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Start the free role checkWhy people avoid probate
Probate in Utah is a court process: it can take months, the filings become a public record, and it adds administrative cost. Passing assets outside probate can be faster, more private, and simpler for your family — though it takes planning while you're alive.
Common ways Utahns avoid probate
A funded revocable living Trust
Assets retitled into a revocable living Trust pass to your beneficiaries outside probate, while you keep full control during life. “Funding” — actually transferring assets in — is what makes it work.
Beneficiary, POD & TOD designations
Retirement accounts, life insurance, and many bank and brokerage accounts let you name a beneficiary (or “payable-on-death” / “transfer-on-death”), so they pass directly to that person without probate.
Joint ownership with survivorship
Property owned in joint tenancy with a right of survivorship passes to the survivor at death, outside probate. How the deed or the account is titled decides it.
A deed to the trustee
Real property reaches a Utah trust by a deed to the trustee; the terms of the trust may be given in the deed or in an instrument the grantor signs and records in the same office, with the trustee's name and address and the trust's name and date (Utah Code § 75B-2-816). Property so titled passes by the trust's terms at death, outside probate. Whether it fits depends on your facts and is a question for a licensed Utah attorney.
Small-estate options
When the entire estate subject to administration, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000 and no personal representative is appointed, a successor collects the personal property, securities and up to four registered vehicles on an affidavit 30 days after the death (Utah Code § 75-3-1201) — simpler than a full administration, though the affidavit does not reach land.
The catch: it all depends on titling
A plan only avoids probate for the assets actually titled or designated correctly — a Trust that isn't funded, or an account with no beneficiary, can still end up in probate. Coordinating titling across everything you own is where mistakes happen. This page is general information, not legal advice; a free role check can show you where you stand, and a Utah attorney can review your titling.
General information about Utah law, not legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
- How do people in Utah avoid probate?
- With a revocable trust funded during life (Utah Code § 75B-2-401, § 75B-2-816), beneficiary and pay-on-death designations, joint ownership with a right of survivorship, and, for personal property in an estate not exceeding $100,000, the small estate affidavit 30 days after the death (§ 75-3-1201).
- If everything is in a trust, is there nothing to do at death?
- There is still an administration: the trustee's 60-day notices (Utah Code § 75B-2-811(2)), the trust's optional notice to creditors and the one-year bar (§ 75B-2-508, § 75B-2-509), the trust's liability for the estate's claims and the family's allowances (§ 75B-2-505), the trustee's report (§ 75B-2-811(3)) and the fiduciary returns.
- Does avoiding probate avoid creditors in Utah?
- No. The property of a trust that was revocable at the settlor's death is subject to the claims of the settlor's creditors, the costs of administering the estate, the funeral expenses and the statutory allowances to the extent the probate estate is inadequate (Utah Code § 75B-2-505), and the deceased settlor's creditors present their claims to the trustee under the trustee's own claims procedure (§ 75B-2-509, § 75B-2-510).
General information about Utah law, not legal advice.