Robinhood. Webull. Coinbase. SoFi. Public.
Every few months, another investing app rolls out a sign-up bonus and Las Vegas families transfer money in. It is fast. It is easy. You move $40,000 from your old account in about three clicks.
And then you forget about it.
That forgotten account is the one that drags your family into Clark County probate court when you die, even if every other part of your estate plan is perfectly built.
This is the single most common failure I see at Fales Law Group. A client builds a beautiful trust. They sign every document. They pay for the plan. And then, two years later, they open a new brokerage account in their personal name, never tell their attorney, and that one account undoes the entire plan.
If you live in Las Vegas, Henderson, Summerlin, or anywhere in Clark County and you have ever moved money to a new investing app, this article is for you.
The Probate Problem Nobody Warns You About
Most people think probate is a tax problem or a will problem. It is neither. Probate is a titling problem.
Under Nevada law (NRS 146), any asset titled in a deceased person’s individual name, with no surviving joint owner and no transfer-on-death beneficiary, must pass through probate court before the family can touch it.
That is true even if:
- The deceased had a fully funded living trust covering every other asset
- The account had a clear “intended heir” written in a notebook somewhere
- The family knows exactly what Mom or Dad would have wanted
- The balance is small enough that probate costs more than the asset itself
In Nevada, here is what triggers probate:
- Estates over $25,000 that are not held in trust, joint tenancy, or with a named beneficiary
- Estates over $100,000 when the sole heir is not the surviving spouse
- Any real estate titled in the individual’s name, regardless of value
A forgotten Robinhood account with $40,000 in it checks the first box. So does a SoFi savings account, a Coinbase wallet, a Webull margin account, or a Public.com brokerage. The app changes. The probate problem does not.
The Story I Keep Seeing in My Office
A client passes away. The family is sorting through paperwork at the kitchen table, and they find a statement from a brokerage nobody knew about. There is a real balance in there. Sometimes five figures. Sometimes six.
Now they look closer.
The account is in the deceased person’s individual name. Not the trust. No transfer-on-death (TOD) beneficiary listed. No joint owner.
That account is now a probate asset. Even if everything else in the estate was perfectly planned.
I once watched a Las Vegas family lose six months of access to $80,000 because Mom had moved her IRA to a new platform during the pandemic and never finished the beneficiary paperwork. The transfer pushed her old TOD designation into a holding bucket. The new account defaulted to “no beneficiary.” The funds sat frozen at the brokerage while the family waited on a Clark County probate judge’s signature.
By the time the court order came through, the family had paid attorney fees, court filing fees, a probate bond premium, and publication costs. The total bite (roughly 10% to 15% of that single account) was bigger than the cost of an entire estate plan would have been.
That is the math nobody runs before they download the next investing app.
What Actually Goes Wrong: The Five-Step Failure Chain
This is not a story about bad people or careless families. It is a story about a process that breaks every time you move money. Here’s the chain:
- You transfer assets to a new brokerage, but leave the old beneficiary forms behind at the old firm
- The new account defaults to “no beneficiary” because you skipped that step during sign-up
- The trust never gets named as owner because you opened the account in your personal name, not the trust’s name
- Your family cannot touch the money without a Clark County probate judge’s signature
- Court fees, attorney fees, and bond premiums eat thousands out of an account you thought was already protected
Every step in that chain is fixable. The problem is that none of them feel like a mistake at the time. You are just opening an account. You are not making an estate planning decision.
But under Nevada law, you are.
Why “I Have a Trust” Is Not Enough
The most dangerous belief I see in my Las Vegas practice is this one: “I have a living trust, so I am protected.”
A trust only protects what is inside it.
In estate planning, we call this trust funding — the process of legally titling assets in the name of the trust, or naming the trust as a transfer-on-death beneficiary. Without funding, your trust is a fireproof safe with nothing inside it. The document is valid. The strategy is sound. But the assets are not protected because they were never placed under the trust’s control.
When I review a new client’s existing plan, I almost always find at least one of these gaps:
- A checking account opened after the trust was signed, in the individual’s name
- A 401(k) rollover into an IRA at a new custodian, with no updated beneficiary
- A crypto wallet on Coinbase or Kraken with no death-transfer instructions
- A high-yield savings account at SoFi or Marcus, sitting in personal title
- A taxable brokerage account at Robinhood, Webull, or Public.com with no TOD designation
Each one of these is a future probate case. Not theoretical. Not “if the worst happens.” A guaranteed probate case the moment the account holder dies.
The Three-Question Check for Every New Account
Every time you open a new financial account in Nevada — a checking account, a brokerage, an IRA, a crypto exchange, a savings account, anything — you need to answer three questions before you walk away from the application.
1. Is the account titled correctly?
You have two valid options under Nevada law:
- Titled in the name of your trust (e.g., “The Smith Family Trust, dated 1/15/2024”)
- Titled in your individual name, with the trust listed as the transfer-on-death beneficiary
If neither is true, the account is a probate asset waiting to happen. Some platforms (especially newer fintech apps) do not allow trust ownership at all. In those cases, the TOD beneficiary designation is your only protection.
2. Are the beneficiary designations current and consistent?
A trust is only useful if every retirement account, life insurance policy, and TOD designation matches it. If your trust says assets go to your three children equally, but your IRA still names an ex-spouse from 2008, the IRA wins. The beneficiary form overrides the trust every time.
Nevada specifically recognizes transfer-on-death deeds for real estate under NRS 111.671, and most major brokerages allow TOD designations on taxable accounts. Use them.
3. Does someone else know this account exists?
Your spouse. Your trustee. Your attorney. At least one person — ideally all three — needs to know the account exists, where the statements come from, and how to access it. Half the forgotten brokerage cases I see in Las Vegas would have been avoided if the family had a simple list.
If you cannot answer all three questions for every account you own, you have a probate landmine. The only question is when it goes off.
What Nevada Probate Actually Costs
When clients hear “your forgotten Robinhood account might go through probate,” they often shrug. So let me put numbers on it.
For a Nevada estate around the median Las Vegas home value (roughly $400,000), here is what probate typically costs:
| Cost Category | Typical Amount |
| Attorney fees (Nevada statutory: 4%/3%/2%/1%) | ~$11,000 |
| Personal representative/executor fees | ~$12,000 |
| Court filing fees (Clark County) | $300 – $500 |
| Publication costs (creditor notice) | $100 – $500 |
| Probate bond premium (0.5% – 1% annually) | $2,000 – $4,000 |
| Appraisals, accounting, miscellaneous | $300 – $1,000+ |
| Total | $40,000 – $60,000 |
| Percentage of estate consumed | 10% – 15% |
For a $40,000 forgotten brokerage account, the math is even uglier. The percentage bite is fixed by Nevada statute, but the dollar cost, combined with court fees that do not scale down, can consume 20% or more of a small account.
And that is before we talk about the time cost. A Nevada full probate typically runs 4 to 5 months at minimum. A contested or complex probate can stretch past a year. The entire time, your family cannot touch the money.
How to Actually Avoid Probate in Nevada
There is no single magic move. Avoiding probate in Nevada is a system. At Fales Law Group, we call it the Family Plan™, and it is built around six components:
A Living Trust Drafted for Nevada Families
Not a template downloaded from a legal forms website. A revocable living trust drafted to fit your specific family situation, your specific asset mix, and Nevada-specific trust law — including provisions for community property, homestead protection, and the realities of Clark County administration.
Full Funding of Every Asset
The trust is only step one. Real estate gets retitled with a new deed recorded with the Clark County Recorder. Bank and brokerage accounts get retitled or assigned a TOD beneficiary. Business interests get formally assigned. We do not just hand you a binder and wish you luck.
Beneficiary Coordination
We pull every beneficiary designation across your retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and TOD-eligible accounts. We make sure they match your trust. Conflicts get resolved before they become a courtroom problem.
A Funding Checklist for Every New Account
This is the step most attorneys skip. You will open new accounts after your plan is built. We give you a one-page checklist you can use every time you open a new brokerage, savings account, or investment app. Three questions. Five minutes. Zero forgotten accounts.
Ongoing Annual Review
Once a year, we walk through your asset list with you. New accounts get caught. Old beneficiaries get updated. Life changes (marriage, divorce, new grandchild, business sale) get reflected in the plan.
Trustee and Successor Guidance
Your trustee needs to know how to actually run the trust if you become incapacitated or pass away. We do not leave them guessing. They get a packet, a contact, and a playbook.
When You Should Call a Las Vegas Estate Planning Attorney
You should call us if any of these are true:
- You have opened a new brokerage, savings, or crypto account in the last two years and you are not 100% certain how it is titled
- Your trust was drafted more than three years ago and has not been reviewed since
- You moved an IRA, 401(k), or pension to a new custodian and skipped the beneficiary step
- You own real estate in Clark County in your individual name
- You have a “joint owner” on accounts as an informal workaround for estate planning
- You do not have a trust at all, and your estate is approaching or exceeding $25,000 in non-retirement assets
The cost of a consultation is zero. The cost of doing nothing — based on the families I have walked through Clark County probate court — is typically $20,000 to $60,000 plus four to twelve months of frozen accounts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What assets go through probate in Nevada?
Any asset titled in the deceased person’s individual name with no joint owner, no TOD or POD beneficiary, and no trust ownership. Common probate triggers in Las Vegas include personal-name brokerage accounts, single-name real estate, individually titled vehicles, and bank accounts without a payable-on-death beneficiary.
Does a will avoid probate?
No. A will is instructions for the probate court. It tells the judge how you want assets distributed, but it does not bypass the court process. To actually avoid probate in Nevada, you need either a funded trust, joint ownership, or a TOD/POD beneficiary on every relevant account.
How long does Nevada probate take?
A simple, uncontested full probate in Clark County typically takes 4 to 5 months. Contested probates, complex estates, or estates with out-of-state real estate (ancillary probate) can stretch past a year.
Can I just add my kids as joint owners on my brokerage accounts?
This is one of the most common DIY mistakes I see. Joint ownership exposes the account to your child’s creditors, ex-spouses, and lawsuits. It also creates capital gains tax problems. A trust or TOD beneficiary is almost always a better answer.
What is a transfer-on-death (TOD) designation?
A TOD designation is a beneficiary form filed with the brokerage or bank. When you die, the account transfers directly to the named beneficiary, bypassing probate. Nevada recognizes TOD deeds for real estate under NRS 111.671 and TOD designations on most financial accounts.
How much does it cost to set up a trust in Las Vegas?
Far less than probate. A comprehensive Family Plan™ at Fales Law Group costs a fraction of what your family would pay in Nevada statutory probate fees on a $400,000 estate.
What if I already have a trust but I am not sure if it is funded?
Call us. We do funding audits for clients with existing trusts drafted by other attorneys. Most of them have at least one unfunded asset hiding in plain sight.
The Bottom Line
Your trust only works if you keep feeding it. Every new account you open is a chance to do it right — or a chance to leave your Las Vegas family stranded in Clark County probate court for six months while attorney fees eat the inheritance.
The investing app on your phone does not care about your estate plan. It will let you open an account, transfer money, and walk away without ever asking who inherits if something happens to you.
You have to be the one who asks.
The Family Plan™ at Fales Law Group
✓ A living trust drafted to fit your Las Vegas family — not a template
✓ Full funding of every asset, including new accounts you open later
✓ Beneficiary coordination so retirement and brokerage accounts match your plan
✓ A one-page funding checklist for every new account
✓ Ongoing annual review so a forgotten account never becomes a probate nightmare
✓ Clark County-specific filing, deeding, and recording handled by our team
Reserve Your Free Consultation
Or call us now:
(702) 804-0024
Fales Law Group · Lake Sahara Plaza
8689 W Sahara Ave, Suite 200 · Las Vegas, NV 89117
Let’s make sure your plan isn’t just paperwork.
Protecting what matters most,
Gary L. Fales
Attorney at Law
