Trustee of a large estate identified a small investment account that was not transferred to the decedent’s revocable trust during his lifetime (mistake #1). Unfortunately, while making a copy of his will prior to his death the decedent had mixed the pages of the original and the copy (mistake 2), so while we had the original signature page, the first page looked a copy and was rejected by the Probate Court. Without the original will, formal probate (the process of judicially determining the validity of the will) was required. DeAngelis Legal prepared the pleadings and ancillary documents to establish that the document submitted was a true and correct copy of the original will, satisfied the filing and notice requirements and represented the trustee at the hearing in which the Probate Judge admitted the will to probate and issued the letters of personal representative allowing the trustee to transfer the investment account. Two lessons learned in this matter: #1 transfer all assets over $75,000 to your revocable trust and #2 keep track of your original documents.
