Estate & Trust Administration for Dummies, 2nd Edition

By: Kathryn A. Murphy, Margaret A. Munro

Narrated by: Emily Durante

Length: 18 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Your plain-English guide to administering an estate and/or trust.

As more and more of the population reach senior ages-including baby boomers, many of whom do not have wills-an increasing number of people are being thrust into the role of executor, administrator, personal representative of an estate, or trustee of a trust after the death of a loved one. This updated edition of Estate & Trust Administration for Dummies guides you through the confusing process of administering an estate and/or trust.

Settling an estate and administering a trust can be complicated, messy, and time-consuming for individuals named as executor or trustee, most of whom have no previous experience with such matters. Estate & Trust Administration for Dummies shows you how to make sound decisions for your unique circumstances.

• Guides you through the confusing process of administering an estate and/or trust
• Provides expert advice on unfamiliar estate and trust tax law
• Gives you a practical checklist to follow for all of your estate and trust administration questions and concerns

©2019 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (P)2019 Tantor

Quick & helpful

Just touches the surface of where you need to start and what you’re next step is, if you’re the decision maker for your family or if you’re even considering trying to do it yourself. Good luck and I’m sorry for your loss.

Very interesting book.

Very interesting book but a bit difficult to follow, due to newness of the subject for me.

I am definitely going to give this one another shot. I followed it basically, but I don’t have any background in the area so it wasn’t exactly relatable. But, that’s the whole purpose of education. It was interesting (in a torturous kind of way > I’m kidding), but I think after another go-round and possibly after reading a few more books on the genre, I expect I’ll roll with with it a little easier. Seeing it offered as a part of the “For Dummies” series, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for the introduction. I’m sure someone who is a little more fluent with the topic would have an easier time with it, but all in all, as an introductory book, I’d say the authors did a reasonably good job. I’m sure under obverse circumstances, the authors would be challenged to master the peculiarities of welding and safe practices of hazmat truck driving/ (and materials hauling > my forte), without any “oh shits,” after an initial introduction, so I guess I don’t feel so bad.

I’ll read it again and as far as recommending it, I do recommend it. I expect to become more agile with it, with time. This topic strikes me as a very worthwhile investment of time into learning.

Usefulness in this format depends on your aims

This book is a broad text -- from soup to nuts. It will be less than ideal in audio format for some. It fits my aims because, I have specific estate and trust plans, but also, I want a broad literacy in all my options. (I am very much a self-starter and dislike handing money to others because of my laziness and avoidable ignorance.) I have the patience and motivation to listen to 18 1/2 hours of all aspects of the topic. For example, there are trust structures here for certain levels of wealth and tax issues above my own level. Plenty here does not specifically fit my expected circumstances, but (under current tech) I have no way to skip ahead. In other words, there is no easy link between contents and places in the audio, as in a plain book. (Then again, a novice might not be able to glean all that much from a table of contents anyway.) As it happens, I have also bought the print version (widely available and affordable), and can zip to where I need to go at will. That said, the content that IS here is quite well explained. It is pretty listenable (as much as such a topic can be) and understandable to a non-expert.

Truly awful

I'm a lawyer and I'm used to boring topics. However, here, the reader makes the already-abstruse topic SOOOO boring as to be intolerable. Much better to actually read the book. Then you can skip the excessively wordy approach and glean the info you actually need, without having to slog through the entire thing.