Time Limits in Indiana Probate – Revisited

Video

Introduction

Good morning. It’s Andy Stautz with Stautz Law, and I am back for another talk about Indiana estate planning and probate topics. Today’s talk is a follow-up on a talk I made a long time ago about time limits for Indiana probate.  

And you should probably watch or read the transcript of that talk first, in which I discuss the basic time limit of three years to probate a will.  

And I discuss in that talk one way around the three-year limit, which comes if there is still an asset titled in the name of the decedent after three years.  

So the basic rule is, if you’ve got the will, it needs to, you need to get it to court, you need to get it probated in the first three years after the person dies. But if for some reason you forget, there’s kind of an escape hatch for longer than three years when the title is still in the person’s name. Okay.

How the 3-Year Time Limit Can Be Cut Short  

I’m coming back to say that doesn’t always work. It’s one possibility. But there are other ways that the time limit can be cut short. or that the escape hatch for assets titled in the person’s name won’t work.  

Okay, so the first thing is, once there’s been an estate administration, it’s too late to probate the will. So we’re talking about the same section of the Indiana Code, 29-1-7-15.1. Okay, G, section G is where the time limit is. Section A says, But if an unsupervised estate is over, it’s over. It’s too late. Once you’ve done this intestate administration, it’s too late to come forward with a will. Okay, so that’s one firm cutoff, right? If there’s an administration on the estate, that’s the time to get the will out in the open.  

Escape Clause Only Applies to Assets Still Titled in Decedent’s Name

The other problem that I want to mention is The escape hatch, which is down in subsection H, only applies to assets titled in the name of the decedent. So if something has happened and the property has changed hands, gone away, passed by a title passage or devolution affidavit, you can’t use that subsection H to rescue to rescue the administration and to introduce a will. Okay, because it’s like it’s been disbursed.  

Conclusion: Sooner is Usually Better

So moral of the story is, administer estates when someone dies. Or decide you don’t need to, right? But like, don’t wait. It’s really hard for me as an attorney to help a client or a potential client who says, oh yeah, so-and-so died, you know, five years ago. It’s like, well, okay, what are you waiting for? You know, that introduces new problems that wouldn’t have been there if it was, okay, six months have gone by, now we’re ready to administer.  

It doesn’t need to be right away, but these years, the more years go by, the more problems you’re going to have, practically, as well as legally. So hope that helped as a general informational talk. I just needed a corollary out there to the previous talk. And as always, that’s general discussion of the law. If you want specific legal advice, you’re going to have to call me or shoot me an e-mail. You’re on my website. Thanks. Bye.