Probate is the legal process to transfer title from someone who has died to a beneficiary. That assumes that the asset doesn’t transfer by some other mechanism. And the other mechanism could be by operation of law such as joint tenancy with right of survivorship, a transfer on death account, retirement account or life insurance that passes by beneficiary designation. All of those types of assets will pass according to title and it doesn’t matter what you put in your will it’s going to pass by the beneficiary designation.

Probate is for those assets like if you just take title in your name for a piece of real estate, ultimately, it’s going to have to go through some court process. Idaho has a very simple court process but it’s a still a matter of privacy and ease to transfer the asset. In a state like California most people try to avoid probate to stay out of the California court system and it’s also very expensive in a state like California where fees are set by statute as opposed to just an hourly attorney rate.