Familiar name appointed to county's civil court as probate magistrate

ALLEN COUNTY, Ind.---In 2024, Allen Superior Court’s civil division handled 57 estates, 632 unsupervised estates and 290 miscellaneous estates.

Along with estates, there were 345 guardianships and one extra guardianship labeled miscellaneous.

Add to that list, 17 trusts that were sorted.

Timothy DeGroote, appointed this month as probate magistrate by Allen County's civil court judges.

For 40 years, trusts, guardianships and estates were the domain of probate magistrate Phillip Houk, ultimately overseen by an Allen Superior Court judge. That has been Jennifer DeGroote, according to the Allen Superior Court website.

A news release stated that over that 40-year period, Houk presided over 40,000 estate cases and 10,000 guardianship matters.

Now Houk is stepping down on Aug. 1 and stepping into this position on Aug. 3 is Timothy DeGroote, who’s spent his legal career at Hunt Suedhoff Kalamaros, a prominent Allen County law firm.

The Probable Cause confirmed that Timothy DeGroote is married to Jennifer DeGroote. It’s anticipated that all Judge DeGroote’s probate work will be transferred to Judge Andrew Williams, who also serves as Allen County’s mental health judge.

The probate magistrate position was advertised on the Allen Superior Court webpage on March 13.  Magistrates are appointed, not elected and are “at-will” employees.

There were six applicants for the position, the Allen County court executive told The Probable Cause. The court is not required to release those names.

A month after the post was made, Timothy DeGroote’s appointment was announced.

“The Magistrate presides in the Allen Superior Court in civil probate matters under the direction and supervision of the judges of the civil division by a majority vote of the judges in a specific county's circuit or superior courts,” the court website states.

Judicial salaries are set by the state of Indiana. According to the latest year available for annual salaries on openpayrolls, Houk made about $129,000 in 2022.

A court news release said Timothy DeGroote is a 1995 graduate of Valporaiso Law School, now closed, and served as law clerk for Vern Sheldon, Allen Superior Court judge.

Like other judges in the Allen County Civil Division, DeGroote comes with experience at Hunt Suedhoff Kalamaros, a prominent local law firm.

The other judges include Williams, Jason Custer, and Craig Bobay, but not DeGroote’s wife.

At the law firm, he is a managing partner, according to the firm’s website.

“[DeGroote] practices in the areas of general insurance defense litigation, insurance coverage, construction, product liability, malpractice and corporate law, in both state and federal courts. Tim received his B.A. from Marquette University in 1991 followed by his Doctorate of Jurisprudence from Valparaiso University School of Law in 1995.” 

Civil courts don’t get the same kind of attention and news coverage as criminal courts, but the three kinds probate cases are important to the families involved.

Here’s what Allen Superior Court says about the work of the probate court:

Estates:

These cases involve the transfers of property that occur after a person dies. Many forms of property, such as joint bank accounts, and real estate jointly owned transfer without the need for Court assistance. Forms of property which were held in the name of a deceased person only may require the assistance of the Court to transfer. If the value of estate property is less than $100,000, Indiana law provides a procedure for administration of the assets without court assistance.

Trusts:

A trust is one of several legal devices by which one person is enabled to manage some property for the benefit of another person. Many trusts are created in conjunction with a will as an element of estate planning. Courts may be asked to settle questions over interpretation of trust provisions or to reform provisions that become obsolete.

Guardianships:

A guardianship is a legal relationship created by the Court between a person who is a minor or is found to be incapacitated and someone who the Court finds to be qualified and willing to care for and make personal and financial decisions for that person. Depending upon the nature of the incapacity, a guardian’s authority can be very limited or quite broad.