Probate & Trust Administration

While you can take on all of the work of administering your loved one’s estate and trusts, there are many ways to make mistakes without legal and tax counsel. Even without mistakes, our experience shows that the cost in legal fees is the same or more when you administer the estate or trust yourself and have the work reviewed or corrected by a lawyer later. Consider professional legal advice from the start to save some time.

When a loved one passes, you’ll need that time to focus on honoring your loved one’s memory, comforting others, and dealing with your own grief. As your life and responsibilities go, so do the lives of your family and friends, who deserve your love and attention too.

Belle Vie Legacy Law, PLLC can work with you either way you choose. We provide reliable post-mortem estate probate and trust administration services that are designed to guide families through the process as seamlessly as possible.

​Estate Administrator and Trustee Responsibilities

After a loved one passes, your responsibilities as administrator or trustee can include the following:

• Probating the Last Will and Testament in court
• Collecting, inventorying, and evaluating all assets
• Obtaining federal tax identification numbers for the estate and trust
• Preparing and filing one or more federal and state tax returns for the decedent’s final state and federal income, estate income, or trust income
• Required minimum distributions from defined contribution retirement plans owned by the decedent and, if named as death beneficiary, by the estate or trusts
• Paying decedent’s unpaid bills, taxes, and claims, expenses of estate and trust administration, and funeral costs
• Selling real estate or other assets of the estate or trust
• Communicating with, calculating, and distributing to beneficiaries
• Preparing and filing accounts with beneficiaries and the probate court
• Obtaining beneficiary assents to accounts and distribution
• Closing the probate estate

Rebecca started Belle Vie Legacy Law, PLLC in White House, Tennessee, and has been committed to helping business owners and families navigate the legal processes of estate planning, business planning, elder law, probate and trust administration, and special needs planning.