About Probate

• Probate is a legal process during which the court validates a person's will and manages his final affairs. If the deceased person named an individual to act as executor, the court formally appoints him as representative of the estate. If the will didn't name an executor or the executor named is unable or unwilling to serve, the court appoints an administrator to oversee probate. During probate, the executor or administrator inventories the estate's property, pays the deceased individual's debts and distributes assets to heirs according to the provisions in the will.
  
  

Probate and Real Property

• If the deceased person co-owned property with another individual who had the right of survivorship, the property passes directly to that individual and won't go into probate. The property will also avoid probate if the deceased individual placed it in a trust. However, if the deceased person co-owned the property with another individual who didn't have the right of survivorship, the deceased person's interest in the property may go through probate with the rest of the estate. The property may also go through probate if the deceased person was the sole owner of the property and designated an heir to receive it in his will.
  
  

Exceptions

• Though real estate not held in a trust or passed to another owner through survivorship must usually become a part of the deceased person's estate, most states make an exception for property the deceased person leaves to his spouse. If the deceased individual was the sole owner of real property and his will designates his spouse as the new owner, the property typically won't go through probate.
  
  

Small Estates

• Even if the property becomes a part of the deceased individual's estate, the estate itself won't always go through probate. Most states have an expedited probate process for estates with values under a certain limit, and some states exempt small estates from probate entirely. If the estate is exempt from probate, the heir to the real property can usually claim it by submitting an affidavit and a copy of the death certificate to the person or institution holding the property.