Probate

At the law offices of Christian P. Edmonds, P.C. we understand that clients have many concerns after the death of a family member or friend. We assist families with matters of probate and estate administration to transfer assets following a death.

Probate is a court supervised procedure where an executor (if there is a Will) or administrator (if there is no Will) is appointed to administer an estate. A notice to creditors is published in a local newspaper. There are deadlines for filing an inventory, return of claims and list of notified creditors, Connecticut estate tax return and, if required, a United States Estate tax return. A financial report detailing the assets, claims, income, capital gains or losses, administration expenses and a proposed distribution of assets to the beneficiaries is filed with the Probate Court.

Only those assets in your name alone (or held as tenants in common) will pass according to the provisions of your Will. Assets held in survivorship or assets with beneficiaries designated outside of your Will (such as real estate held in survivorship, survivorship bank accounts, life insurance or annuities with designated beneficiaries, IRA or pension benefits with designated beneficiaries and funded trusts) pass directly to those survivors or designated beneficiaries regardless of the provisions of your Will. You should review all items of that nature to ensure that they will pass to your intended beneficiaries.

Without a Will your probate assets pass according to the Connecticut General Statutes laws of intestacy. The laws name the recipients and the amount each will receive. For example, if someone who is a resident of the State of Connecticut dies without a Will, and they are survived by a spouse and children of that spouse, their surviving spouse will inherit the first $100,000.00 of probate assets plus one half (1⁄2) of the assets in excess of $100,000.00 and their children will inherit the other one half (1⁄2) of the assets in excess of $100,000.00. Different laws apply if someone has children not with that spouse or if they are survived by other relatives.

If all of someone’s assets pass by operation of law and if they have a Will, the Will would be filed only: formal probate administration would not be necessary. In any case a Connecticut Estate Tax return would need to be filed: either Form CT 706NT Connecticut Estate Tax Return for a non-taxable estate or Form CT 706 Connecticut Estate Tax Return for a taxable estate.

If someone has probate assets of less than forty thousand dollars ($40,000.00) a simplified probate process may be utilized which would also avoid full probate. We utilize simplified probate whenever possible.

If you would like more information please call us at (203) 488-1000.

The following form is attached if you would like a checklist to gather your information.

Probate Estate Information