Probate of the will

Probate applies to the administration of a deceased person’s estate in the court system.  If there is a will, an Executor is assumedly designated in the will to represent the estate.  The Executor would be responsible for filing the will with the clerk of the local county where the deceased person resided.  Once the will has been filed, the deceased person has the duty to file a petition to probate within 30 days.  When the will has been admitted to the court and the named Executor has been appointed as the representative of the estate by the probate court, the court will issue “Letters of Office” or “Letters of Testament” which is used by the Executor to transact business on behalf of the estate.  The probate of the estate may be by independent or supervised administration.  Under independent administration, the Executor does not require approval of the court on each transaction of business.  The Executor is responsible for collecting an inventory of all the assets and determining the financial debts of the estate.  The deceased person’s will provide specific powers to the Executor to administer the estate. In general terms, after collecting all the assets and paying the debts, the Executor will provide a final accounting to the beneficiaries, if the beneficiaries approve the final accounting they will acknowledge their approval on a receipt sent back to the Executor. Assuming the estate’s assets are greater than the debts, upon receipt of the beneficiaries of their approval of the final accounting, the Executor will make the distributions to the beneficiaries. 

The Executor is most likely to retain an attorney in order to represent him or her during the probate process.  Additional legal issues arise when there is disagreement among the beneficiaries as to the handling of the estate or if there is an allegation the Executor is failing to handle the estate appropriately.  It is important to understand the process and consult with an attorney regarding the options available if the probate process becomes adversarial.