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Estate Administration
After a loved one has died there are a myriad of financial and personal questions that arise almost immediately!
Is there a Will? Where is the Will? What if there is no Will? How do we pay the funeral home? What will happen to the house? Will the Probate Court tie things up for years? Will probate costs and legal fees eat up the entire estate?
In Connecticut, the Probate Court is the court of original jurisdiction over a variety of matters, including, for example, conservatorship proceedings, guardianship proceedings, and adoption proceedings. It also is the court of original jurisdiction in matters relating to the administration of a decedent’s estate.
The Probate Court has two separate roles in the administration of a decedent’s estate. The first role is to transfer title to assets that appear in the decedent’s sole name to the beneficiaries named in the Will or the heirs at law, if there is no Will.
Assets that appear in the decedent’s sole name are referred to as probate assets. Probate assets can not be passed on to the beneficiaries named in the Will or the heirs at law without intervention by the Probate Court.
An asset that is jointly owned is an example of what is referred to as a non-probate asset. It is called a non-probate asset because it passes, by operation of law, to the surviving joint owner without any intervention by the Probate Court. Other examples of non-probate assets are retirement benefits, life insurance policies, and annuities. They are non-probate assets because they pass to the designated beneficiary, by operation of law, without any intervention by the Probate Court.
The second role of the Probate Court is to receive the Connecticut estate tax return. A Connecticut estate tax return is required to be filed for all decedents who died after January 1, 2005, even if there are only non-probate assets. The Connecticut estate tax exempts from tax unlimited amounts of assets passing to a spouse, and $2,000,000.00 in value of assets passing to anyone other than a spouse. For that reason, in most instances, no Connecticut estate tax will be required to be paid. Nonetheless, a return is required to be filed for all decedents.
The number of documents that are required to be filed with the Probate Court will depend upon whether the decedent died as the owner of probate assets, and the value of the probate assets.
If the probate assets have a date of death value less than $20,000.00, there is an expedited estate administration process that can be followed.
If the probate assets have a date of death value in excess of $20,000.00 these are the documents typically that must be filed with the Probate Court: an Application for Administration; an Inventory; an Application for Permission to Sell Real Estate (only if there is no Will); a Return of Claims; a Connecticut estate tax return; a Final Administration Account; and, an Affidavit of Closing.
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