In Lake City, Minnesota, probate is the procedure in which a court validates or voids a will.

As part of this procedure, the court in Lake City, Minnesota has various important responsibilities. Most especially, it has to decide if the will is valid, and consider evidence that it is not (if any such evidence exists). The probate court then has to guarantee that the property is distributed in an orderly manner, as close to the terms of the will (assuming it is valid) as possible.

The executor of the estate is frequently named in the will. If not, the probate court in Lake City, Minnesota will name will appoint a person to serve as executor. This is typically the person who stands to inherit the most under the will.

Because the executor is responsible for truly initiating probate proceedings and seeing them to finalization, the person chosen for this role is often the one who stands to inherit the most from the will - giving them an incentive to put in the necessary time and effort.

Duties of the Executor in Lake City, Minnesota

The executor has various duties with respect to the will. First, it is his or her job to actually initiate probate proceedings, which often must be finalized before the will is given effect.

Furthermore, the executor has to make sure that the decedent's relatives and other people named in the will have notice of the testator's death, typically through the filing of a copy of the official death certificate.

Because people who stand to inherit from the testator may be scattered around the country, or even the world, contacting them is sometimes challenging. One of the responsibilities of the executor is to collect a list of everyone who is entitled to inherit from the decedent, so attempts to contact them can be made. They additionally have to account for all the testator's debts and assets.

Because the executor serves as the living representation of the decedent's estate, they are solely accountable for proving the validity of the will. This is a lot of work, but because executors are typically chosen based on how much they stand to inherit from a will once its validity is confirmed, they have a good incentive to see the process to finalization.

How Can A Lake City, Minnesota Lawyer Help?

Because this process can be fairly confusing, it is not a bad idea to consult with a reliable probate lawyer in Lake City, Minnesota, especially if you find yourself as the executor of an estate and don't know how to proceed.