In the United States when someone dies there is a “probate” process, to oversee the registration of the title of assets that were owned by the deceased to the new owner. This process is completely separate from any tax procedures. There are separate probate courts for this process. The primary probate court will be the court located in the county in which the deceased was domiciled. If there is real estate in another jurisdiction there is also an extra (ancillary) probate proceeding in that county as well.
The first step taken by the probate court is to appoint an executor (sometimes called a “personal representative”) who will have the legal authority over all the assets. In U.S. states that have enacted the “Uniform Probate Code” (UPC), which are the majority of the states, there are several types of probate, including voluntary, unsupervised, and supervised, the latter meaning
the entire probate process will be supervised by the probate court. In a supervised probate, the executor will file the original will with the court together with an inventory of the assets and liabilities. The court will oversee the process of changing the legal title to all the assets.
