Death in the Family #2: Probate
Probate is the legal process of accumulating a person’s assets after his or her death and establishing clear title to those assets so that they may be distributed in accordance with the decedent’s will or according to the state’s intestate succession rules. The intestate succession statutes govern the distribution of a decedent’s assets in the event there is no will or to the extent the will does not dispose of all the property owned by the decedent at his or her death.