When your loved one passes away without leaving a will behind, their estate’s probate process will follow their state’s specific intestate succession laws. In this process, the court will appoint an administrator who will manage your loved one’s property distribution among their closest family members.
To help provide a better understanding of this topic, here are two key factors about Washington State’s intestate succession laws that you should know about:
How do courts administer probate when there is no will?
Since your loved one died intestate (passed away without a will), their property shall be distributed using Washington State’s intestate succession laws. During this legal procedure, their closest surviving family members will be the first in line to receive their probate assets and property.
Depending on the size of their estate and their family’s acceptance or rejection over how the assets were allocated, your loved one’s estate administration may take several months or years to complete.
Will all assets go through probate?
Not all assets owned by your loved one will go through probate. Since probate assets only pertain to assets that they owned during the time of their death, other assets that were placed on a living trust and/or a transfer-on-death deed (TODD) will bypass probate.
Four other types of nonprobate assets include:
- Life insurance policy proceeds
- Jointly held property with rights of survivorship
- Retirement accounts
- Payable-on-death (POD) bank accounts
Since these assets already have designated beneficiaries, they are no longer assets owned by the deceased.
A helping hand in times of difficulty
As you navigate through grief and slowly try to manage your loved one’s probate, you may come across some legal hurdles that can put a heavy strain on your mental and emotional well-being.
If at any point it starts to feel overwhelming, it is important to know that you can always depend on a lawyer for legal support and empathetic guidance over your loved one’s estate administration process.