Testate or Intestate

When you are opening an estate, you might hear the words "testate" and "intestate". Though they may sound confusing at first, they are really just fancy legal words for something very simple. If you have a testate estate it means that your loved one who has passed has left a will, it has been submitted to the court, and tells the court who they wanted their assets to go to. If you have an intestate estate it means that your loved one passed with no will, so the court will have to use the statue in place of a will to determine who the assets should go to. It's as simple as that!