Nate owns the following property: A personal residence titled fee simple valued at $500,000. A $500,000 life insurance policy on his own life. The only named beneficiary is Nate’s brother Jaime, who died 6 months ago leaving two children, Michael and Kristi. A car valued at $15,000 titled JTRWROS with Nate’s mother. An IRA valued at $400,000 with Nate’s mother as the named beneficiary. What is the current value of Nate’s probate estate? $500,000. $1,000,000. $1,400,000. $1,415,000.

The reason why it would be $1,000,000 is because there are some things that adds value to his real estate, and there are some things that don't count as value for his estate.

Lets show you the values that would be added into his estate:

Personal Residence
Life Insurance Policy

The reason why those values would add on to Nate's estate is because those would be known as positive value, Nate's personal residence, his house, has value that he currently owns because it's his house, so the benefit of the house's value would belong to him. The life insurance policy beneficiary would go to Nate because the person that was on the beneficiary was already dead, meaning that they would give him the money.

Lets show you the values that would NOT be added into his estate:

Car
IRA

The reason why those values would not be added to his estate because the stuff is contracted/named for someone else. The car is technically not his; it would belong under the JTRWROS. It would only operate under the law. The IRA would also not be added to his estate because the beneficiary that's on the IRA is still alive, therefore giving that person the money.

You would add the total amount of money Nate would have; the Personal Residence ($500,000) and the insurance policy ($500,000).

[tex]500,000+500,000=1,000,000[/tex]

Therefore, giving you the estate for Nate of $1,000,000.