just like everything else in 2023

there’s a lot of bad information out in

the community when it comes to estate

planning there’s a lot of bad

information online I’m sure there’s some

good information out there as well it’s

just kind of hard to sit to uh to kind

of sort through it to find the good

stuff and so there’s a lot of common

misconceptions one misconception of

estate planning for example is that

spouses are already each other’s Powers

of Attorney that’s not the case we’ve

seen when the rubber has met the road on

that quite a few times but coming to

this stuff specifically

um the biggest misconception we probably

see is a lot of people tend to think hey

I’ve got a will it says where my stuff’s

gonna go after I pass away so I’m gonna

stay out of court nobody’s gonna fight

all of that kind of stuff in fact all

they will is is an instruction sheet for

court or an instruction sheet for

probate a will can only govern assets

that actually go through that probate

process we don’t want to be in probate a

huge part of what we do here is set

people up on the front end to stay out

of core important to stay out of probate

it’s a gigantic headache and so if

you’re using your will you are likely in

court and so with a will you designate

as you guys probably know you designate

somebody called a personal

representative in Colorado it used to be

called an Executor that’s kind of the

person that’s in charge of the show that

person has no legal Authority unless

they’re actually appointed by a court in

a probate case and so when we do probate

um if I meet with somebody and they need

to go through the probate process if

they want us to represent them the first

thing I usually do is file the will and

then if that hasn’t been filed with the

court and then I file a big application

to actually have that personal

representative officially get appointed

when the court appoints them they issue

a court order that order is called

letters and it’s either called letters

testamentary or letters of

administration and that’s kind of what

we’re talking about here and so all that

is is it’s a court order that says this

person so-and-so’s now been appointed as

personal representative and they now now

have authority to act on behalf of this

person’s estate who passed away and so

once the court issues that order those

letters it’s just a piece of paper they

can take that to a bank to get funds

released and they can sell a house with

those letters and so that’s actually

what gives them their legal Authority

the difference in the two names between

the letters of administration and the

letters testamentary are if you had a

will it’s letters testimony if you have

if you didn’t it’s letters of

administration and so if you died in

test State without a will it’s called

letters of administration but that’s

basically the two differences just if

we’re probating a will if we’re or if

we’re kind of probating an intestate

estate those are the two differences but

legally either one it it does the same

thing once you get that order it it

should give you all the same Powers

unless the court restricted it for some

reason which they don’t usually do yeah

and so the goal for us is just like to

add on the goal for us then is to never

have that personal representative get

appointed because then you’re in Probate

and so we want things everybody needs a

will but we want things to transfer