Only the Office of the Attorney General on Tuesday provided testimony on two bills seeking to help families avoid long and expensive probate cases over a deceased loved one\u2019s property and assets.<\/p>\n
Sen. Shelly Calvo\u2019s Bill 23-38 would simplify land inheritances by creating \u201ctransfer on death\u201d deeds, while Vice Speaker Tony Ada\u2019s Bill 80-38 would waive the requirement for probate if a deceased person\u2019s estate is worth less than $112,500.<\/p>\n
Only Deputy Attorney General Norman Lee Miller Jr., representing the AG\u2019s office, appeared to testify on the bills during Tuesday\u2019s public hearing.<\/p>\n
Miller testified in support of both bills.<\/p>\n
A probate case in court can make the process of transferring land from a deceased loved one \u201ccostly, time consuming, and often burdensome,\u201d Calvo said.<\/p>\n
Probate is a legal process where a court validates the deceased\u2019s will, and who inherits land and assets.<\/p>\n
Calvo on Tuesday said the process can take months or years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some cases, families are forced to sell inherited property just to cover legal expenses, leading to the loss of multi-generational homes and deepening economic instability,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The transfer on death deed provided for in Bill 23-38 would allow property owners to give their land directly to a designated beneficiary upon death, without going through probate, Calvo said.<\/p>\n
Similar laws already existed in other states, Miller said, and it worked well.<\/p>\n
He said the AG\u2019s office supported the bill, as people loved to \u201cset it and forget it,\u201d with regards to their affairs.<\/p>\n
But it was worth noting that residents should still invest some time in getting legal advice, especially if they left behind more than just a home and a few bills after death, Miller noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody who owns, frankly, much more than, one house, a couple of cars, and maybe some credit card debt. If that, if that sums up your life, then all these simple, straightforward bills are perfect for you,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
Past that, a trust might be more appropriate than a transfer on death deed to organize what happens to their estate, he noted.<\/p>\n
Waiver of probate<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ada\u2019s Bill 80-38 would waive the requirement for probate when a person leaves behind no real property, and an estate worth less than $112,500.<\/p>\n
Guam law already provides an exemption, but the cap is set at $75,000.<\/p>\n
Ada said the probate waiver for \u201csmall estates\u201d was set up in 2016, but inflation has since driven prices up.<\/p>\n
The proposed increase on the cap to $112,500 was based on a \u201cconservative\u201d estimate of 5% inflation per year since 2016, but real inflation was likely closer to 9% per year.<\/p>\n
Miller said the measure would benefit any person who stood to inherit assets like stock, pension, or bank accounts from a deceased relative.<\/p>\n
He did note that other states like California allowed for the small estate exemption to be adjusted for inflation every three years.<\/p>\n
Miller said the AG\u2019s office had the same advice for anyone looking to take advantage of the small estate waiver: \u201creceive some legal advice to avoid financial pitfalls.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only the Office of the Attorney General on Tuesday provided testimony on two bills seeking to help families…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,474,3462,12,2499,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-42796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-local","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114385178183494271","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}