Do All Wills Go through the Probate Court System in Illinois?

No, all Wills do not automatically go through the Probate Court system in Illinois after the death of the Testator (the maker of the Will). To the contrary, a majority of estates in Illinois never need a Probate proceeding to be properly administered. Many times, an estate won’t need a Probate proceeding because the value of the Probate estate is not significant enough to need a Court process to administer it. For instance, if there is no real estate in a person’s estate, and the total value of the personal property does not exceed $100,000.00, a Probate case is likely not necessary in Illinois.

However, while all Wills do not go through the Probate system, all Wills do become public record upon the death of the Testator, and thus are required to be filed with the Court Clerk of the Testator’s local county of residence. This requirement to file the original Will must be fulfilled within 30 days of the Testator’s death, or when the person holding the original Will discovers that the Testator has passed away.

Does a Will avoid Probate Court in Illinois?

While a Will is an essential document in every estate plan, a Will does not avoid the Probate Court system in Illinois. If an individual desires to avoid the probate court system in Illinois, there are many ways to do this, such as:

• Holding assets jointly with others who survive the individual
• Gifting the property away before death
• Using a land trust to hold real estate
• Using a living trust to hold all of the property

Also, as previously mentioned, if the estate has no real estate, and if there is under $100,000.00 in personal property, the estate will likely not need to go through the probate court system anyway. Thus, in many situations, a basic Will suffices to properly direct the administration of the estate since the probate court process is not usually needed in a majority of cases.