I live in Jacksonville, Florida. My work is overseas. My mother died in March, my father…

Hello Dave:

Here is the "lowdown" on all of this, so to speak. You need to find out from the life insurance companies and any annuity companies who is the NAMED beneficiary. If you are the named beneficiary, then these companies must pay out to you without an estate being set up (that is estate law 101 -- life policies and annuity contracts pass outside of the will and estate). If the life policies and annuities, bonds, etc have beneficiaries of your parents estate - or the will calls for you to set up a trust with that money, then you will have no choice but to open up an estate for your parents at the probate court in Nevada where they lived. If, however, all of these policies, etc are made out directly to you, the you do not need to open a formal estate because they will just have to pay the money to you directly. Finally, even if the policies, etc are made out directly to you as the beneficiary you still must open up what is called a "small estate" in order to deal with the house if it is in your father's name -- only a probate court can change the title (but this is a much smaller ordeal than opening up a formal estate). So, you need to find out who the beneficiaries are on the policies and you will either need to open a formal estate or a small estate -- a formal estate you will need a lawyer for and a small estate you can pick up the paperwork at the probate court clerk's office (or you can have a lawyer do the small estate also). I hope that helps. Please press the green accept or submit button so I will be paid for my time. THANK YOU !

--MARY