Death law varies by state.
Find yours.

Every guide covers the same ground for its state: the probate process and how to skip it with small estate shortcuts, the witness and notary rules that make a will valid, the state's advance directive and health care proxy forms, cremation and burial law, estate and inheritance taxes, transfer-on-death options for property and vehicles, and links to the official forms. All of it is built from primary sources: state statutes, court rules, and government sites.

Probate is the court process that moves a dead person's property to the living. A court confirms the will is valid (or applies state formulas if there isn't one), appoints someone to run the estate, makes sure debts and taxes get paid, and signs off on distributing what's left. Simple estates can clear in months; contested or messy ones can take years. A lot of planning ahead is really just probate avoidance.

Most states have neither. Twelve states and Washington, DC levy their own estate tax on top of the federal one, and five states tax the people who inherit, with Maryland doing both. Rates, exemptions, and who's exempt vary a lot, and they change. Your state's guide states which taxes apply where you live and links to the state revenue department's current numbers.

No, and this surprises people. Assets with a named beneficiary (life insurance, retirement accounts), jointly owned property with survivorship rights, transfer-on-death accounts and deeds, and anything held in a living trust all pass outside probate automatically. Many states also let small estates skip probate entirely with a simple affidavit. What counts as small ranges widely by state, which is exactly the kind of detail the guides exist for.

A will is instructions the probate court executes after you die: it names who gets what, who runs the estate, and who raises your kids. A living trust is a container you move property into while alive; when you die, the person you named hands things out directly, no court involved. Trusts cost more to set up and only work for assets you actually retitle into them. Plenty of people need only a will. Some genuinely benefit from a trust. Nobody benefits from having neither.

Almost certainly yes: states honor wills that were validly signed where you lived at the time. Valid is not the same as optimal. Your executor may face residency hurdles, community property and common law states treat spousal shares differently, and your old advance directive may not match the forms your new state's hospitals expect. Moving states is one of the standard triggers for reviewing your documents.

Probate opens in the state where they were domiciled, meaning their true home. Real estate in another state usually triggers a second, smaller proceeding there, called ancillary probate, with its own filings and fees. It's a common and expensive surprise for families with a cabin, a rental, or land across a state line, and it's avoidable with a transfer-on-death deed or a trust where those are available.

Each guide is reviewed on a monthly cadence, every external link is checked by an automated audit, and material changes are logged in a changelog you can read at the bottom of each guide. If you spot something a legislature changed before we did, tell us and we'll fix it with a correction note.