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Start the free role checkWhy people avoid probate
Probate in Virginia 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 Virginians 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 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, or property held by the entirety
Real property passes outside probate when it is deeded to the trust or its trustee before death, the trust's terms governing at death (Va. Code § 64.2-772); spouses' entireties property conveyed to their trusts keeps its immunity from their separate creditors while they stay married (Va. Code § 55.1-136). Whether either fits depends on your facts and is a question for a licensed Virginia attorney.
Small-estate options
When the decedent's entire personal probate estate is $75,000 or less, a holder may pay a small asset to the designated successor on the successors' affidavit at least 60 days after the death (Va. Code § 64.2-601) — simpler than a full administration; the clerk may also waive the inventory and settlement of a personal estate of $35,000 or less (Va. Code § 64.2-1302).
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 Virginia attorney can review your titling.
General information about Virginia law, not legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
- How can property pass outside probate in Virginia?
- By a funded trust (Va. Code § 64.2-719), by a beneficiary designation, or by survivorship — each passes outside the will. Property left in the decedent's name alone is probated in the circuit court (Va. Code § 64.2-443).
- Does a trust avoid Virginia's probate tax?
- Property titled to the trust is not probated, so the probate tax — 10 cents for every $100 of the probated estate's value above $15,000 (Va. Code § 58.1-1712) — does not reach it.
- Does avoiding probate avoid the spouse's elective share?
- No. Virginia's augmented estate counts the decedent's non-probate transfers to others, including property in a revocable trust (Va. Code § 64.2-308.6), toward the surviving spouse's elective share (Va. Code § 64.2-308.3).
General information about Virginia law, not legal advice.