A will does not avoid probate in Pennsylvania

Estate Planning Myth - a will avoids probate

A will does not avoid probate. In Pennsylvania, a will is the document that gets probated.

Probate is the process, centered at the Register of Wills in the county where the person lived, of proving the will, appointing someone to act, and supervising the transfer of property that was in the decedent's name alone. The Register issues letters of testamentary to the executor named in the will. Banks, brokerages, and title companies ask for those letters before they will retitle a solely owned account, or a solely owned house. The will tells them who should receive letters, and who should receive what is left. It does not excuse the family from going.

That is not an argument against wills. A will is the right document for a great many Pennsylvania families. It nominates the executor. It nominates the guardian. It can create a testamentary trust for a young or disabled beneficiary. It can direct tangible personal property. It is a public process, and it takes time, and it has a filing cost. Those are real features. They are not a reason to skip the will. They are a reason to know what the will does.

What actually keeps an asset out of probate is a transfer that does not need a will.

Joint ownership with a right of survivorship passes to the surviving owner. Tenancy by the entireties between a spouse is the common form of that for a marital home. A payable-on-death or transfer-on-death registration on a bank or brokerage account passes to the named person. Life insurance and retirement accounts pass by beneficiary designation. Property that has been retitled into a revocable living trust passes under the trust, to the successor trustee, without letters from the Register of Wills.

Each of those tools has a condition. The joint title has to be real survivorship title, not a convenience signer or someone else's account. The beneficiary form has to name a living person, or a trust, on purpose. The living trust avoids probate only for assets it owns. An unfunded trust is a set of instructions for an empty box. The house, the brokerage account, and the CD stay in your name, and they stay on the probate path.

A pour-over will is still part of a trust plan. It catches what never got retitled, and it is the document that nominates a guardian. Signing the trust and skipping the retitling is the usual way families pay for a trust and still probate the estate.

Two limits belong in the same conversation. Avoiding probate is not the same as avoiding Pennsylvania inheritance tax. A funded revocable trust keeps the Register of Wills out of those assets. It does not take them off the inheritance tax return. And avoiding probate is not always the goal. A modest, in-state estate with a sound will is often administered without drama. The mistake is believing the will itself was the bypass.

If you have been told "we did the will, so we are out of probate," ask a narrower question. Which assets are titled so they move without letters? The answer is the actual plan.

Sojourner Law, PLLC advises individuals and families on estate planning, and estate administration in Pennsylvania.

This article is general information about Pennsylvania law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Inheritance tax treatment depends on the asset, the title, and the beneficiary. Talk with a Pennsylvania estate planning attorney about your situation.