The Nonprobate Revolution: Privatizing Family Wealth Transfer in the United States. Probate, the state-operated system of family wealth transmission, has been marginalized in contemporary American practice by the rise of free-market competitors in the financial services industry. Today, it is banks, mutual fund companies, brokerage houses, insurance companies, and retirement plan operators who handle most intergenerational wealth transfer. Professor Langbein will speak about the causes and extent of the nonprobate revolution, and about some worrisome drawbacks that are emerging as this new system of wealth transfer takes hold.