Posts tagged as:

informal

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 want to have the most recent one on hand. I did note with interest that apparently pro se applicants must sign a “Waiver of Legal Advice” attached as the last page of the guide. I don’t know whether this is a new requirement or not. This, of course, doesn’t apply to clients we would represent, but is interesting in that it indicates the court’s reticence about helping pro se applicants. This is worth mentioning to  potential clients of yours if they are trying to decide whether to hire you or go at it alone.

It doesn’t appear that the new guide is available yet on the Hennepin County Probate website, so I have made it available for download on my website at the link below. I will update the link to the court’s website when it becomes available. If you find the link before I do, let me know in the comments.

Download the guide here.

1/27/10: minor edits

Categorized in Practice Tips and tagged as , ,

{ 0 comments }

Unlike informal probates in Hennepin County, proof of death documentation (e.g. a death certificate, an obituary, etc.) is not required to be submitted when filing for a formal probate. The reason is that the petitioner proves up the petition in court, testifying under oath the facts of the decedent’s death.

As a result, the proof of death requirement only applies to informals in Hennepin County. As far as I know, no other county in Minnesota has this requirement.

Categorized in Practice Tips and tagged as , , , , ,

{ 0 comments }

Proof of death required for Hennepin County informal probates

April 28, 2009

One of the unique requirements to open an informal probate in Hennepin County is that proof of death of the decedent must be presented at the appointment with the registrar.
Examples of acceptable “proof of death” documents include:

Death certificate
Obituary notice from a newspaper
Funeral receipt

Evidently, other forms of proof of death are also permissible. For example, I’ve [...]

Read the full article →

Hennepin County Probate: More Procedure Changes

December 3, 2008

As a result of the recent changes in Hennepin County to the procedure to publish the probate notice, the Registrars will no longer allow you to mail the notices to the interested parties from their office (source: Registrar’s Office email). This had been a convenient option that enabled the attorney to quickly have the letters [...]

Read the full article →

Changes to Informals in Hennepin County

October 13, 2008

Hennepin County Probate is no longer arranging for publication of the notice in informal probates.
According to a special edition of the Probate In Common Form newsletter, beginning November 1, 2008, attorney applicants “will be entirely responsible for the preparation of the informal probate notice and arranging for publication of the informal notice.”
The attorney (or pro [...]

Read the full article →