Reasons to avoid probate including make your accounts pod
Reasons to avoid probate including make your accounts pod (payable on death), tod (transfer on death) or itf (in trust for) your children.
Attorney Tom Olsen: Chris, we're just talking about how these days it's more and more common that when mom and dad have passed away, it's likely that the children are going to be arguing between each other. Let me give you an example of that. If they don't-- if a client, or if a person does not come see Olsen Law Group and does not take steps to avoid probate, what does that mean? Well, it means there's going to be a probate happening. Now we're talking about probate fees, time and money. What it also means is that one of the children is in charge of that probate process.
That means that the other kids are going to be calling us and saying, "Tom, my brother Bill is the executor of the estate. He's not telling me anything. I don't know what's going on. Mom died a year ago. I haven't gotten a penny yet. There's all I can do is sit back and wait and I don't know what's happened." Among all the problems with probate, there's another one, but let's flip the coin there, okay? People come to see the Olsen Law Group. We tell them easy steps to avoid probate. One of those is, for example, make your bank accounts POD, payable on death, to your children.
What does that mean? It means that when you pass away, any one of those children can show the bank your death certificate, and the bank will write equal checks to each one of your children.
Attorney Chris Merrill: Right on.
Attorney Tom Olsen: It is not the first child that gets down to the bank, gets all the money. Any one of them can show the bank the death certificate and the bank will write equal checks to each one of your children. The kids don't even have to talk to each other to get that done.
Attorney Chris Merrill: That simple.
Attorney Tom Olsen: That simple. Folks at the Olsen Law Group in Orlando, we want to help you to avoid probate. We've got a booklet called Easy Ways To Avoid Probate. You want to get that booklet Easy Ways To Avoid Probate, go to our website, olsenlawgroup.com. On the first homepage, scroll down, you'll see a picture of those booklets and just fill out the form with your name and mailing address. We'll get it mailed to you. Now, if you're not on the computer, of course you can call the Olsen Law Group next week. Anybody that picks up the phone can take that information from you.