Q: If I'm the only child and my last living parent just died do I have to go threw probate?
A: Your parent's estate may be subject to probate if your parent owned assets in his/her own name at the time of his/her death, and there is no joint owner nor any named beneficiary on your parent's account. Examples include a home in your parent's name alone, or a bank account in your parent's name alone, with no payable on death beneficiary named. Depending on the value of your parent's assets, there are some alternatives to probate. For example, you may be able to transfer ownership of the assets through a small estate affidavit rather than a formal probate proceeding. That is a much quicker and cheaper process than probating the estate.
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