What is probate?

I think a lot of people don't really have an understanding of what probate is and I think that makes a lot of sense since most people don't deal with probate on a daily, monthly or even yearly basis. It just doesn't come up that often.

To go through probate, you need to have a Will since that is the object which gets probated.

Once probated, the Will is put into effect and the person named as Executor receives what is known as their letters testamentary which is their authority to act on behalf of the Estate of the decedent.

The Executor acts to harness, liquidate and/or distribute assets of the decedent (and pay their debts) which are in the decedent's name. If an asset such as life insurance has a named beneficiary or if an asset such as a bank account has a payable upon death provision then those assets needn't be transferred by the Executor as they transfer on their own. Probate is a process to appoint a person to transfer assets which cannot be transferred otherwise.

If all of a person's assets have a payable upon death provision or are joint accounts with a right of survivorship then there wouldn't be a need for probate. But take heed, if all your assets transfer on their own upon your death then your Will might not even need be probated.