8 Ways to Avoid Probate

Avoid probate and save time and money with these eight strategies

Probate can drag on for years, and can easily cost your family thousands of dollars -- money that would otherwise have gone to them. 8 Ways to Avoid Probate offers simple and effective methods for skipping the probate process so that property goes directly to the intended beneficiaries.

Your estate doesn't have to go through probate. You can avoid probate by creating a savvy estate plan, and 8 Ways to Avoid Probate shows you how. This book offers simple but effective methods to skip the entire process -- plus real-world examples of how others have used them. Find out about:

setting up payable-on-death accounts

naming beneficiaries, including children, institutions, and multiple beneficiaries

naming beneficiaries for retirement accounts, vehicles, real estate, and stocks and bonds

special procedures for small estates

holding property in joint ownership, and alternatives to joint ownership

using a living trust to avoid probate

making gifts of property and money

This edition provides updates to estate and gift tax laws, updated 50-state tables on simplified probate, and additional information on how to bequeath real estate without probate -- 12 states now offer a special deed for just this purpose.