Trust & Estate Administration or Probate After the Death of a Loved One

​Grieving the death of a loved one is upsetting enough. Adding the confusion and burden of handling the technical details of locating assets, paying bills and making sure your loved one’s assets are properly distributed, without conflict, compounds it even more.  We are here to help!

Whether your loved one created a trust to hold their assets, or did not, he or she did have assets (called the estate of the deceased) that must be handled with careful attention and it’s critical that you work with a caring and knowledgeable lawyer.

When someone creates a trust as part of their estate plan, they must name a trustee to ensure the trust’s terms are handled properly. These individuals must carry out all of the trust’s instructions, and they’re legally responsible for doing so within the scope of federal and state law, regardless of their level of familiarity.  Such duties are known as trust administration.

If there is not a trust or if not all assets have been properly titled in the name of a trust that was created, we can help your family through the process of estate administration, usually requiring a court process, called probate. If you are a beneficiary of an estate, or an executor or trustee, contact us for support in handling the transition of your loved ones assets as easily as possible.

Trust and Estate Administration

As your attorney, P.A. Lundy & Associates will work closely with the family, beneficiaries, and other advisors to ensure the decedent’s trust assets are collected, debts are paid, and the remaining assets are distributed to the named trust beneficiaries, or to the heirs of the estate.

Trust and Estate Administration Services

Below, we’ve outlined some of our most common trust and estate administration services. We can accomplish the following duties without unnecessary delay and with utmost respect for your personal privacy and your family relationships.

• Identification, collection, and determination of values of assets
• Payment of all debts, expenses, and taxes from estate and trust assets, with submission of regular accountings
• Advice as to disposition of jointly held assets, life insurance, and retirement benefits that pass outside a will or trust
• Preparation of state and federal, gift, generation-skipping transfer, and gift tax returns
• Notifying all heirs and beneficiaries of the trust or estate
• Communicating with beneficiaries

Our primary objective is to make this process as easy as possible for you, and minimize the impact of going to court, while also keeping your family out of conflict.