Price range: $87.00 through $107.00
Webcasts are available for viewing Monday – Friday, 8am – 8pm ET,
and Saturday & Sunday, 10am – 6pm ET.
Without FlexCast, you must start with enough time to finish. (1 Hr/Credit)
 Secure Transaction CPE Credits
3 Credits: Specialized Knowledge
Course Level
Overview
Format
Self-Study
Course Description
This course provides a clear, practical roadmap for avoiding probate by explaining how asset ownership, beneficiary designations, and legal structures determine whether court involvement is required at death. It walks through ten proven probate-avoidance strategies, highlighting when each method works, where it can fail, and how poor coordination can create unintended legal and financial risk. The course equips learners to evaluate probate-avoidance techniques confidently and integrate them into a coherent, efficient estate planning strategy.
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Recognize the tools available for avoiding ancillary probate for real estate holdings.
- Recall how a pour-over will can be used to avoid probate.
- Recognize the risks associated with adding another party as a joint owner to property.
- Specify how beneficiary designations can override a will.
- Recall the probate avoidance issues that can cause equalization issues among heirs.
- Recognize the limitations of payable-on-death accounts.
- Recall the nature of beneficiary rights under the Uniform Transfer on Death Securities Registration Act.
- Recognize the factors that can invalidate a transfer-on-death deed.
- Specify the probate avoidance methods that can trigger gift tax reporting.
- Recall how probate avoidance can increase personal accountability under certain circumstances.
- Recognize the weaknesses of probate avoidance techniques in regard to asset distributions.
- Recall how probate avoidance differs from tax avoidance.
- Recognize what can undermine a revocable living trust’s effectiveness.
- Specify when a direct transfer-on-death designation may be inappropriate.
Course Specifics
SS1226473311
April 23, 2026
There are no prerequisites.
None
67
Compliance Information
CFP Notice: Not all courses that qualify for CFP® credit are registered by Western CPE. If a course does not have a CFP registration number in the compliance section, the continuing education will need to be individually reported with the CFP Board. For more information on the reporting process, required documentation, processing fee, etc., contact the CFP Board. CFP Professionals must take each course in it’s entirety, the CFP Board DOES NOT accept partial credits for courses.
Meet The Experts
Steven M. Bragg, CPA, is a full-time book and course author who has written more than 300 business books and courses. He provides Western CPE with self-study courses in the areas of accounting and finance, with an emphasis on the practical application of accounting standards and management techniques. A sampling of his courses include the The New Controller Guidebook, The GAAP Guidebook, Accountants’ Guidebook, and Closing the Books: An Accountant’s Guide. He also manages the Accounting Best Practices podcast. Steven has been the CFO or controller of both public and private companies and has been a consulting manager with Ernst & Young and …
QAS Self-Study
