Question of the Day:
My folks have a marital trust and my dad died last week. I do not have to file probate. Do I still need to publish a notice to creditors if everything was organized and was in the trust name ?
Answer:
Good afternoon:
The only purpose for publishing would be to reduce the potential claims window from 2 years from the date of death down to 90 days. That said, the general consensus is to discourage opening probate merely to publish the notice.
Deeper Dive – Procedural Roadblock for Creditors
A creditor cannot file a claim against an estate which is not open in probate court. So that creditor would need to file to forcibly open the probate simply to file its claim against the estate. I’ve never personally seen this done in a standard matter where there is no other compelling reason to open probate such as related litigation (medical malpractice, wrongful death, etc.)
