What is required to close an estate in NJ if no accounting was done? What is the cost of an accounting for a $500,000 estate?

Question

What is required to close an estate in NJ if no accounting was done? What is the cost of an accounting for a $500,000 estate?

Answer

You need Release and Refunding Bonds from each beneficiary signing off that he/she received what the person was entitled to, and these are filed with the Surrogate. I usually obtain same by sending each person three documents: (1) Waiver of a formal judicial accounting, (2) an informal accounting of the estate and (3) a R&RB;for their share; having the person sign all 3 documents. Depending upon the complications of the estate and nature of its assets, anticipate a fee of $1,000 up to finalize everything (about 3-4 hours of time required for that fee..

Answer

Come in and see me, and bring all your paperwork. You want to wrap this up as fast and cheap as possible.