Probate handles asset distribution post-death; having a will simplifies this process. Assign beneficiaries for assets like life insurance to bypass probate. Creating a trust can avoid probate, ...

Julia Kagan is a financial/consumer journalist and former senior editor, personal finance, of Investopedia. Ebony Howard is a certified public accountant and a QuickBooks ProAdvisor tax expert. She ...

Julia Kagan is a financial/consumer journalist and former senior editor, personal finance, of Investopedia. Ebony Howard is a certified public accountant and a QuickBooks ProAdvisor tax expert. She ...

Definition of Formal Probate Formal probate is a court-supervised process where the validity of a deceased person's will is determined and their assets are distributed. It's often used when the ...

Using multiple wills to deal with assets in different jurisdictions is a common way to organize estates. But in some provinces, over the past 15 years the strategy has evolved into a tool for reducing ...