(a) This code shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying purposes and policies.

(b) The underlying purposes and policies of this code are:

(1) to simplify and clarify the law concerning the affairs of decedents, missing persons, protected persons, minors, and incapacitated persons;

(2) to discover and make effective the intent of a decedent in distribution of his or her property;

(3) to promote a speedy and efficient system for liquidating the estate of the decedent and making distribution to his or her successors; and

(4) to make uniform the law among the various jurisdictions.