This webinar for paralegals offers valuable insights into how ProbateCash can address immediate financial needs in probate cases, helping your practice manage more cases efficiently while streamlining the entire probate process.

We covered a variety of topics, including:
● Understanding Probate Liquidity Issues: Gain a comprehensive understanding of probate liquidity challenges and their impact on your work.
● Immediate Financial Support: Learn how ProbateCash can provide immediate access to funds for your clients.
● Real-Life Success Stories: Explore examples of how ProbateCash has successfully resolved liquidity challenges, ensuring smoother case management. 
● Expert Q&A: Participate in a Q&A session with Marc Harris, who will offer expert insights and personalized advice.

Key Takeaways

• ProbateCash provides inheritance advances to heirs and beneficiaries who need money while an estate is still in probate.
• Many beneficiaries don’t realize probate can take months or years, especially due to creditor claim periods, court scheduling, property sales, or litigation.
• ProbateCash advances money today in exchange for an assignment of a portion of the inheritance to be paid later from estate distributions.
• ProbateCash files the assignment with the probate court, creating transparency for the court, the executor, and estate counsel.
• Funding can often happen within one to two business days because the advance is not a loan (no collateral and no credit-based underwriting).
• ProbateCash assumes the risk of non-payment if estate assets fall short due to claims, liens, or low sale proceeds (non-recourse structure).
• Multiple beneficiaries can receive advances from the same estate, and it does not affect other heirs or delay the probate process.
• ProbateCash can work nationwide, even when beneficiaries live in a different state (or outside the U.S.) than where probate is filed.
• Fees are tied to time/risk and are capped; long probate timelines don’t necessarily increase the fee indefinitely.

Full Webinar Transcript

Molly Driscoll:
Welcome, and thanks for joining today’s session, ProbateCash: The Solution to the Probate Liquidity Problem, a webinar brought to you by Probate Cash. I’m your host, Molly Driscoll.

As a reminder, please type your questions in the chat window. Marc will address questions after the presentation. If your question is case-specific or confidential, please indicate that in the chat and someone will respond separately after the presentation.

Our presenter today is a professional with extensive experience in the probate field. Marc Harris is an attorney admitted to the Florida Bar and the Southern District of Florida. He is also a member of the Florida Bar’s Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law Section.

Marc has been working in the specialty finance industry for over 25 years and has been involved in purchasing over one hundred million dollars’ worth of assets. Many of those purchases required court hearings, and Marc has attended or appeared as counsel in many of them. As CEO of Probate Cash, Marc is now spearheading a relatively new industry of purchasing interests in actively pending inheritance claims from estates or trusts.

Marc, can you start us off with what Probate Cash does?

Marc Harris:
Thanks, everybody, and good afternoon.

We have people joining from around the country. As Molly mentioned, I’m currently working from a temporary location due to weather in Florida, so you may hear some background noise.

I’ve spent much of my career providing liquidity to people who are entitled to cash flows due to them in the future. Probate Cash focuses on one of those cash flows: inheritances.

A lot of people going through probate don’t understand the process. Their expectations are often based on movies—someone passes away, there’s a reading of the will, and someone walks away with a house or something valuable.

In reality, probate takes time. When people learn it will take a long time to receive their inheritance, that’s when they contact your office, and that’s also when they contact us.

Probate Cash provides some of the inheritance today in exchange for the beneficiary assigning a larger portion of their inheritance to us later, when assets are distributed by the probate court.

We file our assignment in the probate court so everyone knows what’s going on. The beneficiary gets some money today, and later receives the remaining inheritance when the estate is distributed, with the assigned portion paid to us.

Molly Driscoll:
You’ve done webinars for lawyers, Realtors, and estate administrators, but today we invited paralegals from around the country. Why focus on paralegals?

Marc Harris:
I’m an attorney, and I know paralegals are on the front line of almost everything. Paralegals are in contact with clients, they are doing the work, and they’re often the ones fielding calls from anxious heirs who aren’t even their clients.

You’re the ones receiving calls from beneficiaries demanding to know when they’ll get their money. You’re explaining the claims period, creditor issues, court scheduling, and the time it takes to sell property or other assets.

We want paralegals to know that instead of being stuck in that cycle of frustration, Probate Cash can offer a practical solution for beneficiaries’ liquidity issues.

Molly Driscoll:
Let’s go back to basics. How does an advance from Probate Cash work?

Marc Harris:
A beneficiary contacts us, or they contact your office and you refer them to us.

We take a short application—just enough to understand the case and where it stands. We have underwriters familiar with probate.

We want to confirm two main things: first, that the person is who they say they are and is entitled to an inheritance, and second, what the likely inheritance amount may be.

We may speak with you or someone at the firm to make sure there are no surprises. We believe in transparency. That’s why we file the assignment with the probate court—nobody should be surprised.

These advances are not intended to be adversarial. They’re meant to help someone get through a period when they can’t access their inheritance.

We can often fund within one to two days after speaking with the beneficiary and confirming eligibility.

We also follow the probate case as it progresses. Often, beneficiaries develop a relationship with our team, so instead of calling your office constantly, they have someone to contact. We’re careful not to make the law firm look like the bad guy. We understand many probate delays are outside of your control.

Molly Driscoll:
How can Probate Cash fund advances so quickly?

Marc Harris:
Because we’re not a lender. These are not loans. They are non-recourse advances.

That means we make an advance, and if we don’t get repaid because there are not enough assets, that’s our risk. If a creditor claim wipes out the inheritance, or the estate property sells for far less than expected and we can’t be paid the entire assignment, that is non-recourse.

We don’t take collateral like a lender would. There’s no need for a credit check. We’re not basing our decision on credit scores or requiring collateral.

Because we aren’t doing exhaustive loan underwriting—like a mortgage or business loan—we can move much faster. Sometimes we can fund within the same day.

We’ve also made advances to prevent estate property from going into foreclosure or tax sale, which can benefit everyone involved.

Molly Driscoll:
Who is Probate Cash right for?

Marc Harris:
Probate Cash is really right for people who need money immediately and either don’t have access to traditional lenders or don’t have time to wait on traditional funding.

Our fees can be high because these are non-recourse transactions and we don’t take collateral, but the people who benefit most are beneficiaries who need money and didn’t expect probate to take so long.

It can also benefit estate administrators when the estate needs to fix up a house to get fair market value. Sometimes $50,000 in improvements can lead to significantly higher sale proceeds, which benefits everyone entitled to the inheritance.

We don’t want to see estate homes sold to cash buyers in a panic because the estate is short on funds.

We are only in contract with the beneficiary who is taking an advance. If there are ten beneficiaries and only two take advances, it does not affect the other eight beneficiaries and does not affect probate hearings or the probate timeline.

Molly Driscoll:
How can Probate Cash help law firms?

Marc Harris:
This is one of the reasons we invited paralegals today. You’re often the ones taking calls from administrators and beneficiaries who are frustrated and don’t understand the process.

A little cash can change everything. It can reduce desperation, ease tension, and help people get through urgent needs. Yes, there’s a fee, but it can be worth it when someone is truly stuck.

If you refer someone to us, there is no liability for doing so. We are not asking you or your firm to make legal representations or warranties. We may call and ask questions about the case, but we are not relying on your statements in a way that creates liability. If there were ever a concern, we would address it appropriately.

A second way we help firms is when a firm is marketing and receives a potential case, but the caller can’t pay a retainer upfront. In that situation, we may be able to advance money even before the case is filed, as long as there is estate property likely to be sold. The person applying for letters can authorize us to pay the firm directly so the firm receives fees upfront and can open the case.

Molly Driscoll:
Are there any laws that govern inheritance advances?

Marc Harris:
There is one law in California. You can search for it by looking up inheritance assignment statutes. We use that statute as the framework for our transactions nationwide, following the spirit of the law in other states.

No states prohibit what we do. We still file the assignment with the court so all interested parties, including the judge, are aware of the assignment. Courts have seen enough of these transactions that the concept is not new to them.

Our company has advanced over one hundred million dollars in advances.

Molly Driscoll:
Let’s move into Q&A. First question: can multiple beneficiaries get an advance from Probate Cash?

Marc Harris:
Yes, and they often do. One beneficiary may take an advance and then tell others. Since we’ve already completed underwriting on the probate case, additional advances can sometimes be completed even faster, including same-day in certain cases.

Molly Driscoll:
What information do you need from a firm to advance a transaction?

Marc Harris:
We may call your office, but we really don’t need much from you because we can access the documents from the court file.

If we have underwriting questions, we might ask whether you expect any large creditor claims—such as Medicare-related claims—that could significantly reduce an inheritance. We may also ask if there’s anything you know that wouldn’t appear in the filings yet.

We also want to confirm how we will be repaid. Usually the administrator pays us when the estate assets are distributed. But sometimes the attorney or law firm is holding the funds, and repayment would come from the firm’s trust account.

Molly Driscoll:
Question: what happens if probate doesn’t follow the normal course, but a beneficiary still receives funds—for example, through a settlement agreement?

Marc Harris:
We do get involved in adversarial cases, including will challenges or disputes involving estate assets.

If there is a settlement, we would expect to be repaid out of the settlement proceeds, similar to repayment out of a distribution. We would typically want repayment to occur directly from the settlement proceeds rather than sending money to the beneficiary and hoping they repay.

If that doesn’t answer the question fully, feel free to email or call me directly.

Molly Driscoll:
Is this accessible nationwide?

Marc Harris:
Yes. We do business throughout the country.

Probate might be filed in one state while beneficiaries live elsewhere. That’s not a problem. We file the assignment in the state where the probate case is filed. Beneficiaries can live in another state or even outside the country, as long as they are legitimate beneficiaries and expected to receive an inheritance.

Molly Driscoll:
If probate takes five years, are there consequences for the person who took an advance?

Marc Harris:
Not as long as the delay isn’t caused by the beneficiary. Our contracts prohibit beneficiaries from delaying the process or frustrating our ability to be repaid.

We understand probate can take many years due to litigation, backlogs, or other circumstances. That happens.

Fees are an important part of that question. Our fees can be up to 25% of the advance amount every 90 days, but we cap them at 100%. So once the fee reaches the cap, it does not continue increasing, even if probate takes longer.

We try to understand timelines going in so we can adjust pricing or make appropriate decisions based on risk.

Molly Driscoll:
Thank you. We’ll be sending out a follow-up email with a link to this webinar. Please follow Probate Cash on LinkedIn for updated information and additional webinars.

If you think of questions later, you can call Marc at 561-476-0018 or email marc@probatecash.com.

Thank you for attending today, and have a great day.