The media has made a great deal about the “value” of celebrity homes, often publishing lists that compare the price of a home with what famous person you know purchased their next door neighbor’s house.
This is not the best way to evaluate whether or not your own personal wealth increases due to your relationship with someone well-known.
It also misses the very important part which is how much equity you gain from having a rich friend.
Equity is the difference between the cost of real estate and what it sells for. By selling our houses at a higher price than we paid for them, we are creating equity in our future homes!
Furthermore, these listings typically don’t include the tax consequences of owning a large house. Many people pay little to no income taxes because they use the money they make investing in property to reduce their taxable income.
But they may be paying more in property taxes per year if they ever want to sell this house! This effect can add up over time. All too frequently, people lose track of all of the costs associated with being wealthy.
Another problem with using these list as benchmarks for your own net worth is that they only look at one piece of your financial situation – the value of your home.
You would have to do the same thing for every other major asset you own, such as cars, retirement accounts, and business ventures.
Who is required to keep records
There are two main individuals that are obligated by law to maintain adequate estate documents. They are called personal representatives or executors, and trustees.
As estates grow larger, it can become difficult for individual owners to remember everything about their investments and belongings. This is where having someone else take over this responsibility becomes important.
A personal representative is usually appointed by close family members or friends of the decedent. For example, if you know of someone who has passed away, they may be chosen as the person in charge of settling the funeral expenses and distributing the property. Or maybe they were friendly with the decedent and knew what assets they had gathered together.
The second type of personal representative is a trustee. A trust comes into place when people separate their possessions from themselves (personal items) and create a legal entity to hold these things- typically referred to as a “trust”.
For example, if someone owns a house and wants to give some of his/her own space to help out a friend, he/she could sell their home and use the money to buy a new one. After doing so, they would declare this area of the house as belonging to the trust and put up a sign outside stating something like ‘Friendship House’.
Now, not only does the house belong to the trust, but also any furniture or other belongings in there! These things now legally belong to the trust too.
Who can request a copy of records
The person requesting the record can be you, or someone else!
Any individual can ask for a copy of public records from your estate by using the state’s open records law. This article will go into more detail about who has access to these records and what kind of documents they may receive.
Remember that it is up to each individual state to determine if their own laws require a notary to be present when recording assets in an estate. Some states do, some don’t.
Some states also require that you as the executor sign off on any asset transfers recorded in the document, depending on whether or not those transactions are legal at this time.
What types of records are usually kept
The next thing to do is determine what types of documents, if any, can be found through public record searches. Most attorneys general will share information about your estate with state registries that include death certificates, probate filings (called petitions or applications), court orders, and other legal documentation pertaining to the death of someone and their belongings.
These documents are publicly accessible so people outside of the family may find them which could create problems for you depending on who gets access to these files.
If there is no will, then heirs would have to go through the process of proving heirship by searching through all previous documents to see if they left anything behind. This could take months or even years as each heir must prove he or she is qualified before being granted the assets.
It’s important to consider how much privacy you want to protect your loved ones and yourself from potential fraud. More than 30% of deaths in America are due to homicide, making it easy for criminals to search through deceased relatives’ personal effects to look for proof of wealth.
Publicly available records don’t guarantee thieves won’t steal, but they can help prevent this.
Who can challenge an estate’s records
There are several parties that can review your estate’s documents as they are considered public records. These include individuals trying to prove their inheritance rights, creditors looking to collect debts, and people seeking more information about you or your heirs.
In fact, even spouses can ask to see documents in an estate if there is concern about marital property or potential fraud.
If this happens during probate, then it can become very expensive for the beneficiaries of the will. Because attorneys must be paid while proceedings take place, most wills require limited access to documents for certain individuals until costs have been covered. This can create delays in not only finding out who gets what, but also how much each person receives.
Public record laws exist to help ensure all interested parties get proper notice and knowledge of the affairs of the deceased.
What happens if there are disputes about an estate’s records
In some states, what happens to your belongings after you die is considered a public record. This means that anyone can access these documents at any time, even anonymously.
There are several reasons why this is not a good thing. First, as mentioned before, having open access to someone else’s private life is simply wrong. It is also expensive for people trying to learn more about your death because they will have to pay to do so.
Second, different parties may try to contest each other’s possessions or ask questions about the contents of the will. If there is no clear documentation, then these arguments will likely go on for months until everything is sorted out.
Who gets to keep what when there are disputes
When you die, your family will have a very difficult time accessing your estate due to who gets to see what in the house, car, bank accounts, and other valuable assets you own.
Most states require that people be given at least two days to review your estate before anyone else can access it. This is why most people don’t know what they’re going to find when they go through their loved one’s belongings.
Some things, like cars, give rise to very little controversy. But personal items like pictures or letters often prove more revealing than expected.
People frequently contest over whether or not someone has legal rights to something like a boat, for example, or if money was buried with the dead person.
These situations can quickly get out of hand so it is important to make sure that doesn’t happen. It is best to prepare ahead of time by having everyone agree on what belongs to whom before you pass away.
What happens if there are disputes about an estate’s value
There can be many reasons why there is a disagreement over the exact value of an estate, but one of the most common causes of a difference in valuation is whether to include or exclude certain items from the total price.
Items that are typically excluded are things like personal belongings, business records, and other important assets that don’t have much direct market value. These are sometimes referred to as “non-tradable” goods because they cannot easily be sold without altering their use.
On the other hand, accounts receivable and mortgage loans are often included when calculating how much an estate is worth. Because these debts exist, it is assumed that someone will eventually pay them, so they are factored into the overall cost of the sale.
However, there are times when including those types of debt may not make sense.
Does it matter if there are disputes about an estate’s value
It is very important to know whether or not the values you find online are accurate for your inheritance. There can be many reasons why people put different prices on an item, or list two separate items under one price.
For example, let’s say someone lists their house at $100,000 with a barn next door that they list as costing $10,000. Most likely, this will include giving them both inheritance amounts in the family.
A lot of times, relatives will disagree on what should be given credit for the property. For instance, maybe one person thinks the house is overpriced and the other thinks it is underpriced. Or perhaps one person feels more generous towards the seller and doesn’t trust their accuracy when estimating the value.
