Managing and securing your estate is one of the most important steps in personal finance. An estate plan ensures your assets get distributed according to your wishes. In addition to mitigating ...

Probate is the court-supervised process of validating a deceased person’s will. It involves identifying the person’s final assets, paying last debts and distributing property to the proper heirs. 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 ...

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

Probate refers to the legal process of settling the estate of a deceased person. This process can take anywhere from a few months to a couple of years, depending on several factors such as the size ...

Probate can be a lengthy and complex process, leaving executors eager to find ways to expedite it. Familiarizing yourself with the legal procedures and documentation required to settle an estate ...

Wills have long been utilized as a classic estate-planning tool. But it's not enough to write up a will and call it a day. Once someone with a will passes away, a court needs to validate it via a ...

My mom died just over a year ago, and I’m still knee-deep in probate. I’m barely average. The typical probate process to settle a will or the estate of somebody who dies without one takes 20 months, ...

The need for probate when a spouse dies depends on various factors. If assets were owned jointly, they often pass directly to the surviving spouse without probate. Similarly, assets like life ...

When a person dies with a will, their estate must usually undergo probate. This is the process by which the will is proven to be valid. As part of this process, the probate court will appoint an ...