When a person passes away, someone must undertake the administration of his or her estate. There is a lot of misinformation being circulated about “probate” and “estate administration.”
What Is Probate?
Probate refers to the court-supervised process of validating a decedent’s will and ensuring that the executor or administrator of the decedent’s estate carries out the deceased person’s wishes as stated in his/her will. If the deceased person had no will, then there is a law that dictates who receives money from the estate. The probate process involves several stages, including:
- Filing a decedent’s will with the Register of Wills
- Appointing the executor (a person named by the will) or administrator (if there was no will) to be responsible for the decedent’s estate
- Notifying the decedent’s creditors, beneficiaries, and other potential heirs or interested parties of the probate proceeding
- Paying the decedent’s debts, estate administration expenses, and final income taxes or estate taxes
Individuals and families can avoid passing assets through probate by utilizing alternative estate planning strategies, such as trusts, beneficiary designations, and joint tenancies.
What Is Estate Administration?
Estate administration refers to the broader process of managing a decedent’s estate after his or her death. Estate administration with a will involves the probate process. However, when a decedent does not make a will, state intestacy laws govern the distribution of a decedent’s estate to their closest heirs as defined by law.
Estate administration may also involve managing and distributing non-probate assets, such as assets held in trust, life insurance proceeds, or other assets subject to beneficiary designations and interests in jointly owned property.
What assets do not pass through the Estate?
A will does not control what happens to many assets because they are not part of the probate estate. This includes life insurance, Individual Retirement Accounts, 401(k) accounts and Payable on Death accounts.
Contact an Estate Administration Attorney Today
If your family has recently lost a loved one, you may need to undertake estate administration to wind up your loved one’s affairs and distribute their assets to their heirs and beneficiaries. An experienced estate administration attorney from Silverman, Tokarsky & Forman, L.L.C. can guide you through the process. Contact us today for an initial consultation with our legal team to learn more about the differences between probate and estate administration and what to expect when managing a deceased loved one’s estate.
