Coordinated Counsel®
The Probate Puzzle: How It Works (and Why It Costs So Much)
Transcript
Barry: Hi, welcome to Coordinated Counsel, where peace of mind meets powerful planning. I’m your host, Barry Haimo. Join me, my team, and a rotating cast of professional colleagues — and the occasional brave guest — as we explore the surprisingly fascinating world of estate and business planning. Our goal is to help you and your family avoid chaos, court costs, and conflict. So let’s dive in.
Today is the first of many episodes on probate — also called estate administration — and we’re dedicating the entire season to it. There’s a lot to cover, and I’m excited to get into it. Today I’m joined by our whole team: Shelbie, Kaleem, Cristin, and Joe. Say hello and introduce yourselves briefly.
Joseph: My name is Joseph Giambrone. I’m a senior associate with Haimo Law. I’ve been practicing estate planning for about 10 years and have been with Haimo Law for just over two. My specialty is trusts and estates, with some probate mixed in. Excited to be here.
Cristin: I’m Cristin Buell. I’ve been practicing estate planning for 13 years — Medicaid planning, business planning, and probate. It’s a great field.
Kaleem: Hello, everyone. I’m Kaleem Sikandar, senior partner based in New York. I practice trusts and estates, business, guardianship, and real estate. I’ve been doing this for some time now — honestly, I’ve lost track. Excited to be here.
Shelbie: I’m Shelbie. I’m a paralegal and I’ve been in the field for about 10 years. Estate planning, probate, and trust administration. Between the five of us, we’re at 50-plus years of experience.
Barry: I was just about to point that out. I can’t do a lot of math on the spot, but that is a lot of decades between us. We’re going to shoot the breeze, talk shop, and get below the surface on the practical realities of what you actually need to know. Let’s get into it.
Episode 1: the probate puzzle — how it works and why it costs so much. Cristin, why don’t you lead us off? What is probate?
Cristin: Sure. Probate is the phenomenal experience you get to go through when you pass away without an estate plan in place — or without a properly funded one — and your assets have to go through a court process to reach your beneficiaries. Very time-consuming, both for the attorneys and the personal representatives or executors. A lot of fun.
Barry: I can hear the sarcasm. I call it the postmortem toll booth. Everything is going to get where it needs to go, but in a circuitous and costly way — and I mean that in more than just dollars. It’s a genuinely difficult process, and it pours salt on the wound when you’ve already lost someone. It’s unpleasant for everyone involved, and it really can be avoided. We’ll spend a lot of this season talking about how. Kaleem, anything to add from the New York side?
Kaleem: Just continuing what Cristin said — there are people who actually choose to go through probate. They draft a will themselves or use an attorney, trying to save money during their lifetime. What they don’t realize is that their beneficiaries end up paying for that decision.
Barry: Exactly right. So when someone passes — does probate just start immediately? What’s the first step?
Joseph: The first step is identifying whether there’s a last will and testament or not. That’s the biggest key. And the unfortunate part is that probate — as costly as it is — is often the last thing anyone wants to be dealing with at that moment.
Barry: We’ll go deep on the stages in a dedicated episode. Today we’re staying high level: defining probate, why it exists, timing, costs, and a takeaway. I want every episode to close with a bottom line.
[12:08 PM]
On the definition side: I always describe probate as the process of wrapping up your legal affairs after you’re gone. Typically it applies when you die with assets in your name alone — with a few asterisked exceptions we’ll address later. And generally, there are very few benefits to going through it, maybe three that we’ll cover down the road.
So why does probate exist? Who wants to take that?
Kaleem: A couple of reasons. One, to make sure assets actually get to the right beneficiaries. Two, certain creditors have rights and need to be notified. The process provides oversight — accountability, so that no one person can do anything wrong. Because money makes people do crazy things.
Barry: That oversight piece is actually one of the few real benefits probate offers. I always frame it as the ABCs: assets, beneficiaries, and creditors. All three have to be properly addressed. The people entitled to notice get notice. Creditors with legitimate claims have the right to get paid. It’s a necessary process — just not a quick one.
Which brings us to timing. Is probate an overnight thing? A weekend? What’s the actual timeline — Cristin, Joe, Kaleem?
Cristin: At minimum, eight months. At the far end? Years and years. Prince’s estate just wrapped up recently, and he died over a decade ago.
Shelbie: Eight months to eighteen months is a fair average. More complex cases stretch longer. Some simpler ones can move faster, but that’s the exception.
Kaleem: I’d push back on eight months as a minimum for New York. Once you submit documents and letters are issued — we’ll explain what “letters” means in a later episode — you can’t close an estate until seven months have passed from that point. So for New York, I’d say a year and three months to two years for a typical case.
Barry: Shelbie — Missouri?
Shelbie: Minimum eight months for a full estate.
Barry: Joe — Georgia?
Joseph: About eight months as well. Very similar to Florida.
Barry: So we’ve got Florida, Georgia, Missouri, and New York covered here — four jurisdictions, 50-plus years of experience between us. My take on Florida: short probate runs three to six months; a full probate is six months to a year. With the asterisk that we’ve had cases stretch ten-plus years — not Prince-level famous, but they happen. Complexity drives duration, and duration drives cost. What are some of the costs people can expect in probate?
Cristin: Family trauma.
Barry: Sadly, yes.
Cristin: Beyond that — filing fees, attorney fees.
Barry: Attorney fees get their own episode. Kaleem?
Kaleem: Compensation for the personal representative. Maintenance of estate assets. Courier and FedEx fees for notices. Creditor claims.
Joseph: Accountant fees — accounting and administrative costs add up fast.
Barry: Court costs, yes. And then there are the things that actually stall an estate and put it on pause. Coming back to the ABCs — each one is an opportunity for a problem.
Assets: you have to discover what’s actually in the estate. This is one reason we do such a thorough job at the front end of planning — we document what exists now so it’s not a mystery later.
Beneficiaries: identifying them by statute, by will, by trust. As we always say, if you don’t decide, the state decides for you — and sometimes that produces some very interesting discoveries. We have several cases going right now, actually. Finding beneficiaries can be an expedition. They could be in another country, unreachable, incarcerated. It gets complicated.
Creditors: serving notice, dealing with lawsuits from creditors. That’s a partial list before we wrap.
Kaleem: Asset type matters too. In New York, if there’s real property and four beneficiaries, most people don’t want to keep the home — they want to sell it. And keeping a property within the estate process while trying to sell it takes time. I have stories about what can happen with encumbered real property.
[12:08 PM]
Barry: I know you do — and so do all of you. The difference is that our audience hasn’t lived those cases. Our job is to help them understand what they’re looking at before they’re in it.
[12:08 PM]
So to wrap up: probate is not legal red tape. It’s a process — one that families and businesses can get through with preparation and communication. It doesn’t have to be the nightmare it commonly is. It’s avoidable, and we help people avoid it. And when it can’t be avoided, we help them through it.
Episode 2 is coming up — we’ll be talking about summary administration in Florida. Stay tuned. Thanks for stopping by.
The Probate Puzzle: How It Works (and Why It Costs So Much)
Coordinated Counsel® | Season 2, Episode 1
Most people don’t think about probate until they’re already in it — and by then, the process is underway whether they’re ready or not. In this season opener, Barry Haimo sits down with the full Haimo Law team — attorneys, Cristin Buell, Joseph Giambrone, Kaleem Sikandar, and paralegal Shelbie — to answer the questions families actually ask when they’ve just lost someone: What is probate? How long does this take? How much is this going to cost? Between the five of them, there are more than 50 years of hands-on experience across Florida, New York, Georgia, and Missouri.
What Is Probate?
Probate — also called estate administration — is the court-supervised process of distributing a deceased person’s assets to their beneficiaries and settling their debts. It kicks in when someone dies with assets titled in their name alone and no trust or other transfer mechanism in place. Barry affectionately refers to it as the postmortem toll booth, which is not far off. Everything gets where it’s going eventually, but it takes longer, costs more, and happens not privately. Cristin puts it plainly: it’s time-consuming for everyone involved — attorneys, personal representatives, executors, and especially the family — and it’s not something most people see coming until they’re in the middle of it.
One thing Kaleem adds from the New York side is that plenty of people actually choose to go this route. They draft a will to save money during their lifetime and assume that’s enough. What they often don’t realize is that the savings come at their beneficiaries’ expense.
Why Does Probate Exist?
Probate serves a real purpose, even if it rarely feels that way to the people going through it. The process exists to make sure three things happen: assets get to the right people, creditors with valid claims get paid, and there’s court oversight so no one takes advantage of the situation. Barry frames it to people as the ABCs — assets, beneficiaries, and creditors. There are only two benefits of probate and that is limited to judicial oversight and a formal way and window in which to deal with creditors’ claims. As Kaleem puts it, family, death and money makes people do crazy things. The court process exists partly because of that.
How Long Does It Take?
The short answer: longer than you expect.
In Florida, a straightforward probate runs roughly three to six months on the short end; a full formal administration typically takes six months to a year. In New York, you can’t even close an estate until seven months after letters are issued — so Kaleem sets the realistic range at a year and three months to two years for a typical case. Missouri and Georgia both come in around eight months minimum for a full estate.
And then there are the outliers. Prince’s estate, famously, took over a decade. The Haimo Law team has had cases stretch that long too — less famous, but just as drawn out. Ultimately, the length of the estate administration depends on complexity: the more complicated the assets, the harder the beneficiaries are to find, or the difficulty in resolving creditor’s claims, the longer it runs.
What Does It Cost?
The team runs through a long list: attorney fees, personal representative compensation, court filing costs, accountant fees, publication fees for creditor notices, courier and service costs, and ongoing maintenance of estate assets while the process plays out. Under Florida law, while negotiable, the statute provides for attorney fees in probate on an inversely declining percentage basis.
One additional cost that is not about money: family trauma. That one doesn’t show up on any invoice, but it’s the cost that lands hardest. The team has seen it time and time again.
What Actually Stalls an Estate
As mentioned above, the ABCs are also where things get stuck. On the assets side, you have to inventory everything in the estate — which is why thorough upfront planning matters. On the beneficiary side, finding and notifying heirs can become an expedition. They could be in another country, unreachable, incarcerated, or simply unknown. If you don’t designate beneficiaries, the state does it for you — and that doesn’t always go the way the deceased would have wanted. On the creditor side, serving notices, fielding disputes, and dealing with creditor lawsuits all add time. Kaleem adds an additional complication property with multiple beneficiaries. Most people want to sell, not keep a home. Getting a property sold through the estate process takes time, and complications with encumbered property can extend things significantly.
The Bottom Line
Probate isn’t a penalty — it’s a process. But it’s one that most families are completely unprepared for when they face it. With the right planning in place, probate is largely avoidable. For most people, that means a properly funded trust, correctly titled assets, and updated beneficiary designations. When it can’t be avoided — whether by choice or circumstance — having experienced counsel makes the difference between a manageable process and a years-long ordeal. The goal of this entire season is to give you the information you need to make that call for your own family, before someone else has to make it for you.
Up Next
Episode 2 covers summary administration in Florida — what it is, who qualifies, and why it matters if the estate is under $75,000.
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