When a property owner dies, who can legally sign documents? If you don’t know the answer, you could risk delays, disputes, or lost deals. This session unpacks what every real estate agent and appraiser needs to know about probate, POAs, trusts, and intestate estates. Learn how to navigate legal authority, title issues, tax traps, and appraisal requirements so you can protect your clients—and your closings. This is essential knowledge for any Realtor working with estates.

Learning Objectives

1. Know who has legal authority to act both before and after death for another person
2. Understand why POAs end and what replaces them
3. Learn the difference between dying testate (with a will) and dying intestate (without a will) as well as the difference between executors and administrators
4. Appraisal tips and understanding of date-of-death valuations
5. Identify must have documents for estate sales, and who has authority
6. Recognize specific situations, e.g. trusts, incompetent individuals, strained family relationships
7. Recall taxes and costs: estate taxes, estate tax returns, Medicaid look-back period, expenses for probate, timelines
8. Recognize and implement in your practice auxiliary services, or recommendations (estate clean-out, hoarding situations, insolvent estates, etc.)