What would you like to read first?
Pick a focus, get a reading list
All guides in this topic
8 guides
Planning ahead
After a death
- After a death: the first few weeksDeath certificates, finding the will, protecting property and who to notify.
- Transferring property without full probateSmall-estate affidavits, the primary-residence petition and spousal property petitions.
- How formal probate worksThe court process from petition to final distribution, and what the personal representative does.
When there’s a trust
Words to know
- Administrator
- The person the court appoints to handle an estate when no executor is named or able to serve.
- Beneficiary
- A person or organization named to receive property under a will, trust, or account.
- Decedent
- The person who died.
- Estate
- Everything the decedent owned at death.
- Executor
- The person named in a will to handle the estate.
- Heir
- A person entitled to inherit under state law when there is no will.
- Intestate
- Dying without a valid will.
- Letters
- The court document that proves a personal representative’s authority to act.
- Lodging a will
- Delivering the original will to the superior court clerk.
- Personal representative
- The general term for an executor or administrator.
- Probate
- The court process for handling a decedent’s estate.
- Successor trustee
- The person who takes over managing a trust, often after the settlor’s death.