Without a will, your state probate court decides where your property goes after your death. Many, or all, of the products featured on this page are from our advertising partners who compensate us when ...

When someone passes away and their property is not in a trust, these assets must typically go through probate. Probate is a court-supervised process that can delay distribution, increase costs and ...

Probate Initiation: An interested party, often a family member or creditor, petitions the probate court to open an intestate estate. Appointment of Administrator: The court appoints an administrator ...

Christy Bieber has a JD from UCLA School of Law and began her career as a college instructor and textbook author. She has been writing full time for over a decade with a focus on making financial and ...

When a person dies, they might expect their remaining assets to follow a common sense line of succession, passing first to their spouse, then to their children. But even when these lines of succession ...