Petition to Probate a Will Requirements in South Carolina

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law and proceeding type

An informal case begins by application in probate court and is not governed by the circuit-court civil rules. Formal testacy under § 62-3-401 is litigation begun by filing and serving a summons and petition. It proceeds after notice and hearing and may, but need not, combine probate with appointment.

Court and venue

The probate court has exclusive original decedent-estate jurisdiction under § 62-1-302. A timely motion or court action may remove formal probate or general appointment to circuit court for a de novo proceeding. Venue starts in the decedent's domicile county; a nondomiciliary may proceed where property was located. An informal case may transfer if venue belongs elsewhere.

Who may petition

The court must find that an informal applicant appears to be an interested person. Under § 62-3-401, an interested person may start formal testacy to probate a will, set aside or prevent informal probate, or obtain an intestacy order.

Petition contents

Section 62-3-301 requires a verified informal application stating the applicant's interest; death, age, domicile, spouse, children, heirs, devisees, minors, venue, existing representatives, notice demands, and ten-year timeliness. The testate application adds the original or authenticated foreign will, belief in valid execution, diligent inquiry for revocation, and last-will belief. A combined appointment request identifies the proposed representative, address, and priority.

Formal § 62-3-402 adopts the specified informal facts, requests testacy and heir findings after notice and hearing, and may seek appointment.

Original will, copy, and lodging

Under § 62-2-901, the custodian delivers the will to the probate judge or to the named representative, who then must deliver it to the judge. Original informal probate requires the original in court. A will already probated elsewhere may use an authenticated copy and probate statement.

Formal probate uses the original or an authenticated foreign-probated copy. If neither is available, § 62-3-402 requires the petition to state the contents and identify the will as lost, destroyed, or otherwise unavailable.

Filing or production deadline

The custodian has thirty days after actual notice or knowledge of death to make the § 62-2-901 delivery. If no probate begins within thirty days after the judge receives the will, the judge publishes the statutory delivery-and-filing notice once weekly for three consecutive weeks.

Most original informal/formal probate and appointment proceedings have a ten-year outer limit under § 62-3-108, subject to its exceptions. A contest of an informally probated will has eight months after informal probate or one year after death, whichever is later. South Carolina states no 120-hour informal wait.

Proof and self-proving route

For informal probate, § 62-3-303 admits an attestation-clause will without further proof. Otherwise the court may assume execution from appearance or accept a sworn statement or affidavit from any knowledgeable person, witness or not.

An unopposed formal case may proceed on the pleadings or after an open-court hearing. If execution proof is needed, one attesting witness's affidavit or testimony suffices, with other evidence if unavailable. In a contested case, a self-proved will satisfies execution subject to rebuttal without witness testimony; a qualifying notarized but non-self-proved will has a rebuttable execution presumption. Section 62-2-503 requires the testator's acknowledgment and the affidavit of at least one witness for self-proof.

Notice, hearing, and objections

Informal probate gives advance notice only to notice-demanders and any existing representative. Within thirty days after informal probate, the applicant sends the statutory information to reasonably locatable heirs and devisees unless an appointed representative carries the separate information duty.

For informal appointment, § 62-3-310 gives a person with equal unwaived priority thirty days after mailing to object, nominate another, or file a competing matter. Formal testacy requires service of summons and petition on the surviving spouse, children, other heirs, devisees, named representatives, and any existing representative, followed by a hearing. The general notice statute ordinarily requires mail or personal delivery at least twenty days before hearing.

Executor, bond, and letters

The probated-will nominee has first priority under § 62-3-203. A representative must be at least eighteen, suitable, and outside the statute's barred foreign- corporation and probate-judge circumstances. Before letters, § 62-3-601 requires acceptance and any required bond.

Sections governing informal appointment (§§ 62-3-307 and 62-3-308) require the court's findings, priority, qualification, and acceptance. If the decedent was a nonresident, appointment generally waits thirty days after death unless the domiciliary representative applies or the will directs South Carolina law.

South Carolina's named-representative rule is the reverse of a mandatory waiver: the named representative ordinarily needs no bond unless the will expressly requires one. Section 62-3-603 also excuses bond for unanimous heir/devisee agreement, a sole heir or devisee, and specified state agencies and financial institutions, subject to the statute's exceptions.

What trips people up

The thirty-day custodian clock and ten-year probate limit measure different acts. Delivery runs from actual notice or knowledge of death; the outer limit governs commencement of most original proceedings.

A formal case is not just an informal application with a hearing box checked. It is a civil-rule proceeding begun by summons and petition, with service on the statutory recipients.

Common questions

Does informal probate require a hearing?

Not ordinarily. The court acts on the verified application and statutory findings. Formal testacy uses the noticed hearing.

Is there a 120-hour waiting period?

The surveyed South Carolina provisions state none. Do not import the waiting period used by some other Uniform Probate Code states.

Must a will say the named executor serves without bond?

No. Section 62-3-603 normally excuses a representative named in the will unless the will expressly requires bond, subject to the court-demand and special- administrator exceptions.

Statutes and sources

• S.C. Code Ann. §§ 62-1-201, 62-1-302, and 62-1-401 — proceeding types, probate/circuit jurisdiction, and notice timing (accessed August 4, 2026).
• S.C. Code Ann. §§ 62-2-503 and 62-2-901 — self-proof and will delivery (accessed August 4, 2026).
• S.C. Code Ann. §§ 62-3-108, 62-3-201, and 62-3-203 — outer limit, contest period, venue, priority, and qualification (accessed August 4, 2026).
• S.C. Code Ann. §§ 62-3-301 through 62-3-310 — informal application, original, proof, notice, and appointment (accessed August 4, 2026).
• S.C. Code Ann. §§ 62-3-401 through 62-3-409 — formal summons, petition, notice, hearing, proof, and order (accessed August 4, 2026).
• S.C. Code Ann. §§ 62-3-601 and 62-3-603 — acceptance, bond, and letters (accessed August 4, 2026).