Sign Maryland Banking Affidavit Of Heirship Computer

1831 form

Music hi it's attorney Alexis Hart McDowell here your Enterprise Esquire handling all of your business formation corporate nonprofit and real estate needs today I'm coming to speak to you about the breaking news alert that I put on Instagram regarding Cook County recorder of deeds suspension from accepting affidavits of heirship and deeds from heirs to transfer property when the owner of that property has died so a deceased owner instead the county is now record requiring that any heirs be legally declared that's that's the correct legal term that have to be legally declared heirs which means that they now have to go through a portion of the probate part process and be declared the heirs by a judge with a court order so just to give you a little background when you own a piece of property and you don't have a will and then you own the property by yourself when you pass away or when you die that property would go to your heirs so historically or up until this point an heir could say hey it's just me and my brother my father and my mother passed away were the last two and under the intestate laws of Illinois were entitled to the property since your name wasn't on the deed you would have to complete an affidavit of heirship and a new deed and you could record that and it was accepted by the Cook County Recorder deeds they are now saying that that is no longer possible it was a quick and easy way to avoid probate and for the heirs to get title to the property so they could do what they needed to do whether that be mortgaged the property or sell it or whatever they needed to do legally now that has gone away they are no longer accepting that from heirs the heirs will have to go through a partial probate process and be declared legally declared the heirs of the three that process takes approximately two weeks that's what they're saying and cost around one hundred and ninety three dollars in filing fees that doesn't include attorneys fees or anything else if you're seeking an attorney to help you with the process so it doesn't complicate you getting title to your deed if you're an heir but it does elongate that process doesn't it it does lengthen that process for you um I want to go over a couple of ways to transfer property outside of the probate process because that's what I get a lot of questions on people don't have time they don't have money for probate for the attorneys bonding whatever is required with the probate process so in order to set your family up and to protect your family here are a couple ways that you can transfer a property without going through probate so the first way is to have a deed held in joint tenancy so if you're the owner if you're the mom the dad whatever owned put your child's name or whoever you want to own that property when you pass away doesn't have to be your child or spouse or whoever you want to own that property when you pass away put their name on the deed and you need that legal language that says join today own it and joint tenancy with a right of survivorship okay and then when you or the other person passes away whichever one happens first the other person will own that property outright they don't need to do anything they don't have to go to probate you don't have to file any papers it's already recorded and it automatically transfers to that person it also happens with spouses it's called a tenancy by the entirety so it would be husband and wife wife and husband whatever civil unions and say tenants by the entirety okay that's for a married couple the other way to transfer property outside of probate is through using a living trust you can create a trust document and the deed is held in trust and it is transferred to the beneficiaries upon your death does not require probate it's a contractual agreement and once you pass away the trust the trustee is able to record a trustees deed with the names of the new beneficiaries lastly Cook County still has a process called transfer on death instrument and it's essentially a piece of paper this is what it looks like it's on the Cook County website transfer on death instrument you complete this form you designate who you want to receive the property upon your death it has the same requirements as a will you have to have two disinterested witnesses sign and it has to be notarized as well and then you take this form and you can record it with Cook County recorder of deeds okay now upon your death the heir who you listed on that form is gonna have to give a notice of death and a notice of affidavit of death saying that hey you died and a new deed that where it's transferred you know to them and then they record that and that's all outside of the probate process so those are just three ways to transfer property outside of the probate process to kind of help your family financially to avoid disputes family fights things like that I have this all the time especially in blended families if the mom or the dad got remarried and you want the house to go to your kids if you don't do that it's your your spouse is entitled to the house and then your kids are thinking that they're getting the house so it's it helps avoid a lot of the messiness so just to recap it's very good to try and as part of your estate planning to set up who you want your real estate property to go to there's several ways I just discussed that you can transfer property outside of probate including a deed held in joint tenancy with the right of survivorship or tenants by the entirety if you're married number to have a living trust or number three of the transfer on death instrument which form can be found on the Cook County Recorder of Deeds website all the all three of those ways will help your family retain ownership of the property without having to go through the probate process so I hope that this information helps if you have any questions feel free to reach out go to enterprise Esquire com backslash calendar you can always book a free 15-minute appointment my calendar is always up to date I look forward to helping you and your family with their real estate needs thank you and have a great one Music