Beginning tomorrow (2/9), I’ll be blogging through a multi-week series on how to grow a probate practice.

Whether you are just starting out as a lawyer, you are looking to branch out into a new practice area, or you are a seasoned probate attorney looking for a few tips to increase your business, I plan to share practical insights on how you can grow a probate practice.

About three years ago I began to focus my practice on probate and trust administrations (and related tax returns). Since then, I’ve worked on nearly 80 such cases and consulted with attorneys on even more.

I’m going to tell you how I did it.

I mainly have in mind how to grow a Minnesota probate practice, but generally these tips will help an attorney in any state.

At this point, I plan on publishing the following successive posts on Tuesdays (one per week), but I may adjust this as I go:

  1. Don’t Start Until You Have These Tools
  2. How to Make the Phone Ring with Business
  3. You Must be an Expert (and How to Become One)
  4. Forgot Paralegals (for now)
  5. Lone-Ranger Probate Attorney? Don’t Even Try It.

Some of the posts may be a bit controversial (did #4 get under your skin?). That’s ok. If you have a different opinion, join the conversation in the comments and perhaps everyone will get more out of it.

If you don’t already receive updates to this blog automatically, this is a good time to start. There are two ways to get updates automatically. If you have a feed reader, subscribe to this blog’s feed by clicking here (or entering http://mnestatelaw.com/feed/ in your feed reader).

The other way is to get updates by email. You can do so by clicking here. I never spam you, never give out your email address, and you can easily unsubscribe to stop receiving the emails anytime you want. If you do this option, be sure to watch for a confirmation email that will get sent to you before you are fully subscribed. Sometimes this gets caught in people’s spam filters. If you don’t respond to the confirmation email, you won’t be subscribed.

So get signed up so you don’t miss anything and we’ll start tomorrow…

Categorized in Probate Practice and tagged as

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Hennepin County announced today that beginning Monday (2/8), the procedure for obtaining estate letters will change for formal probates. Previously, the estate letters (Letters Testamentary or Letters of General Administration) issued from the “Estate Desk” (i.e. the staff behind the counter). Now, the Letters will issue from the Registrars.

According to the notice issued from Alonna Warns by email, in order to expedite the process for receiving the estate’s letters, you should ensure that at the formal hearing you provide the following (quoting):

  • Proposed Letters
  • Acceptance and Oath
  • Preapproval of any demand for bond

Note especially that you should bring in your own copy of the Letters you want signed. Previously, you never needed to bring in proposed Letters for a probate in Hennepin County, but you could if you wanted.

The second item isn’t new. It has always been my practice to submit the Acceptance and Oath along with the Petition or, at the latest, to submit it at the hearing. If your proposed PR is signing the Petition, it should be easy enough to go ahead and have the proposed PR sign the Acceptance and Oath too.

The item “preapproval of any demand for bond” is probably not worded correctly. Demands for bond don’t require pre-approval in the probate code that I’m aware of. I take this to mean that if there is a demand for bond on file, you should bring with you some sort of documentation that your personal representative has been pre-approved. Until this is confirmed, you should contact the Court to determine precisely what is required. [Add a comment below if you find out something.]

As I’ve discussed before, once you’ve had the hearing and turned in the documents above, the easiest way to check on the status of the issuance of the Letters is to check mncourts.gov/publicaccess. If the Order appointing your personal representative has been entered but the Letters have not, it could be that you haven’t submitted the appropriate documents (e.g. bond or Acceptance and Oath). Contact the referee’s clerk to determine the issue. If both the Order and Letters have been entered but you haven’t received the Letters, contact one of the Registrar’s to determine the issue.

Categorized in Court Announcements and tagged as , , , ,

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Now easier to read on the iPhone

January 28, 2010

{For iPhone users}
Those of you who read this blog on your iPhone will find it easier to navigate with the recent addition of a plugin that enables an iPhone-friendly theme for faster loading and better content presentation. You also have the option of viewing the website normally, just as everyone else does.
If you are an [...]

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Hennepin County Registrars release updated guide to informal probate

January 27, 2010

The Hennepin County Probate Registrars recently released an updated guide to informal probates. The guide contains helpful information when preparing an informal probate, including customs unique to Hennepin County. I frequently used the old guide when preparing probates.
Overall, there isn’t much new compared to the old version. But if you practice in Hennepin County, you’ll [...]

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Helpful blog posts on estate tax law changes for 2010

January 11, 2010

Joel A. Schoenmeyer, a Chicago-area attorney, is publishing a series of excellent blog posts regarding implications of the estate tax law changes on his Death and Taxes Blog. These posts are helpful primers for understanding what is going on this year.
The series is entitled, “5 Things You Need to Know About the Estate Tax in [...]

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No federal estate taxes in 2010 (for now)

January 1, 2010

Almost no one thought it would ever happen when 2009 began, but, as scheduled, the federal estate tax has been repealed beginning today (1/1/2010). Essentially the exclusion amount is now unlimited and the tax rate is 0%. As a result, those dying in 2010 may transfer at death an unlimited amount of property tax free.
Keep [...]

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Minnesota’s new disclaimer law goes into effect today

January 1, 2010

Minnesota’s new disclaimer laws go into effect today (1/1/2010). Under the new laws, compliance with the disclaimer requirements was made significantly easier. Three highlights of the new laws include:

The disclaimer under most circumstances does not need to be filed with a court.
The nonprobate and probate disclaimer statutes have been merged into one statutory section.
For Minnesota [...]

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Taking a hiatus for the Holidays

December 22, 2009

I’m taking a break from blogging for the Holidays. I’ve got a long list of blog posts that I can’t wait to share with you. In the meantime, if you haven’t already become an email or RSS feed subscriber, consider doing so now so that you can receive updates automatically. You can find subscription buttons [...]

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Find medical assistance contacts easily

November 9, 2009

Trying to find the right contact information for a county’s medical assistance department used to be a pain. There was no unified directory that was available to attorneys, which caused attorneys to waste a lot of time trying to obtain clearance certificates or to reach the county regarding medical assistance claims.
The MSBA has recently made [...]

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Sample slides for an estate planning presentation

November 6, 2009

I recently gave a presentation at Bethlehem Baptist Church on estate planning issues for seniors. The slideshare presentation linked below is a version of the slides I created and used. I’m providing them here in case someone finds it helpful in creating their own estate planning presentation.
As you can see by flipping through the slides, [...]

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