What is a probate and how does it compare to a trust administration?
Many persons elect to use a revocable inter vivos trust instead of just a last will and testament primarily to avoid a probate of part or all of their estates upon their death. Probate is a court-supervised process that has as its ultimate goal the transfer of property from an individual who has died (the “decedent”) to that individual’s beneficiaries who are identified in his/her last will and testament or, if the decedent died without a last will and testament in place, to that decedent’s heirs who are described and listed under California law. Administering a decedent’s estate via the probate process does provide advantages over the administration of a revocable living trust upon one’s death. However, most legal experts agree that administering a decedent’s estate via the probate process is more problematic and costly than via the administration of a revocable living trust upon one’s death. Generally, your “probate estate,” which is a subset of your gross estate, consists of all of
