8 Ways to Avoid Probate

Save your family money, time and headaches with a few easy steps. Probate can drag on for years, and can easily cost your family thousands of dollars -- money that would otherwise have gone to them. 8 Ways to Avoid Probate offers simple but effective methods to skip the entire process -- plus real-world examples of how others have used them. In the end, you'll understand: payable-on-death accounts naming beneficiaries special procedures for small estates using joint ownership of property creating a living trust making gifts of property and money and more The 7th edition provides the latest estate and gift tax rules, updated 50-state tables on simplified probate, new IRS rules on inherited IRAs and 401(k)s. And more on how to leave real estate without probate -- 10 states now allow a special deed for this purpose.