Taxation & Estate Planning

Transfer of Will

By Joel A. Schoenmeyer

Illinois law imposes a duty on anyone holding an original Will of a deceased person, to file that Will "with the clerk of the court of the proper county." That's usually easy to ascertain, but what if you file a Will in, say, Cook County, Illinois, but then discover that a probate is instead needed in Broward County, Florida? How do you get the Will -- which, upon filing, becomes the property of the Cook County clerk -- down to Florida?

Well, in Cook County, you use this form, which is an application to transfer the Will to another jurisdiction, as well as an order.

Note that this application would be used in cases where no probate has been opened in Cook County. It's possible to have probate proceedings in more than two states, but you'd have to do that via another method.

Full post as published by Death and Taxes Blog on December 09, 2008 (boomark / email).