Probate and Estate Administration: From Death to Final Distribution

Summary. This article explains what probate is and what passes outside it, when a simplified procedure applies, how a personal representative is appointed and what duties attach, how creditor claims work and why the notice period is the case's most important deadline, intestate succession, what a surviving spouse can claim regardless of the will, inventory and tax, and how administration closes.

Probate is the legal process most families encounter exactly once, at the worst possible moment, with no preparation. It has a reputation for being slow, expensive, and to be avoided at all costs — a reputation that is partly earned and substantially oversold by people selling the alternatives.

Here is the honest version. Probate is a court-supervised process for doing three things: establishing who is authorized to act for a dead person, paying what that person owed, and transferring what is left to the people entitled to it. For a straightforward estate with a valid will, cooperative family, and no litigation, it is largely paperwork on a schedule, and in many states it can be handled without a lawyer. For an estate with contested claims, an unhappy heir, real property in three states, or a business, it is a lawsuit that lasts years.

This article covers the process in the order it happens, and it flags the deadlines that cannot be missed.

Part I: What actually goes through probate

The first and most important distinction: most wealth in the United States passes outside probate, and the estate's size on paper frequently bears no relation to the size of the probate estate.

Non-probate transfers pass by operation of law or by contract, regardless of what the will says:

Joint tenancy with right of survivorship and tenancy by the entirety — the survivor takes automatically.
Beneficiary designations — life insurance, retirement accounts, annuities, and health savings accounts pass to the named beneficiary.
Payable-on-death and transfer-on-death accounts, and in many states transfer-on-death deeds for real property and TOD registration for vehicles.
Assets titled in a revocable living trust, which is the point of one.
Community property with right of survivorship, where recognized.

The will controls only the probate estate — property titled in the decedent's sole name with no beneficiary designation and no survivorship feature. This is the fact that surprises families most: a carefully drafted will leaving everything equally to three children accomplishes nothing if the accounts name one child as beneficiary. Beneficiary designations and titling beat the will, every time.

What is left for probate is typically: a house or land titled solely in the decedent's name; bank and brokerage accounts with no POD or TOD designation; vehicles; personal property; business interests; and any claim the decedent had against someone else.

Part II: The simplified procedures

Before assuming full administration is required, check whether one of three shortcuts applies. Most estates qualify for one, and most families never learn that.

The small estate affidavit. Available in nearly every state for estates below a threshold — which ranges from around $20,000 to well over $150,000 depending on the state, and which frequently excludes the value of real property, vehicles, or exempt assets from the calculation. After a short waiting period (often 30 to 45 days from death), a successor signs a sworn affidavit and presents it to the bank, the transfer agent, or the DMV, which transfers the asset without any court involvement at all. No filing, no hearing, no letters, no lawyer.

Summary or simplified administration, for slightly larger estates or where the sole beneficiary is a surviving spouse. It involves a court filing but compresses the process, sometimes eliminating the inventory, the creditor claim period, or the accounting.

Determination of heirship or a muniment of title, available in some states where there are no unpaid debts and the only need is to clear title to real property.

Why this matters: the difference between full administration and a small estate affidavit is measured in months and thousands of dollars. Ask the clerk about the threshold and what counts toward it before filing anything.

Part III: Opening the estate

Where. In the county where the decedent was domiciled at death. If real property sits in another state, an ancillary probate is opened there as well — one of the strongest practical arguments for holding out-of-state real property in a trust or with a transfer-on-death deed.

Who may serve. The person nominated in the will, if qualified. Where there is no will, statutes set an order of priority: surviving spouse, then adult children, then parents, then siblings, then other heirs, then creditors. Most states disqualify minors, incapacitated persons, and — in many jurisdictions — persons convicted of a felony, and some restrict non-residents or require them to appoint an in-state agent.

Terminology. The person appointed is the personal representative, called an executor where nominated in a will and an administrator where appointed without one. The distinction matters less than it used to; the duties are the same.

The petition asks the court to admit the will to probate (if there is one) and to appoint the representative. It is accompanied by the original will, a death certificate, a list of heirs and devisees with addresses, and a bond unless the will waives it or the heirs consent.

Proving the will. A self-proving affidavit — signed by the testator and witnesses before a notary at execution — allows the will to be admitted without live testimony, and it is the single most valuable thing a well-drafted will contains. Without one, a witness must testify or the will must be proved by other means.

Letters testamentary or letters of administration are the court's certificate of the representative's authority. Order six to ten certified copies at the outset; every bank, brokerage, insurer, and title company will want one, and most will not accept a photocopy.

Part IV: The duties that attach on appointment

The representative is a fiduciary, and the duties are strict and personal.

Loyalty. Act solely in the interest of the estate and its beneficiaries. No self-dealing — a purchase of estate property by the representative is voidable unless authorized by the will, by all beneficiaries, or by the court.
Care. Manage the estate as a prudent person would, including preserving and insuring assets.
Impartiality among beneficiaries.
Segregation. Open a separate estate bank account with its own tax identification number. Never commingle, and never use estate funds personally even briefly with the intention of repaying.
Recordkeeping and accounting — every receipt and disbursement, documented.
Reasonable promptness.

Personal liability is real. A representative who distributes before creditor claims are resolved can be personally liable for the unpaid claims. So can one who fails to file a tax return, allows insurance to lapse before a fire, or invests imprudently. This is why the sequence in Part V is not optional.

Compensation is available — a statutory percentage, a reasonable fee, or as the will provides — and is taxable income to the recipient. A family member who is also a beneficiary frequently waives it, since a bequest is not taxable income and a fee is.

Part V: Creditors — the deadline that organizes everything

This is the most important part of the administration and the least understood.

The representative must give notice to creditors: published notice in a newspaper of general circulation, and direct written notice to every creditor who is reasonably ascertainable. That second requirement is constitutional, not merely statutory — publication alone is inadequate notice to a known creditor.

The claim period then runs — commonly three to six months from first publication, with a shorter period from actual notice — after which unfiled claims are barred. Nearly every state also imposes an outside limit measured from the date of death regardless of notice.

Claims are then allowed or disallowed, and a disallowed claimant must sue within a short period or lose the claim.

Payment follows a statutory priority, which the representative must observe and which typically runs: costs of administration; funeral expenses; the family and homestead allowances; debts with a federal preference (including federal taxes); last illness expenses; and finally general unsecured claims. If the estate is insolvent, paying a lower-priority creditor exposes the representative personally.

Secured creditors are outside this scheme to the extent of their collateral — a mortgage follows the property.

Do not distribute early. A representative who hands the beneficiaries their shares before the claim period closes and the taxes are resolved has assumed personal liability for whatever arrives afterward. This is the single most common serious mistake in the field, and it is usually made out of kindness to grieving relatives.

Part VI: Intestate succession

When there is no valid will, the state's statute supplies one. The details vary, but the architecture is nearly universal:

Surviving spouse and descendants take first, in proportions that vary — the entire estate to the spouse where all descendants are also the spouse's; a share to the spouse and the remainder to descendants where there are children from another relationship.
Descendants take by representation where there is no spouse. The mechanics differ between per stirpes, per capita at each generation, and modern per stirpes, and the differences produce materially different shares in blended families.
Parents, then siblings and their descendants, then grandparents and their descendants.
Escheat to the state, which is genuinely rare.

Recurring complications: adopted children generally inherit from adoptive parents and not from biological ones; children born outside marriage inherit where paternity is established; stepchildren generally do not inherit absent adoption; posthumously conceived children are addressed by statute in a growing number of states; and a slayer statute bars a person who feloniously and intentionally kills the decedent from inheriting.

Part VII: What a spouse and family can claim regardless of the will

Several protections override the will's terms.

The elective share. In most non-community-property states, a surviving spouse may elect against the will and take a statutory share — commonly one-third, and in states following the modern Uniform Probate Code approach, a percentage scaled to the length of the marriage and computed against an augmented estate that includes non-probate transfers. The election has a short deadline, frequently six to nine months from death or from appointment, and it is one of the easiest deadlines in probate to miss.

Homestead and exempt property, protecting a residence or a stated value of household goods and personal effects from creditors and from the will's dispositions.

The family allowance, a sum for the support of the spouse and minor children during administration, payable ahead of most creditors.

Pretermitted heirs. A child born or adopted after the will was executed, and not provided for, generally takes an intestate share. Some states extend similar protection to a spouse married after execution.

In community property states, the surviving spouse already owns half the community property, and the decedent may dispose only of the other half.

Part VIII: Inventory, valuation, and taxes

The inventory lists everything in the probate estate with values as of the date of death, filed with the court and served on interested persons within a statutory period. Real property, business interests, and unusual assets require appraisal.

The tax picture has four parts, and a representative who misses one of them is personally exposed.

The decedent's final income tax return (Form 1040) for the year of death, due on the ordinary date.

The estate's income tax return (Form 1041) for income earned by the estate during administration — interest, dividends, rents, gains — required above a low threshold.

The federal estate tax return (Form 706), required under 26 U.S.C. § 6018 where the gross estate plus adjusted taxable gifts exceeds the basic exclusion amount, which is very high and inflation-adjusted, so that only a small fraction of estates owe the tax. It is due nine months after death, extendable six months for filing but not for payment. Two elections matter: the alternate valuation date under 26 U.S.C. § 2032, permitting valuation six months after death where doing so reduces both the gross estate and the tax; and portability, an election to transfer a deceased spouse's unused exclusion to the survivor, which requires filing a return even when no tax is owed — the most commonly missed election in estate practice.

The marital deduction under 26 U.S.C. § 2056 allows an unlimited deduction for property passing to a surviving spouse, subject to the terminable interest rules and the QTIP election.

State estate and inheritance taxes exist in a minority of states, frequently with far lower thresholds than the federal one, and an inheritance tax is imposed on the recipient rather than the estate.

The basis step-up is the sleeper issue. Property included in the gross estate takes a basis equal to its date-of-death value, eliminating unrealized gain. This is frequently worth more to a family than any probate avoidance strategy, and it is a reason not to give appreciated property away during life.

Disclaimers. A beneficiary may refuse an inheritance under 26 U.S.C. § 2518, and if the refusal is qualified — in writing, within nine months, without having accepted any benefit, and passing without the disclaimant's direction — the property is treated as never having been transferred to them. This is a powerful post-mortem planning tool and the deadline is absolute.

Part IX: Closing the estate

The accounting reports every receipt, disbursement, distribution, and fee, and is served on interested persons who may object. In many states, beneficiaries may waive the formal accounting by written consent, which saves substantial time and cost where the family is in agreement.

Final distribution occurs after: the claim period has closed and claims are resolved; all taxes are filed and paid, ideally with closing letters or the equivalent; the accounting is approved or waived; and receipts and releases are obtained from each distributee.

Then the representative is discharged by court order, which terminates the fiduciary role and the exposure that comes with it. Obtain the discharge order and keep it permanently — it is the document that answers a claim made three years later.

Timeline. A simple, uncontested estate closes in six to twelve months in most states, with the creditor claim period and the tax filings setting the floor. Contested estates, estates with litigation, and estates with hard-to-value assets run for years.

Part X: What goes wrong

Will contests are brought on grounds of lack of capacity, undue influence, fraud, duress, improper execution, revocation, or forgery. They are difficult and expensive, and the classic fact pattern — an isolated elderly person, a confidential relationship, an unnatural disposition, and a beneficiary who arranged the lawyer — is what shifts burdens in most states. No-contest clauses deter challenges by forfeiting a gift, but most states decline to enforce them where the contest was brought with probable cause.

Breach of fiduciary duty claims against the representative: self-dealing, commingling, failing to account, imprudent management, favoring one beneficiary, and unreasonable delay.

Missing or contested assets, and property the decedent held in someone else's name.

Family conflict, which is the real reason most estates take longer than they should. A great deal of what looks like a legal dispute is a personal one being conducted through pleadings, and mediation resolves these far better than litigation does.

Part XI: Managing particular assets

Most of the work of an administration is not legal. It is operational, and six categories account for nearly all of it.

The house. Confirm the insurance is in force and tell the carrier the property is unoccupied — nearly every homeowners policy has a vacancy provision that suspends coverage after 30 or 60 days, and a fire in an uninsured estate house is the worst thing that happens in this field. Keep utilities on to prevent freezing and mold. Continue the mortgage payments; a lender is not obliged to wait, and the [Garn-St Germain] protections that let a surviving relative assume the loan apply on transfer to a relative who occupies, not to an estate that lets the loan default. Decide early whether the house will be sold or distributed, because a sale by the estate and a sale by the beneficiaries after distribution have different tax and procedural consequences.

Bank and brokerage accounts. Present certified letters and open a single estate account. Do not close accounts before checking for automatic deposits and debits — a pension deposit received after death frequently must be returned, and an unnoticed autopay can drain an account for a service nobody is using.

Retirement accounts. These pass by beneficiary designation, outside probate, and the rules for what a beneficiary may do differ sharply between a surviving spouse, a non-spouse individual, a trust, and the estate itself. The worst outcome is the estate as beneficiary, which typically forces the fastest distribution and the largest tax. Tell the beneficiaries not to take a distribution before getting advice; an irreversible election made in the first month can cost tens of thousands.

Vehicles. Most states have a simplified title transfer for estates, and many allow transfer on an affidavit without probate at all. Maintain insurance until title moves.

A business. This is the category that most often requires counsel immediately. Check the operating or partnership agreement for a buy-sell provision triggered by death, whether there is key-person insurance funding it, who has authority to operate in the interim, and whether the representative has power to continue the business — many wills grant it expressly and, absent that grant, continuing to operate can itself be a breach of duty.

Digital assets. Access is governed in most states by the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, under which the provider's online tool controls first, then the will or trust, then the terms of service. Practically: look for a legacy contact or inactive account manager designation, gather the device passcodes, and do not use the decedent's credentials to log in to accounts — the statute provides the lawful route, and using someone else's credentials can violate computer access laws even with good intentions. See Digital Assets in Estate Planning.

Part XII: When the estate is insolvent

An estate with more debts than assets is a different proceeding, and the representative's exposure is at its highest.

Recognize it early. Total the reasonably ascertainable debts before paying anything beyond funeral expenses and immediate preservation costs. If the numbers are close, treat the estate as insolvent until proved otherwise.

Then pay strictly in statutory priority, which typically runs: costs of administration; funeral expenses within a statutory limit; family and homestead allowances; federal claims including taxes, which carry a statutory preference; expenses of last illness; state taxes; and finally general unsecured claims, paid pro rata if the class cannot be paid in full. Paying a general creditor while a higher class goes unpaid makes the representative personally liable for the shortfall, and good faith is not a defense.

Secured creditors stand outside the scheme to the extent of their collateral. Where the collateral is worth less than the debt, the deficiency drops into the unsecured class.

Consider whether to administer at all. In some states a representative may decline appointment, or may petition to have the estate declared insolvent and administered summarily. Where the only substantial asset is an exempt homestead passing to a surviving spouse, opening a full administration may accomplish nothing but generate fees.

What families need to hear. Children are not liable for a parent's debts, and collectors who imply otherwise are frequently violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Exceptions exist: a co-signer is liable on that debt; a spouse may be liable in a community property state or under a necessaries doctrine; and a person who received estate property before creditors were paid may have to return it. See Debt Collection and the FDCPA.

And Medicaid estate recovery is its own claim. Where the decedent received long-term care benefits at age 55 or older, the state will file, and the deferrals and hardship waivers are worth checking. See Elder Law and Long-Term Care.

Part XIII: The representative's own protection

A personal representative is personally exposed, and five practices reduce that exposure to nearly nothing.

1. Follow the sequence. Notice, claim period, taxes, accounting, distribution — in that order. Nearly every claim against a representative arises from distributing early.

2. Document everything, contemporaneously. Every receipt, every disbursement, every decision and why. A representative who can produce a clean ledger and a file of receipts is defending an accounting; one who cannot is defending themselves.

3. Communicate with beneficiaries in writing, on a schedule. Most fiduciary litigation is generated by silence. A short quarterly email — here is what has happened, here is what is next, here is why it is taking this long — prevents more disputes than any legal filing.

4. Get court approval for anything unusual. A sale to a family member, continuing a business, a compromise of a claim, an unusual investment, an advance to a beneficiary. Court approval converts a judgment call into a protected act.

5. Obtain releases and the discharge order. Receipts and releases from each distributee at distribution, and the final discharge order from the court. Keep both permanently. Together they answer a claim brought three years later, which does happen.

Two more, worth stating plainly. Buy or maintain adequate insurance on estate property, and consider a fiduciary bond even where the will waives it if the estate is large or the family is contentious. And if you are in over your head, say so early — a representative may resign, and a successor may be appointed, and doing that in month two is inexpensive while doing it in month twenty is not.

Part XIII-A: Trusts, and what administration looks like without probate

A funded revocable trust avoids probate, and it does not avoid administration. The successor trustee does substantially the same work, without court supervision — which is faster and cheaper, and which removes the court's protection along with its oversight.

What the successor trustee must still do: obtain a tax identification number for the now-irrevocable trust; marshal and value the assets; notify beneficiaries as the state statute requires (many states impose a notice with a short limitations period for contesting the trust — often 90 to 120 days, and it runs only if the notice is given, which is a strong reason to give it); pay debts, expenses, and taxes; file the decedent's final income tax return and the trust's fiduciary return; keep records; account to beneficiaries; and distribute.

What is different, and better: no court filing, no public docket, no inventory filed with a clerk, no waiting for a hearing date, and no ancillary proceeding for out-of-state real property that the trust holds.

What is different, and worse: no court order approving an accounting, and therefore no order cutting off beneficiary claims unless one is sought; no statutory creditor claim bar in most states, so debts may surface later — several states now provide an optional trust creditor-claim procedure and it is worth using; and no judicial resolution of a deadlock, so a trustee facing a genuinely contested question must file a petition for instructions.

The failure that recurs. A trust avoids probate only as to assets it owns. A trust executed in 2011 and never funded — the house never deeded in, the brokerage account never retitled — avoids nothing, and the family discovers this at the worst moment. Most estates that go through probate despite having a trust go there because of unfunded assets, and the cure is a pour-over will that catches them, which still requires probate to operate.

The practical instruction for anyone with a trust: verify the titling of every asset, annually. Deeds, account registrations, business interests, and — critically — assets acquired after the trust was signed. Retirement accounts and life insurance remain governed by beneficiary designations and generally should not be retitled into a trust without advice, because naming a trust as beneficiary of a retirement account has significant tax consequences.

And for the trustee: the duties are the same fiduciary duties described in Part IV, and the exposure is the same. See Trust Administration and the Trustee's Duties.

Part XIII-B: Three estates, three paths

The estate that never went to court. Ruth dies at 84 with a checking account of $9,400, a car, household goods, and a home she and her late husband had transferred to a transfer-on-death deed naming their two children. She had named her children as payable-on-death beneficiaries on the account years earlier.

What happens. The TOD deed transfers the house on recording an affidavit and a death certificate. The POD designation transfers the account on presentation of a death certificate. The vehicle transfers on the state's estate affidavit. There is no probate estate at all, and the entire administration is four documents and about six weeks.

What made it work was titling done years earlier — not a will, and not a trust.

The estate that needed the notice period. Daniel dies at 61 with a house in his sole name, a brokerage account with no beneficiary, a small business, and a set of medical bills nobody has totaled. His will names his sister.

What happens. She petitions, is appointed, and orders eight certified copies of the letters. She publishes notice, sends direct written notice to eight known creditors, and waits. Two claims arrive; one is disallowed and the claimant does not sue within the short period, so it is barred. She files the final 1040 and the estate's 1041, sells the house through the estate, obtains beneficiary waivers of the formal accounting, distributes with receipts and releases, and closes.

Elapsed time: eleven months, of which four were the creditor claim period. Her only serious risk was distributing early, and she did not.

The estate that took four years. Margaret dies with a $2.1 million estate, a will executed eleven months before her death leaving most of it to a caregiver, and three adult children who had not been told.

What happens. The children contest on undue influence and capacity. The classic elements are present — isolation, a confidential relationship, an unnatural disposition, and a beneficiary who arranged the lawyer — which shifts the burden in the state. Discovery reaches medical records, the drafting attorney's file, and the caregiver's finances. The estate cannot be distributed while it is pending, the house sits empty and must be maintained and insured, and fees accumulate on both sides.

It settles in year three, at mediation, on terms nobody would have accepted at the beginning and everyone would have accepted at the end.

The pattern across all three: the outcome was determined years before the death, by how assets were titled and by whether the family had been told what to expect. Probate is where those earlier decisions become visible, not where they are made.

Part XIII-C: Ancillary and multistate estates

Real property is governed by the law of the state where it sits, and that single rule generates most of the complexity in estates that cross state lines.

Domiciliary administration is opened where the decedent was domiciled at death — a question of fact turning on residence plus intent to remain, evidenced by the driver's license, voter registration, tax returns, where the person actually slept, and where their doctors and community were. Domicile can be contested, and it matters: it determines which state's intestacy and elective share law applies, which state taxes the estate, and where the primary proceeding sits. A person who splits the year between two states should establish domicile deliberately and consistently rather than leaving it to be litigated.

Ancillary administration is a separate proceeding in each other state where the decedent owned real property. It requires a local filing, often local counsel, sometimes a local representative, and its own creditor notice — and it produces a second set of fees and a second timeline.

How to avoid it, in order of preference: hold the out-of-state property in a revocable trust, which owns it in every state at once; use a transfer-on-death deed where the state recognizes one; or hold it with a survivorship feature. All three are done during life, cost little, and eliminate the problem entirely.

Where ancillary administration is unavoidable, three practical points. Many states have a simplified procedure for a domiciliary representative already appointed elsewhere — filing authenticated copies of the will and the letters rather than starting over. Order exemplified or triple-certified copies from the domiciliary court, since ordinary certified copies are frequently rejected. And check whether the ancillary state requires the representative to be a resident or to appoint an in-state agent.

Tangible personal property in another state generally follows the domiciliary administration, and intangible property — accounts, securities — is administered at the domicile regardless of where the institution sits.

Multistate tax exposure is the other cost. A minority of states impose estate or inheritance taxes, frequently with thresholds far below the federal exclusion, and a state may tax real property located there even where the decedent was domiciled elsewhere. A person owning property in a state with an inheritance tax should know that before their heirs do.

And the recurring surprise: timeshares, mineral interests, and small parcels of land inherited generations ago. Each can require its own ancillary proceeding, and the cost of clearing title can exceed the value of the asset. Where that is true, a disclaimer under 26 U.S.C. § 2518, filed within nine months, is sometimes the right answer.

Part XIV: Frequently asked questions

How long does probate take? Six to twelve months for a simple estate. Longer with real property in multiple states, a business, a contest, or a taxable estate.

Do I need a lawyer? Not always. Small estate procedures are designed for self-representation, and several states permit informal administration with minimal court involvement. Get counsel where there is real property, a business, an insolvent estate, a possible contest, or a taxable estate.

What does it cost? Court fees are modest. Attorney's fees are either a statutory percentage of the estate, an hourly rate, or a flat fee depending on the state — ask which applies before engaging.

Can we avoid probate entirely? Often, through beneficiary designations, joint titling, transfer-on-death deeds, and a funded revocable trust. Note that a trust must be funded — an unfunded trust avoids nothing, and this is the most common failure in estate planning.

Are the beneficiaries liable for the debts? Generally no. Debts are paid from the estate. A beneficiary who receives a distribution before creditors are paid may have to return it, and a co-signer or a community property spouse may be independently liable.

What if there is no money to pay everything? The estate is insolvent, and claims are paid in statutory priority order. Do not pay any creditor out of order — the representative is personally liable if they do.

Do I have to accept an inheritance? No. A qualified disclaimer under § 2518 must be in writing, within nine months, and made before accepting any benefit.

Part XV: For families — the first thirty days

Order ten to fifteen certified death certificates. Every institution wants an original.
Secure the property — the house, the vehicles, the valuables — and confirm the insurance is in force and that the carrier knows the property is now vacant. Vacancy exclusions have destroyed estates.
Find the original will, the trust documents, and the deeds. Check the safe deposit box (which may require a court order), the attorney who drafted them, and the county's will deposit registry if the state has one.
Do not distribute anything, including personal items, until you know whether the estate is solvent and who is entitled.
Do not pay debts personally or from your own funds. Creditors will call; tell them the estate is being administered and to submit a claim.
Make a list of assets and how each is titled, and identify the beneficiary designations. This tells you the size of the probate estate, which drives everything.
Contact the Social Security Administration (a funeral home usually reports the death), any pension plan, the VA if there was military service, and every insurer.
Ask the clerk about the small estate threshold before filing a full administration.
Open an estate account with its own tax ID once you are appointed, and run everything through it.
Keep every receipt, from day one, including for the funeral.

Primary authority

Marshall v. Marshall, 547 U.S. 293 (2006) — the narrow scope of the "probate exception" to federal jurisdiction.
26 U.S.C. § 6018 — estate tax returns.
26 U.S.C. § 2010 — the unified credit and the portability election.
26 U.S.C. § 2032 — alternate valuation.
26 U.S.C. § 2056 — the marital deduction.
26 U.S.C. § 2518 — qualified disclaimers and the nine-month deadline.
The Uniform Probate Code and the Uniform Trust Code as adopted; state intestacy, elective share, homestead, family allowance, creditor claim, and small estate statutes; state estate and inheritance tax statutes.