Also known as: probate estates · probate property · probatable assets
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A decedent's property subject to administration by a personal representative. The probate estate comprises assets owned by the decedent at death together with property acquired by the estate after death. It is reduced by funeral expenses, administration costs, creditor claims, and statutory allowances to produce the net probate estate available for distribution to heirs or devisees.
Phoebe Park created a revocable trust holding investment accounts and later died owing substantial medical debts. Her probate estate contained only a modest checking account insufficient to pay the creditors. The trust assets therefore became available to satisfy the unpaid claims after the probate estate was exhausted.
Parker Phillips died leaving a will that gave his surviving spouse only a small bequest. The spouse elected against the will. The probate court first applied the net probate estate assets other than those passing to the spouse, then nonprobate transfers, to satisfy the unsatisfied elective-share amount in proportion to the recipients' interests.
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Paula Pierce transferred real estate into an inter vivos trust during her lifetime while retaining a power to revoke. After her death the personal representative sought to include the trust property in the probate estate for the surviving spouse's elective share. The court held the trust assets remained outside the probate estate because the trust was not testamentary.
Preston Pratt died intestate survived by a child born out of wedlock. The child petitioned to share in the probate estate. The court required proof of paternity under state law before recognizing the child as an heir entitled to take from the probate estate.
Paul Peterson's estate was being administered in state probate court when a beneficiary filed a federal diversity action claiming tortious interference with an inheritance. The federal court dismissed the claim under the probate exception because the dispute concerned rights to assets already within the probate estate.
The probate estate includes property the decedent owned at death and property acquired by the estate after death. Assets that pass by beneficiary designation, joint tenancy with right of survivorship, or revocable trust are excluded unless the trust becomes subject to claims under special statutes.
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The probate estate consists only of assets subject to probate administration. The augmented estate adds certain nonprobate transfers so that a surviving spouse's elective share can reach a broader pool of wealth.
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After the settlor's death, creditors may reach assets in a revocable trust to the extent the probate estate is inadequate to satisfy allowed claims, administration expenses, funeral costs, and statutory allowances.
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Yes. Dividends, interest, rent, and certain posthumous payments received by the estate become part of the probate estate even though the decedent had no right to them at death.
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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…