Are benficiary funds subject to probate?

[sfbob]

I am a California resident. My mother recently passed away. As part of her estate planning, she had named one or more of her 3 children as either co-owner or beneficiary on all of her bank accounts (retirement, 401, savings etc.). As such, since her passing, all the monies have been transferred to the appropriate heirs.

However, an attorney advising us on probate proceedings on a piece of real estate my mother owned, insists on seeing banking records on all accounts, and says that anything that was not legally co-owned will have to be part of the probate proceedings, including that which was passed on by a designation of beneficiary.

Is this right? I thought the designation of a beneficiary was exactly the method used to avoid probate. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[anteater]

I don't know specifics of California, but normally the executor would have to file an inventory of all the decedent's assets as part of the probate process and to enable any estate tax returns to be completed. That would include the decedent's ownership share of jointly held assets and those assets with beneficiary designations.

That does not mean that those assets must go through probate in order to have ownership legally pass to the co-owners or designated beneficiaries.

 

[Dandy Don]

So furnish the information he is asking for, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the designated beneficiaries will have to turn the money over for probate. The beneficiary designation is ironclad.

If there is documentation supporting the designation of co-owner or beneficiary on the accounts, then there is not much to worry about. I'd be concerned that this attorney is trying to put some of these assets into the estate so that he could perhaps claim a larger executor's fee, but it is also true that he just may be trying to make a proper determination of the facts, since sometimes the pension funds or 401K monies have special guidelines for distributions to surviving spouse if there is any.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])