Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Virginia

Re: will in probate

Probate is a process that most wills go through if there are assets that must be distributed under the will rather than by operation of law. Some property (i.e. property held jointly with rights of survivorship, life insurance or retirement accounts that name a beneficiary as part of the policy) passes outside of probate, but most assets that are addressed in a will must go through the probate process. The will is generally probated in the circuit court for the city or county in which the deceased person last resided. The fact that a will is in probate does not of itself mean that there are conflicting wills or that there is any type of controversy surrounding the will.

As to your second question, often a trust is created by the will itself, in which case it would not exist until the estate is being administered (i.e. during the probate process). This is common even in simple wills if there are minor children because children cannot legally own property in Virginia. If this is the case, the will probably names a Trustee whom you may be able contact for additional information regarding the trust. If the trust is not created by the Will there will typically be a separate document creating the trust that would provide details related to the trust.