Inheritance Disclaimer and Renunciation Requirements in New Hampshire

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law and covered interests

New Hampshire's current Uniform Disclaimer of Property Interests Act is RSA chapter 563-B, reenacted in 2021. It covers property interests and powers arising through wills, intestacy, testamentary and inter vivos trusts, beneficiary designations, jointly held survivorship property, and powers of appointment.

Whole, partial, and conditional disclaimer

RSA 563-B:4(a) allows a disclaimer in whole or part, even if a spendthrift or similar restriction attempts to limit transfer or disclaimer. A partial disclaimer may use a fraction, percentage, dollar amount, term of years, limitation of a power, or another interest or estate. The chapter does not separately authorize a conditional form.

Writing or other record and required contents

The disclaimer may be a writing or another record stored on a tangible, electronic, or other medium and retrievable in perceivable form. It must declare the disclaimer, describe the interest or power, and be signed. RSA 563-B:4 defines signing to include a tangible symbol or an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached or logically associated with the record. The general contents rule requires no original, legal description, affidavit, or tax recital.

Signature and other execution formalities

The disclaimant must sign. The Act states no witness, acknowledgment, oath, or notarization requirement. An attested copy is separately required for the narrow real-property beneficiary-designation recording route; that does not turn attestation or notarization into a universal execution requirement.

State timing, irrevocability, and federal tax

The current chapter has no fixed ordinary state-law deadline. Instead, RSA 563-B:12 bars or limits the disclaimer when a listed event occurs before effectiveness or another law supplies a limit. RSA 563-B:4(c) makes the document irrevocable at the later of delivery or filing and statutory effectiveness for the relevant interest.

RSA 563-B:13 recognizes a disclaimer or transfer treated under federal tax law as never transferred to the disclaimant. Federal qualification remains separate: 26 U.S.C. § 2518(b) supplies the nine-month receipt deadline, nonacceptance condition, and no-direction rule.

Delivery, filing, and recipient

RSA 563-B:11 allows personal delivery, first-class mail, or another method likely to result in receipt. The correct destination depends on the asset:

• A will or intestacy interest goes to the estate administrator, with a court fallback if none serves.
• A testamentary-trust interest goes to the trustee, then the estate administrator, with the stated court fallback.
• An inter vivos trust interest goes to the trustee or court fallback; while the trust is revocable, it goes to the settlor or transferor.
• Before a beneficiary designation becomes irrevocable, delivery goes to its maker. Afterward, a personal-property disclaimer goes to the distribution obligor, while real property uses the recording route below.
• A survivorship disclaimer goes to the person who takes because of it.
• Power-of-appointment interests go to the holder or relevant fiduciary, administrator, or court fallback described in the section.

Real-property recording

RSA 563-B:14 generally permits recording when the instrument that transferred the interest is required or permitted to be recorded, and failure ordinarily preserves validity between the disclaimant and successor takers. But RSA 563-B:11(g)(2) is mandatory for real property created by a beneficiary designation after that designation becomes irrevocable: an attested copy must be recorded in the registry of deeds for the county where the property lies.

Acceptance, transfers, and other statutory bars

A written waiver bars the right. RSA 563-B:12 also bars an interest disclaimer if, before effectiveness, the disclaimant accepts the interest; voluntarily assigns, conveys, encumbers, pledges, transfers, or contracts to transfer it; or a judicial sale occurs. The section separately bars or limits a disclaimer to the extent it would impair the Department of Health and Human Services' listed recovery rights, and it preserves limits imposed by other law. It states no express insolvency or general creditor-claim bar.

A barred disclaimer of an interest operates as a transfer to the people who would have taken under the chapter. A barred disclaimer of a power is ineffective.

Effective time and destination

For an ordinary interest, RSA 563-B:5 makes the disclaimer effective when the creating instrument becomes irrevocable or, for intestacy, at death. An express destination clause in the instrument controls. Otherwise an individual is generally treated as dying immediately before distribution, with special rules for surviving descendants. New Hampshire adds a further estate-destination rule: if the interest otherwise would pass to the disclaimant's estate, it instead moves to surviving descendants by representation, or, if none, through the transferor's hypothetical intestacy while excluding the disclaimant and applying the statute's remarried-spouse instruction. The disclaimant's own future interest does not accelerate.

What trips people up

The current statute contains inconsistent article cross-references. RSA 563-B:4(b) points its delivery sentence to Article 12, and subsection (c) points delivery or filing to Article 10, but the chapter's actual "Delivery or Filing" provision is Article 11. The asset-specific rules quoted here come from RSA 563-B:11 itself.

General realty recording and beneficiary-designation realty are different. The first is generally permissive under RSA 563-B:14; the second requires an attested copy in the county registry under RSA 563-B:11(g)(2).

Common questions

Can I sign electronically? Yes. RSA 563-B:4 expressly defines signing to include an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached or logically associated with the record with intent to authenticate or adopt it.

Does a spendthrift clause prevent a personal disclaimer? No. RSA 563-B:4(a) preserves the right despite a spendthrift provision or similar restriction.

Statutes and sources

• RSA 563-B:4 — whole and partial form, record medium, required contents, electronic signature, irrevocability, and nontransfer treatment. https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/LVI/563-B/563-B-mrg.htm (accessed 2026-08-01)
• RSA 563-B:11 — delivery methods, asset-specific recipients, court fallbacks, and mandatory attested-copy recording for irrevocable beneficiary-designation realty. https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/LVI/563-B/563-B-mrg.htm (accessed 2026-08-01)
• RSA 563-B:12 — waiver, acceptance, transfer, judicial-sale, DHHS-recovery, and other-law bars and transfer treatment for a barred interest disclaimer. https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/LVI/563-B/563-B-mrg.htm (accessed 2026-08-01)
• RSA 563-B:13, :14 — federal tax-qualified recognition, generally optional recording, and between-party validity after an omission. https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/LVI/563-B/563-B-mrg.htm (accessed 2026-08-01)
• RSA 563-B:5 — effective time and destination, including descendant and estate- destination rules. https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/LVI/563-B/563-B-mrg.htm (accessed 2026-08-01)
• 26 U.S.C. § 2518(b) — separate federal qualified-disclaimer requirements. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title26/html/USCODE-2024-title26-subtitleB-chap12-subchapB-sec2518.htm (accessed 2026-08-01)