Glossary

Probate

The court process that proves a will and oversees the distribution of an estate.

Probate establishes that a will is what it claims to be and supervises the estate's administration. It is generally a public process, which is one reason people ask about alternatives. Most states publish a simplified route for small estates, which is the single most useful figure for anyone weighing a will against a trust — below that threshold, the main practical thing a revocable trust is used to avoid may not arise. The thresholds carry traps. The figure printed in a statute is not always the operative one: California's probate code prints a number its Judicial Council has since adjusted substantially upward. And some procedures are unavailable to a testate estate entirely — the Texas small estate affidavit applies only where the decedent died without a will.

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