Laws pertaining to wills and estate planning (“probate laws”) vary from state to state. Thus it is important when researching principles of estate planning to make sure that what you are learning is in accordance with how your state handles each estate planning issue. However, many states have very similar probate laws because they have adopted what is called the Uniform Probate Code (UPC).
The UPC was an effort by a group of attorneys called the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. That is a bit of a mouthful. They sought to gather from the many different then-existing state statutes and court cases what they thought would be the best probate system. Only a few more than a dozen states have adopted the UPC completely (though there are still some differences between those states’ probate laws) and the remainder of the states have only adopted parts of the UPC. Nonetheless, in doing your own research to understand at least the basics of estate planning laws, the UPC is certainly a great reference.
Photo by: Mr. T. in D.C.