Generally speaking, probate is simply one small part of an estate administration. Probate usually refers to the process by which someone gets formally appointed to administer a deceased person's estate. Estate administration is the act of closing out, wrapping up, accounting for, and distributing everything a deceased person owned to the intended beneficiaries. Everything a deceased person “owned” refers to his/her estate. Though probate is a term people usually deem as the hardest part of an estate administration, in most states, it is quite the opposite. It is the first step in the process of administering an estate, and is used to merely give someone the authority to do all of the actual tedious, arduous and difficult administrative work that closing out an estate involves.