West Virginia Code 44-1A-1 – Short title; definitions
(a) This article may be cited as the West Virginia Small Estate Act.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 44-1A-1
- Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
- Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
- Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
- Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
- Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
- Personal property: All property that is not real property.
- personal property: includes goods, chattels, real and personal, money, credits, investments, and the evidences thereof. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Probate: Proving a will
- Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
- real property: include lands, tenements and hereditaments, all rights thereto and interests therein, except chattel interests. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Testate: To die leaving a will.
(b) For the purposes of this article, the following definitions apply:
(1) “Authorized successor” means the successor of a decedent who files an affidavit and is certified and authorized by the clerk of the county commission or the fiduciary supervisor thereof, pursuant to the provisions of this article.
(2) “Interested Person” means heirs, devisees, distributees, legatees, children, spouses, or creditors of the decedent and beneficiaries and any others having a property right in or a claim against the estate of a decedent or property in a small estate. Interested persons include persons having priority for appointment as a personal representative and other fiduciaries representing interested persons. An interested person may also include a bank, financial institution, credit union, or person that is holding assets related to the estate.
(3) “Person” means any individual, corporation, business trust, fiduciary, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, agency, instrumentality, public corporation, or any other legal or commercial entity.
(4) “Small asset” means any probate personal property or asset belonging or presently distributable to the decedent having a fair market value on the decedent’s date of death of not more than $50,000. A small asset includes, but is not limited to, cash, a bank account, a savings institution account, a credit union account, a certificate of deposit, a brokerage account, stock, a mutual fund, a security, a bond, a note, a promissory note, an obligation, an instrument evidencing a debt, indebtedness owed to the decedent, proceeds of life insurance payable to the estate, a deposit, a refund, a tax refund, an overpayment, a chose in action, or an item of tangible personal property including a motor vehicle. A small asset does not include real estate or an interest in real property. A small asset does not include a nonprobate asset of the decedent which would not be subject to administration in the decedent’s probate estate.
(5) “Small estate” means a probate estate of a decedent who died domiciled in this state in which: (A) The total aggregate fair market value, on the decedent’s date of death, of all probate personal property and all probate personal assets does not exceed $50,000; and (B) the total aggregate fair market value on the decedent’s date of death of all real estate or interests in real property situate in this state of which the decedent owned or was seized or possessed does not exceed $100,000, excluding any real estate of the decedent which was held in any nonprobate form. For the purposes of this article, the fair market value of real estate shall be presumed to be 167 percent of the current assessed value of the real estate on the land books as reported by the assessor of the county in which the real estate is situate. It is provided, however, that a probate estate of a testate decedent in which the decedent’s will provides for real estate devised to be sold and not a mere power to sell the decedent’s real estate shall not be considered to be a small estate.
(6) “Successor” means any person, other than a creditor, who is nominated as a personal representative or executor under the provisions of the will of the decedent, or who is entitled under the provisions of the decedent’s will or the laws of intestate descent and distribution of this state to a part or all of a small asset of the decedent.