When a person dies everything they owned becomes their estate. Probate is the process through which the estate of a deceased person is administered and their assets distributed by the courts according to their Last Will and Testament, or if there is no Will, according to the State’s laws of Intestacy.
If the deceased left a Last Will and Testament detailing how they want their assets to be distributed, then the estate is said to be Testate. On the other hand, if it is confirmed that there is no Will, the estate is Intestate and the assets will be distributed to the deceased’s heirs based on the State’s laws of Intestacy.
To start off the probate process in Pennsylvania, the proposed representative will file a Petition for Probate in the county where the decedent resided. The goal of this filing is to approve a personal representative to act on behalf of the deceased and administer their assets. If the estate is Testate, the executor named in the Will should be appointed as personal representative. If the estate is Intestate, the Court will appoint an Administrator from the deceased’s family to act as personal representative.
Once the personal representative has been selected he/she will have to send notices alerting all beneficiaries listed in the Will, or if the estate is Intestate all eligible heirs, that the probate process has begun. In some instances, the representative will be required to give notice to potential heirs through certified mail or by publishing a general notice in the newspaper.
Next the representative will assemble all the assets of the deceased and liquidate them when necessary. Some assets (such as property transferred to a living trust, life insurance payable to a named beneficiary, jointly held property with a surviving co-owner) are excluded from the probate process. Once all assets have been collected, the representative will commence paying all the debts of the estate such as credit card bills, utility bills, loans, funeral expenses etc. Next, the Pennsylvania Inheritance Tax and Federal Estate Taxes (where applicable) must all be paid from the estate’s assets. Any assets left after all debts, fees and taxes have been paid is called the residual estate and is then distributed among the beneficiaries of the deceased’s Will or the Intestate heirs.
To summarize the probate process:
- The Petition for Probate is filed by the named executor in the Will or a close family member if no Will is found
- A personal representative is appointed by the Court to administer the estate
- All of the deceased’s assets are assembled
- All of the deceased’s debts are assembled. The costs involved in the probate process (attorney and probate fees) as well as estate taxes are calculated.
- The debts, probate costs and estate taxes are paid from the assets of the estate
- The residual estate is distributed to the beneficiaries named in the deceased’s Will or according to intestate succession