What happens to my property when I die?

We can only give a general answer to this question, because no two estates are identical.  What happens to a given piece of property in your estate will be determined first, by how the property is titled, and second, by the total amount of property that is titled in your name as an individual (versus your name as trustee of your trust, or as a joint tenant, for instance).  Property that is part of your trust, that passes to a joint tenant, or that passes by beneficiary designation will not be part of your probate estate at all. As a result, that property will be transferred, in most cases, using forms instead of seeking court authorization.  If, however, you left property that was titled in your name alone, some form of court authorization will most likely need to be sought.