2 Kinds of Louisiana Successions: The Succession WITHOUT Administration
There are two kinds of Successions in : The Succession WITH Administration and the Succession WITHOUT Administration.
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You might be asking:
What’s a Succession? Or,
What’s an Administration?
A Succession is the court-supervised process of having one’s assets transferred to their heirs after they die. An Administration is a part of a Succession that is used when assets or debts need to be managed during the Succession process.
Sometimes, families do not need to go through the steps of getting an executor “confirmed.” Let me give you an example.
Let’s day Dad died with a last will and testament which left his entire estate to Mom, and named Mom as the executor. Dad and Mom had the following assets: their home, Dad’s IRA, their joint bank accounts, and two vehicles.
Mom gets access to Dad’s IRA fairly quickly because she just needs to produce a death certificate to the financial institution: no judges, lawyers, or court orders are necessary for Mom to gain access to Dad’s IRA. Mom has access to the joint bank accounts because the bank does not freeze those accounts. But Mom needs to complete a Succession to get the house and the two vehicles in her name.
In this instance, we can complete the court-supervised Succession procedure, but skip the step where we would get Mom confirmed as the executor. There is nothing she needs to administer. We can simple petition the court (or rather, petition the judge who the clerk of court assigned to oversee this court proceeding) to order that the house, the vehicles, and any other estate assets be transferred to Mom. Then, we can record the court order in the conveyance records of the parish where the home is located, and we can submit a court order to the Office of Motor Vehicles. Then, the home will be in Mom’s name, and the OMV will issue new vehicle titles in Mom’s name.
It’s worth mentioning in the same breath as a Succession without administration that sometimes the Small Succession Affidavit procedure is available. This simpler procedure is available when a resident dies with no last will and testament, and the value of the deceased’s estate is less than $125,000.
It’s also worth mentioning that some people engage in estate legal planning to structure their estate so that the Succession is not necessary when they die – making the settling of the estate easier on the survivors.
Check out my other post or video on “The Succession WITH Administration,” so that you can better understand the differences between the two types of Successions.
This post is for informational purposes only and does not provide legal advice. Please do not act or refrain from acting based on anything you read on this site. Using this site or communicating with Rabalais Estate Planning, LLC, through this site does not form an attorney/client relationship.
Paul Rabalais
Estate Planning Attorney
www.RabalaisEstatePlanning.com
Phone: (225) 329-2450
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