What is the Oklahoma summary probate process?

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It is kinda like Apple’s iPad Mini: Smaller, but every inch a probate.

Oklahoma’s summary probate process eliminates a couple of the steps that a full probate requires but it gets you to same point in the end.

The Differences
For one, there is only one hearing in front of Judge. That is the final hearing at which the judge signs off on the order give you the relief you requested, if you have done what you are supposed to have done. Instead of a hearing in which the Last Will and Testament is admitted to probate, that happens at the end. The first step after the case is filed, is the judge appointing a person to act as the executor.

The other major difference is that the require waiting periods and deadlines are shorter in Oklahoma’s summary probate process.

What qualifies for summary probate
To qualify for the Oklahoma summary probate process, your estate must fall into one of three categories:

(1) estates with a value of $175,000 or less,
(2) any ancillary proceeding whether or not a will has been admitted to probate in another
jurisdiction, or
(3) any estate in which the decedent has been deceased for more than five years.

Posted by Shawn Roberts

On this blog, I write about and try to answer practical Oklahoma legal questions. My focus and most experience is in estate planning and business issues including Oklahoma non-compete law. I make a living as an attorney in the law firm I founded, Shawn J. Roberts, P.C. in Oklahoma City. I live in Edmond with my wife Amy and my two children, Sam (19) and David (11). We live precisely in the path of where the "wind comes sweeping down the plains."