Probate Happens - demystifying probate for families

Welcome to Probate Happens™

When someone dies, life changes in more ways than one.

After a death, grief can arrive alongside unfamiliar responsibilities, changing family roles, and difficult conversations. For many families, a probate process may also begin.

We created Probate Happens to offer calm, practical knowledge and guidance for this part of life. Our focus is not only the legal process. It is also what happens among the people living through it.

Probate isn’t just a legal process. It’s a life experience.
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Three family members talking together around a kitchen table
A calmer place to begin—at your pace, in plain language.

For people who have lost someone

Start with what may need attention now and what can safely wait. You do not need to know the legal words or have every answer before you begin.

For the relationships affected by loss

We address the conversations, expectations, responsibilities, memories, and tensions that can arise among spouses, adult children, siblings, heirs, friends, and others who care.

For the probate path ahead

When probate is part of the picture, we help you understand the process, organize the work, prepare better questions, and recognize when qualified professional help is needed.

What we provide

General educational information, practical tools, and organizational guidance. Probate Happens does not provide legal advice or replace advice from a qualified attorney or other professional familiar with your circumstances and jurisdiction.

Probate Happens™

What do I need to Know?

Ask in your own words. We’ll help you find the answer—and the next practical step.

Premier plain-English probate guidance. Shaped by people who have experienced probate, not just studied it.

Ask Probate Happens™ AI

Start anywhere. You do not have to know the legal term.

Select from any of our Probate Resources Books · Workbook · Audio Probate Happens workbook Smiling Through Probate by Mike and Leon McKenzie, showing two chairs beside a table with family photographs. The Human Side of Probate The Next Right Step in Probate book cover ▶Audio 1▶Audio 2▶Audio 3▶Audio 4 Explore Books, Workbook & Audio → Attorney Communications Attorney-Ready first meeting preparation pack Explore Attorney-Ready Resources → Prepare for a productive first meeting Quick Answers™ + Action Guides™ Quick Answer Compact Action Guide Expanded Action Guide Explore Quick Answers & Guides → Hundreds of practical solutions Learning Academy Family Starter Course Opening and Organizing the Estate course Family Property and Financial Decisions course Explore Learning Academy → More Probate Happens series Probate, Panic and the Ceramic Frog cover What Happens After Goodbye cover Explore More Book Series → More coming in each series

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Educational information and organizational resources—not legal advice.

If probate has landed in your life or your work, come on in

There’s a place for you here.

Maybe you’re settling an estate. Maybe you’re a spouse, adult child, sibling, heir, or friend who just wants to understand what probate is, what usually happens next, and where you fit. We explain it in plain language. And if you’re helping a client, supporting members, or looking for a better resource for the people you serve, there’s a place for you here, too.

You don’t need just more information. You need the right next step.

Start with the concern, not the legal vocabulary

A quick gut check.

Someone named me executor, and I’m still trying to understand what that means. I’m a family member, and I want to understand what’s happening without making things harder. There’s a house, paperwork, bills, or belongings that need attention. I want to be better prepared before I talk with an attorney or another professional. I help families, clients, members, or employees and need something useful to give them.

Discover Probate Happens™ · How we help

We help you make sense of the next step.

Plain-English education, practical tools, and guided help—organized so you can understand what is happening and choose a useful next step.

Ask

Tell us what’s happening.

Begin with your real concern and use your own words. You do not need to know the legal terminology before you start.

Understand

See how probate usually works.

We explain the process, who does what, and what may matter next—in plain English and without pretending every estate is the same.

Prepare

Choose the right level of help.

Use a focused answer, guide, workbook, course, or preparation tool that fits the question or responsibility in front of you.

Move

Take a sensible next step.

Move forward with better questions, clearer records, useful tools, and a little more confidence about what belongs on today’s list.

This isn’t only for families

Probate shows up in your work, too.

We began with families because they’re the ones living through probate. But professionals, organizations, and partners are often standing right beside them. So we built resources for them, too.

Choose your way in

Begin wherever you are.

Use the guided path if you want help choosing. Browse the complete catalog if you already know the question, task, or format you need.

Step 1 of 6
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Choose the community that fits

Who are you here to help?

01Family
02Executor
03Professional
04Organization
05Partner

We’ve been around this block

We know probate from the inside.

Leon and Mike McKenzie combine firsthand estate experience with decades spent organizing probate information and helping people understand what comes next.

40 years
Leon’s probate experience
25 years
Mike’s probate-related experience
4 million
probate records retrieved over 25 years
More than 5,000
customer and executor contacts
Since 1986
firsthand estate responsibility

Principal author · Father

Leon McKenzie

Leon’s forty years of probate experience began when he served as a personal representative in 1986. He later led a nationwide probate-information company for nearly twenty-five years and brings more than fifty years of business-building experience to his practical, human guidance.

Co-author · Son

Mike McKenzie

Mike brings twenty-five years of probate-related experience and a solution-provider’s perspective. His work with large-scale probate information and the people who depend on it shapes his clear, conversational approach to difficult questions.

Meet Leon and Mike →

That experience does not make us attorneys, and we will never pretend otherwise. It does mean we have seen the same worries, mix-ups, delays, and family questions come around again and again—and we know how much a clear explanation can help.

Let’s be clear about the money

You can start here for free.

Free

Understand where you are.

Learn how probate generally unfolds, see who does what, choose a role, explore concerns, browse resources, and get a feel for a sensible direction without buying anything.

Paid

Take a finished resource with you.

Customers pay when they want more depth and structure through Quick Answers™, Action Guides™, books, workbooks, courses, Attorney-Ready materials, or professional and organizational solutions.

We provide education and organization, not legal advice. Free or paid, our work doesn’t replace an attorney or another qualified professional.

The guided path begins with your role

Who are you here to help?

Different roles face different questions, responsibilities, and decisions. Choose the statement that comes closest; you can begin with the concern you have today.

A family gathering together for support

Personal and family guidance

Family

I am helping myself or my family.

Understand what is happening, ask about the concern in front of you, and find practical resources for family decisions and communication.

For relatives, beneficiaries, caregivers, and others affected by probate. Enter the Family experience →

Looking for an attorney for your own concern? Use Attorney-Guided Help, not the Professional path.

Probate Happens™ resources

Start with one answer, complete one task, understand the whole journey, or learn step by step.

Probate Happens™ Books

Understand probate—and the people living through it.

Three cornerstone books combine plain-English explanation with the practical and human realities families experience.

Explore Probate Happens™ Books →
Probate Stories

Meet families facing probate in very different ways.

Two verified production short reads explore family work, difficult goodbyes, memory, property, and the unexpected moments surrounding probate; more stories are in development.

Explore Probate Stories →
Cover of the Probate Happens Companion Field Guide
Companion workbook

Put the details in one organized place.

Mapped to the Probate Happens™ book series and available on its own or as a companion bundle with any book when sales open.

Explore the workbook →
Action Guides™

Handle one responsibility at a time.

Start with the controlled ten-guide collection. Compact and Expanded formats remain hidden from sale during testing.

Preview the collection →
Learning Academy

Learn in a calm, guided sequence.

Preview six course experiences for families, estate organization, decisions, closing, and community education.

Preview the courses →
Cover of the Attorney-Ready Starter Pack
Attorney-Ready preparation

Bring a clearer story to the meeting.

The 26-page Starter Pack organizes facts, documents, dates, questions, and the written next-step plan.

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Professional solutions

Support clients, members, employees, or audiences.

Explore education, tools, programs, and collaboration paths designed for professionals, organizations, and partners working around probate.

Explore professional solutions →

Probate happens. You don’t have to wander through it.

Start with what’s happening today.

You don’t need to solve the whole estate before lunch. Tell us whether you’re handling the estate, trying to understand it as a family member, or helping someone else through it. We’ll help you find a sensible place to begin.

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