My mom just entered hospice after a long illness.

My brother and I share power of attorney and are in 100% agreement on execution of mom's will.  I believe my brother is executor but we might be listed as co-executors.  My brother and I are sole heirs (other than knick-knack gifts for mom's grandchildren).

Estate is fairly large with most of the value being shares of family business that are in mom's name.

Since we have no disputes or debts in mom's affairs, is there any reason my brother and I can't just disburse the estate and not involve any probate complications?

With the Covid shut down I have not seen my mom in over a year.  With her going to hospice, at least I will be able to visit her...

ETA:  I've been able to visit mom.  It's really depressing as she's pretty un-responsive, but I've decided to just man up and keep visiting.

ETA 2:  We are working with an estate lawyer to create a "revocable trust" to shield from probate.  There are complications though and he's gonna burn up a $5k retainer I'm certain.

If she is still alive you should put it in a trust. Then you don’t have to fuck with probate.

Yes, you'll have to go through probate, given that you said it was sizable. As always, contact an estate attorney if one isn't involved. Make sure the attorney works for you.

Precisely what I wanted to say. My parents put their stuff into a trust a few years before they died. $800 or so to set it up (this was IIRC in 1995 or so), and the consult with their attorney was free, paid for by the initial consultation fee.

No taxes (their combined wealth was less than 2 million), no arguements (they had already agreed with all the kids about who would get what). My older sisters and I were trustees; we sat down with the books and worked it all out.

Probably too late to create a trust.

Is there some mechanism that will instigate probate?  If we don't initiate it, what would happen?

Is she still alive?

The executor named in the Will takes a copy of the Will to the courthouse and gets letters from the court stating that he can act on behalf of the estate.  It is his job to total up the assets and debts of the estate, pay off the debts, then distribute anything that remains to the heirs in accordance with the Will's instructions.

When my mom passed and we had to go through this, the courthouse had a "How To" guide that was given to us that listed all the steps and the various deadlines for each.

Doing this right now with dad's estate.
Everything (including house) are in Family Trust.

The will "pours over" ALL personal assets into the trust.

No probate.
No bonds.
I am the successor Trustee of the Family Trust.
Once I disperse the property in the Trust it ceases to exist.

We are in the process of creating a "revocable trust".  As you folks said, that will shield us from probate.  We will still get to deal with state estate tax though.

Should have died in a tax friendlier state.
Virginia has pretty much nothing.

Doesn't VA have a 10% probate tax?

THIS.
My father's trust has been nicely simplified.
Non of the BS of probate filings.

No bonding, minimal cash out.
There has has only been one problem
One (of 13 ) heirs trying to loot personal items my mother created.
Very well done needle point.
One rose with almost 40 shades of very fine stitching.

Being an hour and a half sway let things get out of control.
One of the heirs living in the house did not help with things either.

"10¢ for every $100 " is NOT 10%.

More like 0.1%