How to Probate a Washington Descendant's Estate ---
To "Do It Yourself" without a Lawyer

Re-Opening the Estate

To re-open a closed estate, complete whichever of the following pair of Petition and Order forms is applicable to your situation and follow the basic procedure outlined in Preparing for Court for petitioning for Letters, meaning among other things that you will need to make another Court appearance:

  • For Testate Estate:
  • For Intestate Estate:
  • Subsequent Actions.
    Once you have re-opened the estate and received your re-issued Letters, you will need to:

    • Take the actions that necessitated your re-opening of the estate, such as marshaling, inventorying, and distributing any newly discovered property, and
    • When you’re done, prepare and file with the Court another Declaration of Completion of Probate and, if appropriate, another Notice of Filing & Declaration of Mailing, depending upon how you choose to make any distribution. As indicated above with a usual probate estate, the simplest way to make distribution would be to:
      • Obtain a Receipt & Waiver by Heir or Beneficiary from each recipient of the property, and
      • File those Receipts & Waivers along with your Declaration of Completion with the Court.