Share:
House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 9, 2023 12:05 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Marci Mustello |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Simplifying Small Estates |
| I will be proposing legislation to make clear that only probate assets are to be considered for purposes of small estate petitions. Although this appears to be a modest and technical bill, the effect of this legislation would be real and impactful by simplifying and making less expensive the process for small estates. This issue was explained to me by a constituent where a woman had passed away with a mere $4,500 in probate assets. Because of an apparent ambiguity in the law, the judge felt obligated to include the value of other non-probate assets, such as an IRA that did not need to go through probate to be distributed to her surviving children, when deciding if the $4,500 could be distributed via the simpler process for small estates. Unfortunately, opening a regular estate rather than a small estate matter incurred additional and unnecessary cost, time and effort to the constituent. I introduced this bill last session as HB 2016 and it passed the House unanimously. I ask that you join me in co-sponsoring the legislation in the new session. |
Introduced as HB40