What information is made public during probate?

[evancox10]

Privacy is often cited as a reason for preferring beneficiary designations and/or living trusts over wills, but I have not been able to find a concrete list of what actual information is exposed during the probate process. So, what information exactly do either of those methods keep private that would be exposed during probate?

Same examples of the type of information I'm wondering about:

• What your will says
• Who your actual heirs are
• How much money each heir is inheriting
• The total net worth of the estate
• Individual account balances
• Loan balances
• Who you owe money to
• What brokerages/banks you use
• What real estate you own
• The value of each real estate property
• Etc.

Note that I am using the words "probate process" colloquially to mean the entire process, start to finish, of passing assets to your heirs through the use of a will, as opposed to beneficiary designations and/or a revocable living trust.

Edit: I live in Texas but happy to hear about people's experiences with other states.

[bsteiner]

Your Will is public.

Other things vary from state to state. In New York, the petition asks for the approximate value but that's for the filing fee, so some people just say over $500,000 (which is enough to be in the top bracket for the filing fee).

[evancox10]

Your Will is public.

Other things vary from state to state. In New York, the petition asks for the approximate value but that's for the filing fee, so some people just say over $500,000 (which is enough to be in the top bracket for the filing fee).

Thanks. So in NY in this case, they do not know what accounts you have where, exactly how much money is in the accounts/estate, what amounts/assets are passing to each heir (unless an amount is specifically named in the will), or exactly what real* or personal property you owned?

I think there is a big gap between reality and perception of many about this process. Looking at my own will, it is not particularly juicy or informative, though if I had any preresiduary bequests (which I do not), someone could glean something about the size of my estate and what certain people are getting. I suppose if your will has a bunch of trust funding formulas, someone could draw some inferences about whether or not your estate is taxable. But this would be quite a convoluted and imprecise way to do this I think. It's not hard to Google someone's career, or look up their property ownership, and get a rough idea of someone's assets.

Are there any states that are notorious for being less private and that expose significantly more information?

*Real estate property records of course being mostly public regardless, unless certain steps are taken, e.g. the use of trusts to hide ownership.

[stimulacra]

I believe that to give all potential heirs a fair chance to make a claim against an estate, all wills and most probate documents are made public.

It varies state by state and probably county by county.

I can speak for Harris County Texas in that all wills and open and closed probate cases are searchable online going back 50 years.

Most probate Harris County probate hearings that occur via Zoom were live-streamed to Youtube depending on the court and judge.

Family settlement agreements are one way to keep some of the inner workings of a contested estate private.

[ccieemeritus]

I’m representing myself and petitioning for administrator in a probate in California.

As part of that I had to post a notice in the newspaper listing my contact information. Name. Address. Phone number. Name of the decedent.

Since then I’ve had multiple realtors contact me. Most by mail but 2 by phone.

I suppose if I hired a lawyer the public posting of contact information would have been unnecessary.

I suspect the court documents (including will, heirs, accounting) will be “public” by request at the courthouse, but in my county it doesn’t appear that the contents of the filings are trivially available online.

Important to note that every heir gets a copy of the Will and (perhaps) a bunch of mailings. Makes me reluctant to put a bunch of gifts/bequests in a Will.

[evancox10]

I’m representing myself and petitioning for administrator in a probate in California.

As part of that I had to post a notice in the newspaper listing my contact information. Name. Address. Phone number. Name of the decedent.

Since then I’ve had multiple realtors contact me. Most by mail but 2 by phone.

I suppose if I hired a lawyer the public posting of contact information would have been unnecessary.

I suspect the court documents (including will, heirs, accounting) will be “public” by request at the courthouse, but in my county it doesn’t appear that the contents of the filings are trivially available online.

Thanks for sharing your experience navigating this as a layperson.

What type of information is in the "accounting" document you mentioned?

[ccieemeritus]

What type of information is in the "accounting" document you mentioned?

The value and description of all assets that are part of the probate.

In my case that’s the value of the one brokerage account that didn’t have a beneficiary (which is the only reason the full probate is necessary), car, personal electronics, plus a rough estimate for “personal belongings”.

It would also include debts, probate, and funeral expenses, but that doesn’t apply here (we simplified the accounting by paying out of joint accounts outside of probate, since the money goes to the same destination either way).

Accounts that had beneficiaries or joint owners are not part of the probate and not included.

No real property (house) in my case. But my understanding is, if a house has a transfer-on-death deed, joint owner, or is part of a revocable living trust, it would not be part of the probate and not included. But years ago (in Oregon) my Moms house was part of a probate and listed/valued in the filings. Probate also delayed the sale of that house which was inconvenient.

“Community property” real estate is weird. I’m not a lawyer so if you’re in a community property state, don’t rely on my information.

If the estate is anywhere close to an estate tax threshold (which is scheduled to halve in 2026), or might have taxes due, make sure to leave enough money to handle that in the estate. Putting beneficiaries on everything sounds good, but the executor needs to file final taxes.

Btw: “How to probate an estate in California” is very helpful. Different procedures in different states, but it includes filing examples which you might find illuminating.

[ETK517]

In my primary state of practice (CT), most of that information is in theory publicly available because it's likely to end up filed with the court in some way, shape, or form (either in the initial petition for probate, an inventory, a final accounting, a return of claims, a request for distribution, etc.). Less information may be revealed about nonprobate assets, but since those assets are included in the calculation of the probate fee, there's some disclosure of them too.

In practice it's not very accessible to the public because it's not available online, so you would need to go in person to a probate court and leaf through the file in front of the clerks. That's pretty uncommon. Even journalists rarely take the time to do it for very famous and wealthy people.

A lot of the same information would eventually be disclosed if you used a trust, BTW, and pretty much all of it if there were ever an accounting.

[muddgirl]

Your Will is public.

Other things vary from state to state. In New York, the petition asks for the approximate value but that's for the filing fee, so some people just say over $500,000 (which is enough to be in the top bracket for the filing fee).

Thanks. So in NY in this case, they do not know what accounts you have where, exactly how much money is in the accounts/estate, what amounts/assets are passing to each heir (unless an amount is specifically named in the will), or exactly what real* or personal property you owned?

I think this is published in NY, perhaps not online. It is called an estate inventory. When I search for a common last name in the NY surrogacy court search I see that inventories are filed but not available to download. These may be available for in person inspection.

However a few other interesting documents may be available, such as "Receipt of Release" and "Reports of Estate not fully distributed." Lots of interesting financial information here.

As an amateur genealogist I am that nosey weirdo who goes to court houses and dig through old probate records, though usually my targets are long dead family members, not strangers.

[Jack FFR1846]

DW is again personal representative so we're working on this again. Did it about 5 years ago for another relative. In Massachusetts, you can go online into the family and probate section with only the last name and get the probate file with various documents scanned in as a PDF.

Personal representative name
Attorney name
A copy of the will
list of interested persons
objections
certificate of death

I see nothing in the record with any total amounts, accounts or anything. I do know that our attorney needs the deceased's assets and value at death and a complete accounting as any money is spent, income comes in, distributions are made, property sold etc. This was done in the previous probate and there is nothing in the record. The attorney said this was all required to close probate.

Every state will be different.

[Joey Jo Jo Jr]

Pretty simple. You should assume every probate filing is public record, unless there are specific privacy laws or orders that apply to your state/case (which even then are subject to reversal or possible data breach). You should assume every public record will be searchable online at some point if not already.

[evancox10]

Pretty simple. You should assume every probate filing is public record, unless there are specific privacy laws or orders that apply to your state/case (which even then are subject to reversal or possible data breach). You should assume every public record will be searchable online at some point if not already.

I'm not familiar with what filings are actually made during the process, which is why I'm asking.

Also, I'm in Texas. I looked up Harris county probate records like someone mentioned, but need to create an account later to view the contents of the files.

[bsteiner]

Your Will is public.

Other things vary from state to state. In New York, the petition asks for the approximate value but that's for the filing fee, so some people just say over $500,000 (which is enough to be in the top bracket for the filing fee).

Thanks. So in NY in this case, they do not know what accounts you have where, exactly how much money is in the accounts/estate, what amounts/assets are passing to each heir (unless an amount is specifically named in the will), or exactly what real* or personal property you owned?

I think this is published in NY, perhaps not online. It is called an estate inventory. When I search for a common last name in the NY surrogacy court search I see that inventories are filed but not available to download. These may be available for in person inspection.

However a few other interesting documents may be available, such as "Receipt of Release" and "Reports of Estate not fully distributed." Lots of interesting financial information here.

As an amateur genealogist I am that nosey weirdo who goes to court houses and dig through old probate records, though usually my targets are long dead family members, not strangers.

In New York the inventory is a 1-page summary. It’s not a public document. The purpose is to reconcile the filing fee paid with the correct filing fee.

The inventory in Florida is more detailed but it isn’t a public document. We usually attach bills relevant schedules of the Federal estate tax return to the form.

There is no inventory in New Jersey.

You raise a good point. Sometimes old probate court files provide useful information as to family trees. Of course, there’s often no file for married decedents who held their assets jointly, or for decedents with very little in the way of assets (which is a large number of people since wealth is very unevenly distributed).

[HCopter]

I think it depends on what probate rules are in your particular court.

In my DH's county in Texas, they are entirely public and all filings are available in pdf online.

The Will - we did not mention specific assets in our wills, and surprising no one, the spouse was sole beneficiary and executor.
Affidavit in lieu of inventory, appraisement, and list of claims -I had the lists, but did not have file the actual lists

[Joey Jo Jo Jr]

Pretty simple. You should assume every probate filing is public record, unless there are specific privacy laws or orders that apply to your state/case (which even then are subject to reversal or possible data breach). You should assume every public record will be searchable online at some point if not already.

I'm not familiar with what filings are actually made during the process, which is why I'm asking.

Also, I'm in Texas. I looked up Harris county probate records like someone mentioned, but need to create an account later to view the contents of the files.

I don’t know what filings are required in Texas. You may want to revise your question to specify that state, as the required filings vary by state.

But if you want to know what states may require in general, common items are the will if any, information on the decedent and heirs/beneficiaries, the probate assets and values, creditor claims, other claims (such as Will contests), and an accounting of estate receipts and disbursements.

[BuddyJet]

Pretty simple. You should assume every probate filing is public record, unless there are specific privacy laws or orders that apply to your state/case (which even then are subject to reversal or possible data breach). You should assume every public record will be searchable online at some point if not already.

I'm not familiar with what filings are actually made during the process, which is why I'm asking.

Also, I'm in Texas. I looked up Harris county probate records like someone mentioned, but need to create an account later to view the contents of the files.

If the estate is under $75k, not including homestead and exempt property, it might be eligible to use the small estate process if there was no will. Much easier than full probate.

https://www.cclerk.hctx.net/forms/I/I0222.pdf

[Mullins]

So in NY in this case, they do not know what accounts you have where, exactly how much money is in the accounts/estate, what amounts/assets are passing to each heir (unless an amount is specifically named in the will), or exactly what real* or personal property you owned?

I administered a small estate.I was required to file a notarized form to request certificates to establish my authority to obtain information and funds from various institutions I named. That's public. So that can give a heads up as to where assets may be located.