A probate judge is an official of the county court system and a judicial official of the state who decides civil court cases that involve the probate process. Probate is the process of proving wills ...

When a person dies without proper planning, their estate enters a public legal process that can last months—sometimes ...

Can You Settle an Estate Without Probate? In certain situations, it is possible to settle an estate without going through probate. Assets held in joint ownership, assets with named beneficiaries (such ...

The probate process gets a bad reputation, but it's the reality many families will face, and it's a process that can function well for some small estates. Probate is the court-supervised proceeding in ...

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 ...

Barclay Palmer is a creative executive with 10+ years of creating or managing premium programming and brands/businesses across various platforms. Suzanne is a content marketer, writer, and ...

Julia Kagan is a financial/consumer journalist and former senior editor, personal finance, of Investopedia. Ebony Howard is a certified public accountant and a QuickBooks ProAdvisor tax expert. She ...

Estate planning is not just for the wealthy. Anyone with a bank account, house, car or other personal property should have a will. It is especially important if you have minor children in need of a ...

Most Americans know the folly of dying without a will. Under the widely different state formulas devised for such cases, a widow can lose one-half of her husband’s estate to his relatives. Equally ...

If you’re named as an executor in a loved one’s will, you’ll be responsible for sorting out their affairs and sharing out their assets. This process is known as estate administration. This generally ...