Christie Tournet & Associates - Wills, Probate, Commercial Law

Hey, Cecil. Good question. Most often, people do not realize that both retirement accounts and life insurance policies are considered "non-probate" assets. Meaning, those assets typically do not fall under a Will or probate rules. Rather, the third parties administering those assets are contractually bound to pay the named beneficiary. So, the exception to this rule, and where a retirement account or policy could be subject to probate, is where a primary or contingent beneficiary was not named.

Hi. Unfortunately, I did not receive an alert for this query. I currently provide real estate consulting services, but am not accepting any litigation files. However, generally speaking, there are due diligence causes in real estate contracts that require you to perform all necessary inspections. You may have had an inspection done, and thus a cause of action, if any might lie against the inspection company. But, once the sale goes through, most sales are passed with a waiver of redhibitory defects and thus you can only go back on the seller for fraud. You may need counsel that accepts real estate litigation files. Best of luck to you.

Yes. In fact, each spouse can name the other as the Executor, if one is needed. Then, we typically recommend naming potential successor Executors. You can also name a sibling, parent, or trusted friend/professional. A child need not be named. It is also always best to discuss this appointment with the potential Executor first prior to the responsibility coming to fruition.