Question

Will is single and owns the following:

House, solely owned, FMV of $3,200,000
Auto, solely owned, FMV of $25,000
Stock Portfolio, solely owned, FMV $6,000,000
Bank account, JTWROS with his daughter, FMV $1.5 Million
401k vested account balance of $3.5 million, with his son being the beneficiary.

If Will died today what would be the value of his probate estate? What about the value of his gross estate? Please show your work.

Answer 1

A probate estate is all the assets a person owns at his or her death that are subject to probate administration. Probate administration is the process of proving to a probate court that the will is genuine. As per law, assets owned by the deceased in his own name, tenants in common and assets payable to the estate are the one which are included in the probate estate valuation. Accordingly, value of house ($ 3200000) + auto ($25000) + stock portfolio ($6000000) would be included in the value of probabte estate.

Bank accounts, JTWROS and 4015 vested account name with son as ben. shall not be included in the valuation of $ 9,225,000

Gross estate is the total dollar value of an individual’s property and assets at the time of their death. The gross estate figure does not reflect liabilities such as debt owed and taxes. When those charges are deducted, the sum figure represents the net value of individual’s estate. Thus value of gross estate include all of the above assets valuing $ 14,225,000