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It was a Tuesday evening.  Talk radio voices floated through the kitchen air while I prepared dinner. Host: Welcome Randy from New York, what's your question? Caller:  Hey, glad I got through.  I've got a question for you.  My aunt died and I'm taking care of her affairs.  She had a retirement account, and a car with a loan on it.  How do I sell the car and pay the loan? Host: Well, looks like you'll be doing a probate.  Not much there, one retirement account, one car, and a loan you gotta pay before you distribute anything.  Now I'm no lawyer, but seems like you'll have to open a probate.....geesh, unless there is someway around it, but how are you gonna sell the car and sign the title.  Maybe you need a lawyer.... Caller:  Thanks, I'll see what I can do. Why I thought they'd hear me, I do not know. One, this was radio, and two, it was an archived show. But that didn't stop me: YOU NEED A SMALL ESTATE AFFIDAVIT. STATES HAV...

The Badger State (aka Wisconsin) is known for many things: die hard Packer fans; cheese; cows, just to name a few.  Low taxes are not something Wisconsinites associate with this verdant state in the heart of our country -- especially at the moment when property tax bills arrive in mail boxes.  But in the area of probate, we rank towards the bottom. Here in Wisconsin the fee (or tax) assessed on a probate is 0.2 percent. That is zero point two!  In other states it is as high as 8 or 10 percent.  The fee is assessed on the total inventory of a probate estate, things outside of probate are not subject to the fee.  Even though it is quite low when compared with other venues, routinely I receive calls on "how to avoid probate".  There are options: Give it away during life.  If you do not own it at death, the tax does not apply.  This can be tricky on several levels.  One, you do not know how long you will live and cannot be certain how m...