Probate is a court-supervised process. The court appoints a personal representative of the diseased person, often referred to as the executor of the estate.
The executor’s duty is to find all the assets and liabilities of the diseased person and to manage all the assets during the probate process. The executor also has the responsibility of notifying the beneficiaries of the probate.
Often probate can be extended or lengthened due to hard-to-find assets or closely held businesses, or sometimes waiting on appraisals, and things that are required to provide an estate tax return.
If an estate tax return is required, it must be filed within nine months of the death of the deceased. It often takes up to a year for the IRS to issue back a letter, thereby letting the estate close. Therefore, probate can be a costly and timely process, sometimes taking up to two years.
