Get CT PC-440 2013

But for estates in Connecticut that exceed the small estate's threshold, and for which there is either no Will, or a Will (but not a Living Trust), probate will be required before an estate can be tranferred to the decedent's heirs or beneficiaries.

Owning assets jointly with another person with rights of survivorship. Use Payable-on-Death assets. Use Transfer-on-Death assets.

Not everything you own will automatically go through probate. ... Assets that generally do not go through probate are 1) jointly owned assets that transfer to the surviving owner; 2) assets that have a valid beneficiary designation; and 3) assets that are in a trust. However, these assets do not always avoid probate.

Typically, many of the assets in an estate don't need to go through probate. If the deceased person was married and owned most everything jointly, or did some planning to avoid probate, a probate court proceeding may not be necessary. ... Life insurance proceeds (unless the estate is named as beneficiary, which is rare)

Probate Assets There will also be items of personal property that do not have title documents, such as furniture and appliances, clothing, household goods, and other personal items. All of these are subject to probate and must be included on the inventory filed with the probate court.

Wills do not have to go through probate unless you want to transfer ownership of assets owned by the testator, or the person who wrote the will, to her living beneficiaries. ... Generally, probate is required for large, complex estates with multiple assets to settle the testator's affairs in an orderly, legal way.

Some people don't want to probate a will. There is no requirement that a will or property go through probate, but if the decedent owned property that is not arranged specifically to avoid probate (see below), there is no way for the beneficiaries to obtain legal ownership without it.

Not every estate, however, needs to go through the probate process. Probate is required only when there is no other mechanism by which to transfer the asset to the heirs or devisees of the estate. ... Assets owned jointly with rights of survivorship are designed to avoid the probate court process.

Some assets including insurance policies, IRAs, retirement plans and some bank accounts let you name a beneficiary. When you die, these assets will be paid directly to the person(s) you have named as beneficiary without probate. ... The funds will go through probate and be distributed with your other assets.

If you do not obtain Probate when someone dies, and Probate is needed on the Estate, then the beneficiaries will not be able to receive their inheritance. Instead the assets will be frozen, and will be held in a state of limbo, as no one will have the legal authority to access or transfer the assets.

Probate Fees Probate fees fall into four principal categories: Filing fees. For all matters other than decedents' estates and accountings, the petitioner pays a filing fee for each petition, application or motion. The current fee is $150 and will increase, for most matters, to $225 on January 1, 2016.

The state of Connecticut, however, doesn't have any hard and fast rules about executor compensation. A rule of thumb used by many Connecticut probate judges is that a fiduciary's fee of less than 4% of the gross estate is presumed reasonable, and many people believe that anything on the order of 3-5% is okay.

The general procedure required to settle an estate via probate in Connecticut is the following: The Will must be filed in the county where the decedent lived. The Will must be filed within 30 days of the death.

Connecticut has a progressive estate tax rate that ranges from 7.2 percent to 12.2 percent of estates larger than $2.6 million.

Lawyers usually use one of three methods to charge for probate work: by the hour, a flat fee, or a percentage of the value of the estate assets. Your lawyer may let you pick how you pay for example, $250/hour or a $1,500 flat fee for handling a routine probate case.