Would you want the general public to have access to information regarding everything that took place while your estate was being administered? A whole lot of people would say no for a number of different reasons.
First there is just the general idea of privacy. Why should anyone and everyone be able to pry into your final affairs, even people that you do not know?
In addition to this some people have very specific personal reasons why they would not want anyone to be able to access this information. And of course, would you want every salesperson on the planet to know that certain members of your family had just inherited large sums of money?
Potentially overaggressive sales pitches are one thing, but how about career criminals who perpetrate scams for a living? Do you think that a sophisticated criminal might scour probate records in an attempt to identify lucrative potential targets?
The fact is that when you use a last will the goings-on are indeed a matter of public record because the administration of the estate is supervised by the probate court in the jurisdiction that is local to the deceased.
A very viable alternative would be to eschew the utilization of a last will in favor of a revocable living trust. When you express your wishes via the execution of such a trust the public has no access to information with regard to its administration. In addition to this, you enable an efficient transfer of assets outside of the sometimes lengthy probate process while avoiding court costs.
These are a couple of the reasons why revocable living trusts have become such a popular option. If this is something that you would like to learn more about simply take a moment to arrange for a consultation with a good South Carolina estate planning lawyer.
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