how estates are managed
in almost all cases estates are divided among members of the deceased s family this passage of wealth from one generation of a family to the next has a tendency to entrench income in certain social classes or families inheritance accounts for a massive proportion of total wealth in the united states and around the world and is in part responsible for persistent income inequality though there are of course many other factors partially as a response to the stagnation of wealth movement as a result of inheritance most governments require those in line for an inheritance to pay an inheritance tax estate tax on the estate this tax can be very large sometimes requiring the beneficiary to sell some of the inherited assets to pay the tax bill in the u s assets of an estate left to a spouse or a charity are generally not taxed 1it is generally advisable for both the individual drafting the will and the beneficiaries of an estate to employ the services of estate attorneys inheritance taxes are notorious for their complexity and exorbitance and the use of an attorney helps ensure that your inheritance taxes are paid correctly on the drafting end several measures can be taken to minimize the amount of tax one s beneficiaries will have to pay for example setting up trusts writing a willa will is a legal document created to provide instructions on how an individual s property and custody of minor children if any should be handled after death the individual expresses their wishes through the document and names a trustee or executor that they trust to fulfill the stated intentions the will also indicates whether a trust should be created after death depending on the estate owner s intentions a trust can go into effect during their lifetime living trust or after the death of the individual testamentary trust 2the authenticity of a will is determined through a legal process known as probate probate is the first step taken in administering the estate of a deceased person and distributing assets to the beneficiaries when an individual dies the custodian of the will must take the will to the probate court or to the executor named in the will typically within 30 days of the death of the testator however it varies by state for example florida requires a will be filed within 10 days of being notified of the death 3the probate process is a court supervised procedure in which the authenticity of the will left behind is proven to be valid and accepted as the true last testament of the deceased the court officially appoints the executor named in the will which in turn gives the executor the legal power to act on behalf of the deceased 4