What is probate? | Pacific Cascade Legal

What is a Probate? Probate is the legal process for which the Court oversees the implementation and administration of a decadent will. The process includes appointment of a personal representative to be the point of contact and the main person responsible for implementation of the will. And that person has a lot of duties, such as notifying government agencies taking possession of the decedent property and submitting filings with the Court, such as an inventory of the assets that the decedent owned at the time of their death. And the personal representative is the one that is responsible for ensuring that all of the tasks are completed through the course of the probate period.

Their primary job in all of this, from the Court's perspective, is ensuring that all creditors of the estate have been notified of the decedent's death. And so there are differences between whether the person knows of the creditor or if they don't know the creditor. There's a requirement to publish a notice in the local newspaper. Once the Court is satisfied that we know who owes money for the deceit and owed money to rather, then the Court can issue authorization and start making distributions. And eventually we can get that task accomplished and close out the and discharge the personal representative.