What counts as a probate asset?
Which assets go through probate and which transfer outside it — joint accounts, beneficiary designations, trusts, and the four questions that decide.
6 sections · reviewed 2026-08-07
Editorial guidance
Estate administration guides
The calculators answer questions that have a sourced numeric answer. These guides cover the work around the number: protecting a house, approaching a bank, finding the receiving court’s form, classifying title and beneficiaries, documenting costs, and knowing when a shortcut still leaves a material question unanswered.
What an executor should do in the first week
A practical first-week checklist for new executors: secure property, locate the will, order death certificates, and avoid premature distributions.
6 sections · reviewed 2026-08-07
How much does probate cost? A line-by-line breakdown
Court fees, executor compensation, bond, publication, certified copies, and professional costs — what each line is and what it actually covers.
5 sections · reviewed 2026-08-07
Small-estate affidavit versus formal probate
How a small-estate affidavit differs from formal court administration: the dollar limit is only one condition, and the others decide eligibility.
6 sections · reviewed 2026-08-07
What to do with a house after someone dies
What happens to a house when someone dies — how to protect it, determine who inherits, and decide whether to keep or sell the property.
7 sections · reviewed 2026-08-08
How to access a bank account after someone dies
Step-by-step guide to accessing a deceased person’s bank account: documents you need, affidavits, letters testamentary, and estate accounts.
9 sections · reviewed 2026-08-11
How to find and prepare probate forms
Find official probate court forms for your state, build your filing packet, and track what the court still needs — with reviewed state links.
11 sections · reviewed 2026-08-11
Do you need probate after someone dies?
Find out whether probate is required, when a small-estate affidavit or beneficiary transfer works instead, and how to confirm the rule in your state.
8 sections · reviewed 2026-08-12
How trustee fees are set
How trustee fees are determined: trust document terms, state reasonableness standards, professional vs family rates, and when to challenge the amount.
8 sections · reviewed 2026-08-12
How to transfer a vehicle after death
How to transfer a vehicle title after someone dies: DMV requirements, affidavits, liens, insurance, and who has authority to sell, keep, or donate.
7 sections · reviewed 2026-08-12
How to get an EIN for an estate
When an estate needs an EIN, who applies, how the IRS process works, and how to keep post-death tax records separate.
9 sections · reviewed 2026-08-12
How to apply for an EIN for an estate online
IRS estate EIN application: entity type, fiduciary role, accounting period, confirmation letter, and fallback options.
9 sections · reviewed 2026-09-07
Death certificates and who to notify
How to order a death certificate, notify institutions, reduce fraud risk, and organize the paper trail after someone dies.
8 sections · reviewed 2026-08-12
How to access a deceased person’s online accounts
How to access or close a deceased person’s online accounts — email, social media, crypto, and subscriptions — with provider legacy tools and RUFADAA.
8 sections · reviewed 2026-08-14
Who inherits without a will?
When there is no will, state intestacy law decides who inherits: spouse, children, then other relatives. Learn the general order and where states differ.
7 sections · reviewed 2026-08-14
Letters testamentary and letters of administration
What letters testamentary and letters of administration are, how to get them from the probate court, and when a small-estate affidavit works instead.
7 sections · reviewed 2026-08-14
What happens to debt when someone dies?
What happens to a deceased person’s debts: the estate pays them, when relatives are and are not liable, and how cards, medical bills, and mortgages work.
8 sections · reviewed 2026-08-14
Do you owe estate or inheritance tax?
Most estates owe no federal estate tax, and there is no federal inheritance tax — but some states tax estates or inheritances. How the rules work.
8 sections · reviewed 2026-08-14
How long does probate take?
How long probate takes and what drives it — the creditor-claim period, the phases, and what makes an estate faster or slower to settle.
8 sections · reviewed 2026-08-14
Choose by the task in front of you
- A house needs attention.Protect it, read the deed, build the property packet, and separate authority from the retain-or-sell decision.
- A bank needs documents.Identify the transfer path and prepare the institution packet without using the old login or mixing estate funds.
- A court form is needed.Choose the route first, then distinguish statewide forms from county packets and local instructions.
- The inventory is unclear.Work from deed, account title, beneficiary confirmation, and funded-trust ownership.
- The route is unclear.Compare what an affidavit can transfer with the authority a court appointment provides.
- Probate itself is the question.Test each asset's transfer path and identify which institution actually needs court authority.
- A trustee fee is the question.Start from the trust document and the reasonable-compensation standard instead of a universal number.
- A vehicle needs retitling.Work from the title record, the lien, and the state's deceased-owner lane before selling or donating.
- A bank wants an EIN.Confirm the estate actually needs its own tax identity, then use the free IRS process.
- The IRS wizard is open.Match the estate entity, fiduciary role, accounting period, and confirmation step without guessing at the screen choices.
- Certificates and notices are next.Count the institutions that keep a certified copy and sequence the early notifications.
- Online accounts need attention.Reach email, social media, crypto, and subscriptions through each provider’s legacy process instead of the deceased’s password.
- There is no will.See who state intestacy law puts in line to inherit, and why the state itself rarely takes everything.
- The court needs to name you.Get the letters testamentary or letters of administration that prove your authority to act for the estate.
- Creditors are calling.Learn who actually pays a deceased person’s debts, when relatives are and are not liable, and how collectors must behave.
- You’re worried about taxes.See why most estates owe no federal estate tax, which states tax estates or inheritances, and when an inheritance is taxable.
- You need a timeline.See what actually drives how long probate takes — the creditor-claim period, the phases, and what speeds it up or slows it down.
How these differ from the state pages
The 50 state pages answer a specific question about a specific jurisdiction, and every figure on them is tied to a primary source quoted verbatim. These guides do something different. They explain the reasoning that applies across states — how to read a title, why a trust document is not the same as a funded trust, why a bill arriving in week one should usually wait — and they do not attach a number to a jurisdiction.
That distinction is deliberate. Where a claim is jurisdiction-specific it belongs on a state page with a citation. Where it is general reasoning it belongs here, without borrowed authority it does not have.
What these guides will not tell you
- Who inherits. Intestate succession, will construction, and elective shares are governed by state law and by the specific document. Getting that wrong is expensive, and general guidance is the wrong instrument.
- Whether to hire an attorney. That depends on the estate, the family, and what you are comfortable being responsible for. The guides describe what raises complexity so the decision is better informed, not what the decision should be.
- Anything about tax. Estate, inheritance, income and capital-gains consequences interact, and a general article that gets one of them right can still lead to a costly mistake.
- What a specific bank will accept. Institutions apply their own policies on top of the statute. The guides describe the pattern; the institution states its own rule.
Where to start
If someone has just died and you have been named executor, start with the first-week guide, then classify the property before looking at any threshold. If you already know what the estate contains, the state comparison shows which route each state offers, the source ledger shows the court or statutory record behind each state page, and the navigator works through one case privately in this browser.
Use this as a starting point.
This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Probate law varies by state and county and changes over time. Verify the current rule with the court or a licensed attorney in the relevant state.