Hi there my name is Steve Tracy I'm an attorney licensed for over 20 years and I'm here to talk to you today about the differences between the affidavit of heirship and probate let's start with an overview as an overview every government has actually worked hard believe it or not to try to figure out what would be your intent if you died and kept your will a secret in this regard they assume that your family your wife your children your husband will get most of your property if not all of it and that's where we come to the affidavit of heirship this is a very simple document that says I am an heir of the person who died an heir means I get some of their stuff this form is only allowed in certain states in which those states have decided that it would be easier to do the single form then go through the probate process in every case it generally will not be used for anything of significant value probate on the other hand goes through the courts and transfers legal title to property into the correct name probate is generally required for recorded titles such as automobiles and land land titles have to be passed by written instrument and the affidavit of heirship is rarely used for this purpose many states have a blend between the two it's called a light probate and easy probate or a quick probate or a summary probate depending on the state and those states the summary probate is available to people who two years has gone by since someone passed away nobody filed any papers on them and with just two or three pieces of paper to the court they will determine the rightful heir of all the property and stamp a final decree and you are done very quickly and very inexpensively in this case the government is not trying to take advantage of you there trying to help you and you will find great help in the probate department of every county courthouse from hard-working people who understand you're going through a difficult time you can find me at Steve Tracy law comm and I've been telling you about the difference between heirship and probate
