Also known as: probate properties · probate estate
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Assets owned by a decedent at death or acquired by the decedent's estate thereafter that are subject to administration under the laws governing decedents' estates. The net probate estate is the probate property reduced by claims, taxes, and allowances, after which it passes to heirs by intestacy or to devisees by will.
Peter Park created a revocable trust holding most of his assets and died leaving only a small bank account in his probate estate. His creditors filed claims exceeding the probate assets. The court ordered the trust property applied to satisfy the unpaid claims after the probate estate proved inadequate.
Phoebe Park died with a will leaving her net probate estate to her children. Her surviving spouse claimed an elective share that exceeded the nonprobate transfers. The court applied the remaining probate assets first to satisfy the unsatisfied balance of the elective share amount.
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Penelope Price created an inter vivos trust during life and retained a power to revoke it. At her death the trust held a house. The court held that the house never entered her probate estate because the power to revoke expired at death and title passed directly to the trust beneficiaries.
Parker Phillips died owning securities and a claim for unpaid wages. His executor sought to recover the wages in federal court. The Supreme Court held that the probate court retained exclusive jurisdiction over the assets that formed part of the decedent's probate estate.
Paula Pierce died without a will survived by her son Preston. The court determined that Preston qualified as a descendant under the applicable statute. The probate property therefore passed entirely to Preston by intestate succession.
Probate property consists of assets the decedent owned at death or the estate acquired afterward that require court-supervised administration. Nonprobate property passes directly to designated recipients by operation of law or contract and never enters the probate estate.
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Yes. After the settlor's death the property of a trust that was revocable at death is subject to the settlor's creditors to the extent the probate estate cannot satisfy the claims.
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Amounts in the decedent's net probate estate, other than assets passing to the surviving spouse by will or intestacy, are applied first to satisfy any remaining elective-share amount. Liability is apportioned among recipients in proportion to the value of their interests.
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Yes. Dividends, interest, rent, and posthumously awarded bonuses to which the decedent had no contractual right at death are included in the probate estate and subject to administration.
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…rather than overrule, Trimble v. Gordon , 430 U. S. 762 (1977), decided just the Term before last, and involving a small probate estate (an automobile worth approximately $2,500) and a sad and appealing fact situation. Four Members of the Court, like the Supreme Court of Illinois, found the case “constitutionally…