How to Avoid Probate: What Your Estate Attorney Should Tell You First

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 06:00:00 -0500

The summer after Roger Mauer’s wife died, he drove from Fond du Lac to sit down with an estate attorney about settling her estate. Diane had a will. A thorough, properly executed will they’d had drafted a decade earlier when they bought their cabin up north. Roger had a folder with every document they’d ever signed, and he brought the whole thing.

The attorney was kind about it. He explained that the house on the west side of town and the brokerage account Diane had opened in her own name years ago were both going to probate. The will named Roger as the beneficiary of everything. That didn’t change the outcome. Probate doesn’t much care what your will says. It looks at how your assets are titled and how they’re structured, and it goes from there.

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How to Avoid Probate: What Your Estate Attorney Should Tell You First