5 step process to estate & Probate Administration done right 

At ThePeoplesLawFirm.com, the following is the 5 Step Process to Estate And Probate Administration Done Right:

Step 1—Free Consultation and Evaluation of Your Case. Call this number, 610-600-9844, and a probate and estate administration attorney is ready to take your call for a FREE consultation and evaluation of your case. To do the evaluation, you will need to provide the following information:

• Your Contact Information.  Your name, address, phone number and email;
• Information About the Person that Died. Name of person that died, age at death, date of death and County resided in at the date of death;
• Will?  If the person had a Will, name of the executor and number of beneficiaries in the Will;
• No Will? If the person did NOT have a Will, be prepared to provide information like was the person married, did the person have children, parents, siblings;
• Estate Assets.  What did person own at the time of death? House, checking and savings accounts, retirement accounts, investment accounts, and other valuable assets; and
• Estate Debts.  Are there any debts? Credit cards, mortgages, and any other type of debts.

Based on information provided, and with over 28 years of experience, we will be able to give you an estimate of what you will have to pay the law firm to do probate and estate administration of the estate.

Step 2—How to Hire the Lawyer.   After receiving the free consultation and evaluation of your case, and an estimate of what it will cost, if you decide to hire the law firm, then we will email you an attorney fee agreement through DocuSign, which enables you to sign the attorney fee agreement electronically and automatically returns it to us. Upon receipt of the signed attorney fee agreement, we will email you a link through LawPay, a secured platform that enables you to pay the retainer electronically. Upon receipt of the paid retainer, we will contact you to begin the work that needs to be done.

Step 3—What Paying by the Hour Looks Like.   Here’s what paying by the hour looks like. We charge you an hourly rate for the time we spend working on the case. In the Book, and Consumer Protection Guide,  Estate & Probate Administration in Pennsylvania, we will be spending our time in the “check-the-box” list of what needs to be done. The hourly rate is broken down into increments of one tenth of an hour. For example, if the hourly rate is $325, and we work for an hour, then it’s $325. Half hour working, $162.50. Two tenths of an hour working, $65. You receive an itemized billing statement specifically describing each task that was done, how long it took, and the cost. Everything is transparent. If you have a question about how we spent time on the case, just ask and we’d be happy to discuss it with you.

For example, if we estimate the total cost to complete the probate and estate administration process to be $12,000, we won’t ask for all that at once. Instead, we’ll start with a $5,000 retainer. We keep the retainer in a trust account, and only put money in the law firm account after it’s earned. Over time, if the trust account goes down to $1,000, we’ll request an additional $5,000 retainer, and continue in that manner until the whole process is complete. If, during the probate and estate administration process, we discover new information that will change our initial estimate to complete the work, then of course we’d discuss that with you before incurring the additional cost.

Step 4—Complete the Executor’s “check-the-box” List of What Needs to Be Done.   Depending on the facts and circumstances of your particular case, over the course of a little over 1 year to complete probate and estate administration, some or all of the 78 items on the “check-the-box” list in our FREE Book, and Consumer Protection Guide,  Estate & Probate Administration in Pennsylvania, will need to be done. For the most part, the attorney and executor will be working together to make that happen. You’ll have the “check-the- box” list to guide you along the way.

Step 5—Close the Estate and Give What’s Owed—The Will states who gets what and you shouldn’t do that until the process is complete. If everything runs smoothly, it should take a little over a year for the beneficiaries of the Will to receive their inheritance. And that’s it. The 5 Step Process to Estate & Probate Administration Done Right is complete and you can close the estate.