Probate
The court-supervised legal process of validating a will and distributing a deceased person's estate.
What is Probate?
Probate is the court-supervised legal process of authenticating a deceased person's will, appointing an executor, inventorying assets, paying outstanding debts and taxes, and distributing remaining assets to beneficiaries. If no valid will exists, the estate passes by intestate succession — a state law formula that distributes assets to relatives regardless of the deceased's actual wishes. Probate can be time-consuming (6 months to several years), expensive (2–5% of estate value in legal and court fees), and is public record, meaning details of the estate become accessible. Assets with named beneficiaries or joint ownership generally bypass probate.
Example
When Prince (the musician) died in 2016 without a will, his estate of approximately $156 million entered probate in Minnesota. The process lasted years and incurred significant legal fees, with the court ultimately distributing assets to his siblings under state intestacy law. By contrast, a properly structured estate with a living trust and updated beneficiary designations could have transferred the same assets within weeks with minimal cost.
Source: Investopedia — Probate