important Louisiana Succession proceeding, simply send me an email at paul@rabalaislaw.com, call me toll-free at 866-491-3884, or come by our convenient and comfortable home office in Baton Rouge. It will cost you nothing to look into our estate administration services. Don't be shy - I'm certain you will be impressed with your initial contact.

Paul Rabalais

Requirements For a Small Succession Procedure in Louisiana

We handle estates that are both large and small. Last week a gentleman called and said his father died recently. The only asset that his father owned was a bank account that had a balance of about $10,700. He wanted to know what he needed to do to access these funds.

Normally, a full-blown court supervised succession is required to have an asset transferred out of the name of a deceased person. However, in this case, the estate qualified as a "Small Succession," and no court supervision was required.

To qualify as a Small Succession, three things must happen (NO EXCEPTIONS):

1. The deceased died without a Last Will and Testament;
2. The deceased's gross assets do not exceed $50,000 in value; and
3. The deceased owned no real estate.

If the succession meets these three requirements, then the following must occur:

1. All of the heirs must sign an Affidavit of Small Succession and have their signatures notarized;
2. A Detailed Descriptive List of Assets must be prepared;
3. If the gross estate is more than $15,000 (or if any taxes are due), an Inheritance Tax Return must be prepared.

All of this information will be submitted to the Louisiana Department of Revenue, who will audit the information and stamp on the Affidavit that all inheritance tax due has been paid. Then, the heirs can go to the bank with the Affidavit that has been given its seal of approval by the Louisiana Department of Revenue, and get access to the deceased's funds.

What was great about the small succession we worked on last week is that the deceased had two children - a son and a daughter. The daughter was going to allow her share of the funds to be used for her brother's child, who was starting college this fall.

If you have questions about completing a Louisiana succesion and would like to either get your questions answered or inquire about our legal services, feel free to give me a call at 225-329-2450, or send me an email at paul@rabalaislaw.com.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Paul Rabalais

Did You See My Print Ad in The Advocate Today?

Based on the phone calls and website stats, many of you saw the ad that I ran today in the Baton Rouge Advocate. It suggests that you go to www.SuccessionAttorney.com and download my free report. The report teaches you how to save tons of time, effort and money when settling an estate. I got a call today from a nice woman who told me her father died years ago, her mother died in March, and she needs to complete their successions. She said she really enjoyed reading the Report. She's faxing me their Wills tomorrow so I can give her a free quote for the Louisiana Succession legal costs.

If you missed the ad, don't worry. It will continue running for 29 more days. You can also download it here. Can you guess who that is in the picture?   Download Free Report Ad

Purported Louisiana Last Will Must Be Filed

Was working on a succession recently. Everyone assumed the deceased had never signed a Will. While we were in the middle of the succession, someone produced - but did not file - a copy of a purported last will and testament of the deceased. Now what happens?

Louisiana Succession procedure law provides that if you have possession of a document purporting to be the testament of a deceased person, even if you do not believe the will is valid, you must present it to the court requesting it be filed in the succession record.

Be aware, however, that your presenting the Will does not mean you vouch for its validity, nor are you precluded from asserting its invalidity.

If you have any general questions about successions, post a comment and we'll do our best to answer your questions. If you like to inquire - at no cost - about our estate administration legal services, simply give our office a call at 225-329-2450, or send me an email at paul@rabalaislaw.com. Make sure you put in your subject line: Need Succession Help.

Paul Rabalais

IRAs, 401(k)s and Life Insurance Excluded From Louisiana Succession

Occasionally when I am reviewing succession documents prepared by another law office, I see IRA accounts and other retirement accounts listed on the Succession Detailed Descriptive List and Judgment of Possession.

These "nonprobate" items typically do not belong anywhere on the Louisiana succession documents. These items are paid directly to the designated beneficiaries that were listed by the account owner on the Beneficiary Designation form that was completed when the account owner opened the account.

We do, however, have to list these items in the succession when the proceeds of these nonprobate items are payable to the estate. Proceeds are payable to the estate when:

• the owner designated his or her "estate" as the beneficiary;
• the owner did not designate a beneficiary and the account contract requires the proceeds be payable to the estate; or
• one or more designated beneficiaries are deceased and the account contract requires the proceeds to be payable to the estate.

Beneficiary designations must be reviewed my account owners periodically and kept up-to-date. When the typical consumer thinks about estate planning, they usually think first about getting their Last Will or Trust prepared. But in the same thought they should be thinking about updating their beneficiary designations.

Perhaps you are involved in a succession where the estate is the beneficiary of a non-probate item. Then guess what: you need a succession attorney. Contact us either by phone (225-329-2450) or by email at paul@rabalaislaw.com, and we'll do our best to resolve these matter for you. Until next time...

Paul Rabalais

Should Louisiana Have Probate Courts?

Some states call it a "Probate." In Louisiana, we call it a "Succession." Whatever you call it, it's the process of getting an estate settled.

Some states have "Probate Courts." Louisiana does not. A probate court typically would have judge that would only only matters related to the settling of an estate.

In Louisiana, all of our district court judges must not only handle succession matters, but they must handle all other civil law matters such as family law (divorce and custody), personal injury law, business law, contract law, worker's compensation law, and much, much more.

It appears that many of our judge's are overworked and must be experts in many different areas of our vast Louisiana law. Perhaps it would make sense if we had probate courts or succession courts that had judges who were experts in that one area of the law. Perhaps justice would be quick and equitable in more instances.

What do you think? Feel free to comment.