What Exactly is an Estate?

[Music] is Keith Davidson at Albertson and Davidson in this video I'm tackling a relatively easy question in my mind which is what is an estate but in fact the question is a little bit more complicated than at first blush it sounds like because an estate can mean a lot of different things a lot of times people will think that well my estate is all of the assets I own and that is one use of the word estate but in the legal field we also use a state to mean something else which is a probate estate so assets that pass under a will or assets that pass by intestate succession where there is no will that's what we would call a probate estate it's the assets that have to go through the probate process which is really just a court process for transferring assets to the next generation you can also have a trusts estate a trust estate are all the assets that are inside of a trust and then are going to pass down to the trust beneficiaries you can also have an estate tax an estate that is subject to estate tax and the IRS will want to know what was the decedent's gross estate and when the IRS talks about a state they want to know everything that somebody owned they don't care if it's in a trust will or otherwise they look at all of your assets and that's what they use to determine the amount of your estate tax so the word estate is a little tricky because it can be used a lot of different contexts but generally speaking it refers to the group of assets that apply to the situation whether it be a trust a will taxes whatever may be the case albertson and Davidson is here to help you fight for your inheritance check out al Dave law calm for our complete library of helpful legal videos and articles from your favorite California trusts and we'll litigation law firm Albertson and Davidson LLP.[Music]