Estate Planning and Probate Information
Choices When You Make Your Estate Plan – This white paper helps clients start thinking about the choices they face when making a will or trust. It doesn’t substitute for in-person legal advice but helps make the process more efficient.
A Kentucky Personal Representative’s Guide to Probate – This white paper guides Kentucky clients through what is involved with being a personal representative, whether executor or administrator. It is also useful for beneficiaries who are trying to understand the process. While the details of the process vary between North Carolina and Kentucky, the concepts are similar.
Estate Process Flowchart – This flowchart shows the decision tree to determine if a full probate administration is necessary.
Kentucky Law
KRS chapters that are important to trust law, estate administration, and estate planning (linked to the matching Kentucky Legislative Research Commission website) follow:
- CHAPTER 23A CIRCUIT COURT
- CHAPTER 24A DISTRICT COURT
- CHAPTER 140 INHERITANCE AND ESTATE TAXES
- CHAPTER 286.3 BANKS AND TRUST COMPANIES
- CHAPTER 381 TITLE TO PROPERTY AND RESTRICTIONS ON USE, OWNERSHIP, AND ALIENATION
- CHAPTER 382 CONVEYANCES AND ENCUMBRANCES
- CHAPTER 385 UNIFORM TRANSFERS TO MINORS ACT
- CHAPTER 386 ADMINISTRATION OF TRUSTS — LEGAL INVESTMENTS — UNIFORM PRINCIPAL AND INCOME ACT
- CHAPTER 386B UNIFORM TRUST CODE
- Subchapter 1. General Provisions and Definitions
- Subchapter 2. Judicial Proceedings
- Subchapter 3. Representation
- Subchapter 4. Creation, Validity, Modification, and Termination of Trust
- Subchapter 5. Creditor’s Claims — Spendthrift and Discretionary Trusts
- Subchapter 6. Revocable Trusts
- Subchapter 7. Office of Trustee
- Subchapter 8. Duties and Powers of Trustee
- Subchapter 9. Uniform Prudent Investor Act
- Subchapter 10. Liability of Trustees and Rights of Persons Dealing with Trustees
- Subchapter 11. Miscellaneous Provisions
- CHAPTER 387 GUARDIANS — CONSERVATORS — CURATORS OF CONVICTS
- CHAPTER 388 UNIFORM VETERANS’ GUARDIANSHIP ACT
- CHAPTER 389A FIDUCIAL AND JUDICIAL SALES OF REAL ESTATE
- CHAPTER 391 DESCENT AND DISTRIBUTION
- CHAPTER 392 DOWER AND CURTESY
- CHAPTER 393 ESCHEATS
- CHAPTER 394 WILLS
- CHAPTER 395 PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVES
- CHAPTER 396 CLAIMS AGAINST DECEDENTS’ ESTATES
- CHAPTER 397 UNIFORM SIMULTANEOUS DEATH ACT
- CHAPTER 423 NOTARIES PUBLIC AND COMMISSIONERS OF FOREIGN DEEDS
North Carolina Law
North Carolina General Statutes chapters that are important to trust law, estate administration, and estate planning (linked to the matching North Carolina General Assembly website) follow:
Links to Community and Legal Organizations
- Kentucky Bar Association – The mission and purpose of the Association is to maintain a proper discipline of the members of the bar in accordance with these Rules and with the principles of the legal profession as a public calling, to initiate and supervise, with the approval of the Court, appropriate means to insure a continuing high standard of professional competence on the part of the members of the Bar, and to bear a substantial and continuing responsibility for promoting the efficiency and improvement of the judicial system.
- The North Carolina State Bar is the state agency responsible for regulating the practice of law in North Carolina.
- The North Carolina Bar Association is a voluntary organization of North Carolina lawyers that provides education and support for its members.
- The Buncombe County Bar is a subdivision of the North Carolina State Bar, and serves as the mandatory Bar for all attorneys in Buncombe County. More than 700 attorneys are included in the organization.
- The American Bar Association is one of the world’s largest voluntary professional organizations, with nearly 400,000 members and more than 3,500 entities. It is committed to doing what only a national association of attorneys can do: serving our members, improving the legal profession, eliminating bias and enhancing diversity, and advancing the rule of law throughout the United States and around the world.
- The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel – ACTEC (formerly known as The American College of Probate Counsel) is a nonprofit association of lawyers and law professors skilled and experienced in the preparation of wills and trusts; estate planning; and probate procedure and administration of trusts and estates of decedents, minors and incompetents. Its more than 2,700 members are called “Fellows” and practice throughout the United States, Canada and other foreign countries
- Kentuckiana Works oversees the region’s system of career centers where job seekers can find jobs and education and training opportunities and apply for unemployment insurance. Career centers also help employers meet their workforce needs by linking them with qualified employees.
- The Asheville-Buncombe Economic Development Coalition provides a wealth of demographic and strategy information about the opportunities in the heart of the Blue Ridge
- The National Association of Workforce Boards represents approximately 550 Workforce Development Boards and their 12,000+ business members that coordinate and leverage workforce strategies with education and economic development stakeholders within their local communities, to ensure that state and local workforce development and job training programs meet the needs of employers.