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A complete Montana estate plan typically involves seven key pieces: a will, a durable financial power of attorney, a medical power of attorney paired with a living will, a plan for your real estate, an up-to-date review of your beneficiary designations, a plan for long-term care costs, and a clear conversation with your family about […]

If you die without a valid will in Montana, state law — not your personal wishes — decides who inherits your property. This is called intestate succession, and it follows a fixed legal formula based on your surviving relatives, regardless of your actual relationships, promises you may have made, or what you would have wanted. […]

A power of attorney is a legal document that lets you name someone you trust to make decisions on your behalf if you’re unable to make them yourself. Montana recognizes two main types for estate planning purposes: a financial power of attorney, which covers money and property matters, and a medical, or healthcare, power of […]

Montana allows homeowners to use a transfer on death deed — sometimes called a beneficiary deed — to pass real estate directly to a named beneficiary when they die, without that property going through probate. You keep full ownership and control of the property while you’re alive; the deed only takes effect at death, and […]

Probate is the court-supervised process of validating a will (or determining heirs if there isn’t one), paying the deceased’s debts, and distributing remaining assets to beneficiaries. In Montana, probate can take anywhere from a few weeks for a simplified small estate to over a year for a larger or contested one. Here’s what the process […]

In Montana, a will and a trust serve different purposes, and most complete estate plans use both rather than choosing one over the other. A will directs how your assets are distributed and names a guardian for minor children, but it must go through probate. A trust can transfer assets to your beneficiaries without probate, […]