beneficiary or is owned as "payable on death", and property (sometimes a bank or brokerage account) legally held as "jointly owned with right of survivorship". Property held in a revocable or irrevocable trust created during the grantor's lifetime also avoids probate. In these cases in the U.S. no court action is involved and the property is distributed privately, subject to estate taxes. The best way to determine which assets are probate assets (requiring administration) is to determine whether each asset passes outside of probate. In jurisdictions in the U.S. that recognize a married couple's property as tenancy by the entireties, if a spouse (or partner in Hawaii) dies intestate (owning property without a will), the portion of his/her estate so titled passes to a surviving spouse without a probate. Steps of probate If the decedent dies without a will, known as intestacy, with the exception of real properly located in another jurisdiction, the estate is distributed according to the laws of the jurisdiction where the decedent resided. If the decedent died with a will, the will usually names an executor (personal representative), who carries out the instructions laid out in the will. The executor marshals the decedent's assets. If there is no will, or if the will does not name an executor, the probate court can appoint one. Traditionally, the representative of an intestate estate is called an administrator. If the decedent died with a will, but only a copy of the will can be located, many states allow the copy to be probated, subject to the rebuttable presumption that the testator destroyed the will before death. In some cases, where the person named as executor cannot administer the probate, or wishes to have someone else do so, another person is named administrator. An executor or an administrator may receive compensation for his service. Additionally, beneficiaries of an estate may be able to remove the appointed executor if he or she is not capable of properly fulfilling his or her duties. The representative of a testate estate who is someone other than the executor named in the will is an administrator with the will annexed, or administrator c.t.a. (from the Latin cum testamento annexo.) The generic term for executors or administrators is personal representative. The probate court may require that the executor provide a fidelity bond, an insurance policy in favor of the estate to protect against possible abuse by