5 Tips for Dealing with Claims: Tip 3
3. Last time I talked about how you can minimize the claims period by giving notice. If things break correctly, maybe the creditor won't even file the claim. But sometimes a creditor does file the claim -- informally, by sending it to the personal representative or his or her attorney instead of filing it with the court. The personal representative can then send a "Disallowance" of the claim to the creditor, using the procedures set forth in Section 18-11(b) of the Illinois Probate Act. The Disallowance can cut the time for the creditor to file his or her claim with the court, to two months from the time the Disallowance is sent to the creditor.

5 Tips for Dealing with Claims: Tip 2
2. Tips 2-4 are similar in that they all require that you (the personal representative) do a full-court press to deal with the claims. This is somewhat counter-intuitive -- I think we're all familiar with the idea of a defendant (like in a foreclosure action) who delays, delays, delays. We want to do the opposite here, since here we're dealing with a notice requirement, and statutes of limitations. Basically the personal representative has to give: -actual notice (via letter) of the probate to the decedent's known (or reasonably ascertainable) creditors; and -notice via publication of the probate to all other ("unknown") creditors. (See Section 18-3 of the Illinoi

5 Tips for Dealing with Claims: Tip 1
1. The first thing you have to ask yourself is, "should we even open a probate estate right now?" If a decedent's estate appears insolvent (that is, the value of the potential claims exceeds the value of the decedent's property), maybe you never open an estate. Or, maybe you wait for two years to open it. Two years is the magic number because, under Section 18-12 of the Illinois Probate Act, most claims are barred as of that date (even if no probate was opened). The question in these cases is whether the hardship (of not opening the estate for two years) outweighs the benefit (potential claims avoidance). Opening a probate estate, and getting a personal representative appointed,

5 Tips for Dealing with Claims: Introduction
This post starts a series regarding reducing (or minimizing) claims in the probate estate context. A couple of notes before I begin: 1. The claims I'm talking about here are your "typical" claims in probate, for a decedent's debts -- things like credit card bills, medical bills, and the like. I am NOT addressing secured claims (like the mortgage on a decedent's home), government claims, or claims for administrative expenses (post-death claims like funeral expenses or attorney fees). That's because there's very little, if anything, you can do to reduce these types of claims. 2. Different people have different views about debt. Some people feel like a debt is a debt -- if

Wall Street Journal on Will/Trust Programs
People often ask me things like, "Can't I do my Will on my own, using a computer program? Isn't it just a form?" The answer to the second part of that is easy -- not, it's not just a form. As for the answer to the first part, I don't know. There's no reason for me to spend money buying one of these programs just so I can review it. Today's Wall Street Journal features a comparison of a few Will/Trust computer programs (here), as part of its "Cranky Consumer" series. The biggest program with the article is that it leaves out the most important question: did the documents