If a parent dies and leaves a will, do you have to put it in probate?

Question

All of their items were owned jointly.

Everything they own is joint and they live in New Hampshire.

Answer 1

I assume you are referring to a transfer to a mate (wife/husband).

There will be no probate in that case, just a transfer of assets to a surviving spouse. All that is needed is a death certificate and an ID of the survivor for the asset holders.

Answer 2

Some states have statutory provisions for distributing small estates without going through probate.

California, for instance, has a procedure in which a small estate can be distributed by means of an affidavit. Blank affidavits can be downloaded from the county superior court website. The provisions are codified beginning with California Probate Code section 13000.

Also, property can be passed to a surviving spouse without probate in many instances. Those procedures are in Probate Code section 13500.

So, the answer to your question is....it depends.

Answer 3

Yes -- probate is the process of determining whether the will is valid, and how the property get distributed -- whether based on the will or by operation of law.

In many states, joint ownership of property acts outside the will -- and independently of the will. But the probate process is still needed to determine that.