wvbankers.org 14 West Virginia Banker WEST VIRGINIA SMALL ESTATE ACT: Simplifying The Administration Process For Heirs While Providing Potential Mistakes For Unprepared Banks By Richard Marsh, Flaherty Sensabaugh Bonasso PLLC The West Virginia West Virginia Small Estate Act (the Act) provides an alternative to traditional probate and became effective July 1, 2021. Although from the heirs’ perspective, the Act simplifies the process for transferring the deceased’s assets, it will provide complications and liabilities for financial institutions if these institutions do not update their probate policies. The Act can be used to administer “small” estates. Small estates are those in which the deceased had probate personal property assets collectively valued at no more than $50,000 and West Virginia real property assets collectively valued at no more than $100,000. It is designed to be less expensive as there is no bond required. It is also designed to be faster, not subject to a claims period and has less paperwork. When reviewing the Act, a reader will note that although it has some similarities to traditional probate, the process and the language used is different. For example, instead of heirs or beneficiaries, the persons to receive the deceased’s assets are the “successors.” The definition of successors also includes persons named as personal representative or beneficiary under the deceased’s will. In the small estate process, there is no personal representative of the estate. Rather, the equivalent of the personal
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