By Operation of Law

When someone dies their estate usually has to go through the Probate process in order for the decedent’s property to be inherited by their heirs. One of the way around probate is to have “beneficiary” or “transfer on death” designations on a bank account, or brokerage account or an IRA, etc. Then when the account owner dies, the account becomes owned by the heir who has been named on the account “by operation of law,” or automatically, and without Probate.