Probate

At The Haggerty Law Firm, one of the most dreaded words of my clients is, “probate”. Probate is the court approved process of obtaining title to property of another after that person has died. Many of my clients dread probate because they hear that it is lengthy and costly.

For all estates the client will need to pay filing fees and attorney’s fees. The minimum attorney fees for probate cases are set by statute in Missouri. For many probate cases, at The Haggerty Law Firm, we accept the minimum statutory fee. Some probate cases, if the value is over $15,000 will need to also pay a publication fee.

Many of our clients at The Haggerty Law Firm are in and out of probate within one year. Of course this time frame is an average and will need to be adjusted to each client and circumstances of each case.

With proper estate planning and beneficiary designations probate can be easily avoided. However, sometimes life happens or individuals may forget to title that one piece of property and probate is inevitable. However, more times than not, our clients find out that probate ends up being not as bad as they thought with assistance from The Haggerty Law Firm.