How does estate handling work?

Question

My father recently passed away. If there is no will how does the handling of his estate work .Does it fall to the children if there is no wife? He also owned his own business, and it was only him, there were no partners, how does this come into play?

Answer 1

Depends where you are, but in the U.S. if there's no will then it goes to the courts for probate, which takes more than a year, and the court decides based on a standard formula. The system is a good argument for making a will and, in your father's case, it would have helped if he created a trust with the help of a lawyer.