What is an Estate?
Your estate consists of all money and property you own in your own name at the time of your death. For example, if you own your home with your spouse as "tenants by the entirety" or with any person as a "joint tenant" with rights of survivorship, your home will not pass under the terms of your will. It will automatically go to the surviving joint tenant or tenants even if your will is emphatic that you do not want that to happen. The same result applies to bank accounts that are owned jointly with someone else or which have been set up as so-called "POD" (Payable on Death) accounts.Some people erroneously think they have put in place a sensible distribution of their estate in their will only to be thwarted in their intentions because they failed to
properly correct the ownership records and title documents to their bank accounts and other property.
What Is a Trust?
A fiduciary relationship in which one party, known as a trustor, gives another party, the trustee, the right to hold title to property or assets for the benefit of a third party, the beneficiary.
There are two types of trusts:
1. Living Trust: A trust that is in effect during the trustor's lifetime.
2. Testamentary Trust: A trust that is created through the will of a deceased person.
What Is Probate?
The legal process in which a will is reviewed to determine whether it is valid and authentic. Probate also refers to the general administering of a deceased person's will or the estate of a deceased person without a will. The court appoints either an executor named in the will (or an administrator if there is no will) to administer the process of collecting the assets of the deceased person, paying any liabilities remaining on the person's estate and finally distributing the assets of the estate to beneficiaries named in the will or determined as such by the executor.
