50-State Surveys › Small Estate Affidavit Thresholds & Procedure by State
Small Estate Affidavit Thresholds & Procedure by State
How small does an estate have to be to skip formal probate, and how do you claim the assets?
51 of 51 jurisdictions verified
every entry statute-checked, oldest 2026-07-06
What this survey covers
When someone dies owning only a modest amount of property, most states let their heirs skip a full, court-supervised probate case entirely. But the details vary enormously: how "small" the estate has to be, whether any court is involved at all, how long you have to wait after the death, and — a frequent surprise — whether the shortcut even reaches real estate. This survey answers one question, state by state: how small does an estate have to be to use the simplified procedure, and what does claiming the assets actually involve? Each state's page states the rule in plain English, quotes the statute it comes from, and shows the date we last verified the statutory text.
How to read the table
Each column is one feature of the state's small-estate procedure, answered the same way for every state, with the statutory citation compressed into the cell. Some states run more than one track with different dollar thresholds (a simple affidavit for personal property, a separate and often stricter procedure for real estate); the table states the primary, most-commonly-used track, and the full page explains any additional tracks. Click a state for the full plain-English page: the rule dimension by dimension, the practical traps people actually hit, and the verbatim statutory text with official source links.
The patterns across all 51 states
The dollar threshold ranges enormously — from Rhode Island's $15,000 (and that figure only counts bank accounts and similar intangible assets, not furniture or vehicles) up to Wyoming's $400,000, one of several states that raised its threshold substantially in 2025 as home values and inflation pushed families into formal probate for genuinely modest estates. Most states use a flat dollar figure that only changes when the legislature acts; a handful (California, Maine) instead peg the number to an inflation index that recalculates on its own schedule, so the correct figure depends on when the index last reset. Alaska is the only state that tests two categories against two separate caps at once (vehicles, then everything else) rather than one combined number.
Whether a court is involved at all is a real spectrum, not a yes/no switch. At one end, a majority of states let an heir present a sworn affidavit directly to a bank or other holder with no filing anywhere. A second group requires the affidavit to be filed with a county clerk or recorder — still no judge, but a public record exists (Wyoming, West Virginia, Missouri). A third group runs a genuine court case, just a lighter one than full probate: a petition, sometimes a bond, and an actual court order or Letters of Administration (Vermont, Maryland, Connecticut, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia's larger track). Texas and South Carolina split the difference — the affidavit is filed with the court and must be signed off by a judge, but without a hearing in the ordinary case.
Real property is the single biggest source of state-to-state variation, and reader assumptions here are the most likely to be wrong. Roughly half the states exclude real estate from the small-estate shortcut entirely, and among those, some (Rhode Island, Minnesota, Connecticut, North Dakota) disqualify the WHOLE estate if the decedent owned any real property at all, no matter how small its value, while others simply don't count real property toward the calculation one way or the other. A second group of states count real property's value toward the dollar cap but still can't use the same document to transfer title to it — those states typically offer a second, separate procedure just for real estate (seen in California, South Dakota, Nebraska, Arizona, Wyoming), often with its own dollar limit and its own waiting period. A smaller group of states (Missouri, Arkansas, Wisconsin) fold real and personal property into one combined cap and one document, letting a single affidavit convey both. New Hampshire is the most extreme outlier of all: it repealed its dollar-based small-estate law outright in 2006 and never replaced it, so no version of this shortcut — for personal property or real estate — currently exists there.
The waiting period after death is almost always 30 to 60 days, with a few notable exceptions. Louisiana has none at all, because ownership passes to heirs immediately at death under its civil-law tradition; Kansas and Hawaii also impose no fixed wait. Vermont is the opposite kind of outlier — not because its wait is unusually short, but because it doesn't run a private affidavit at all, so the concept of a waiting period before "using" a document doesn't apply the same way.
This is one of the fastest-moving topics in the survey. More than a
dozen states raised their dollar threshold in 2025 or 2026 alone, several
mid-year with tight gaps between an amendment's effective date and when
official compiled-statute sites caught up. Anyone using this table should
check the individual state page's last_verified date and, for a
recently-changed state, confirm which figure applies to the death in
question — some states key the applicable number to the year of death
rather than the year someone is using the affidavit.
Get this answered for your state
This survey compares every state side by side. Ezel applies your state's law to your specific situation and answers with citations to the statutes.
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| State | Governing law | Dollar threshold | Court filing required? | Waiting period after death | Works with a will, intestacy, or both? | Does it cover real property? | Signature formalities | Protection for the bank/holder |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama verified 2026-07-06 | Ala. Code §§ 43-2-690 to 43-2-698, the Revised Alabama Small Estates Act (summary distribution); § 43-2-696.02 sets the combined-allowance dollar formula |
The combined, CPI-adjusted maximum of the homestead allowance, exempt property, and family allowance (§§ 43-8-110 to 43-8-113, indexed by § 43-8-116): approximately $47,000 currently, in force since the 2025 rewrite took effect 10/1/2025 |
Yes: a genuine court petition, with published notice, notice to Alabama Medicaid, and a probate judge's order, not a bank-facing affidavit |
At least 30 days after the notice of filing is published AND at least 30 days after the Alabama Medicaid Agency receives notice, both required before the judge can enter the order |
Both: available whether the decedent left a will or died intestate, but unavailable if the decedent is survived by a minor child who isn't also a child of the surviving spouse; a self-proved will must be filed with the petition |
No: excluded at the definitional level: a qualifying 'estate' under this division is limited to personal property of a decedent who owned NO real property (other than property passing outside probate by operation of law) |
The petition itself need only be verified (sworn) under oath; a self-proved will, if any, must independently meet its own signing/witnessing/notarization requirements before being filed with the petition |
Yes: a person who transfers property on the judge's order is discharged the same as if dealing with a personal representative and need not inquire into the petition's truth; a refusing holder can be compelled by court action |
| Alaska verified 2026-07-06 | AS 13.16.680 (the affidavit and its two dollar caps); AS 13.16.685 (effect on the holder) |
Two separate caps, both required: vehicles up to $100,000 total, plus other personal property up to $50,000 |
No: affidavit goes directly to the debtor/property holder, not to any court |
30 days after death |
Both: available to a will beneficiary, a named personal representative, or an intestate heir |
No: the estate must consist ONLY of vehicles and other personal property; any other real property bars this affidavit |
No witnesses in the statute; the official form and practice require notarization |
Yes: holder discharged (AS 13.16.685); the recipient stays answerable to a personal representative or superior claimant |
| Arizona verified 2026-07-06 | A.R.S. § 14-3971 (personal-property affidavit, spouse wage-collection, and a separate real-property affidavit of succession) and § 14-3972 (discharge/effect), Title 14, ch. 3, art. 12 |
$200,000 for all personal property statewide, net of liens (raised from $75,000 by 2025's HB 2116, ch. 24); a SEPARATE $300,000 cap, net of liens, for Arizona real property only (raised from $100,000 by the same act), valued at ASSESSED tax-roll value, not market value; plus a standalone $5,000 cap on wages owed a surviving spouse, unrelated to either figure |
Split by track: the personal-property affidavit is presented directly to the holder, no court filing; the real-property affidavit of succession must be FILED with the superior court in the right county, though no judge approves it |
30 days for the personal-property affidavit; 6 months for the real-property affidavit; no stated wait at all for a surviving spouse collecting up to $5,000 in unpaid wages |
Both: works for a named will beneficiary or an intestate heir in a statutory priority order (spouse, then child, then parent, then sibling), as long as anyone with an equal or greater right has assigned their interest to the claimant |
Only through the separate, court-filed real-property affidavit (§ 14-3971(E)); the personal-property affidavit under (B) never reaches real estate, and real property's value doesn't count toward its $200,000 cap |
A sworn affidavit; the real-property affidavit's own text acknowledges perjury exposure for a false statement and must be filed/recorded, while court self-help materials note the personal-property affidavit is typically notarized in practice (the clerk itself cannot notarize it) |
Three separate discharges in § 14-3972: (A) a personal-property holder, (B) the Motor Vehicle Division issuing a vehicle title, and (C) a later purchaser from or lender to the successor, protected the same as someone dealing with a distributee under a personal representative's deed |
| Arkansas verified 2026-07-06 | Ark. Code Ann. § 28-41-101 ('Collection of small estates by distributee'), the core affidavit; § 28-41-102 sets its legal effect (holder discharge, the real-property claims-bar, and the self-issued deed mechanism). A separate and much narrower mechanism, § 28-41-103 ('Petition and order for no administration'), lets a court vest an estate in a surviving spouse or minor children with NO fixed dollar cap of its own: it's tested against what they're already entitled to receive as statutory allowances, not the $100,000 figure |
$100,000 flat, covering personal AND real property TOGETHER in one combined figure: not split into separate tracks by asset type. The calculation excludes the value of the decedent's homestead and any statutory allowances for a surviving spouse or minor children. Not CPI-indexed; raised incrementally by several amending Acts (2013, 2015, 2017, and most recently Act 423 of 2021, eff. 7/28/2021) to reach its current figure |
A hybrid: the affidavit itself is filed with the probate clerk of the circuit court, who assigns it a case number and charges a fee, but 'an order of the court or other proceeding is not necessary' for it to take effect; no judge signs off and no hearing is held. The separate § 28-41-103 mechanism, by contrast, is a genuine court petition resulting in a judge's order |
45 days after death for the affidavit itself: the statute requires that 'forty-five (45) days have elapsed since the death of the decedent,' so in practice the 46th day is the first safe day to file. If the estate includes real property, an ADDITIONAL 3-month creditor-claims period runs from the first newspaper publication of notice (which must happen within 30 days of filing the affidavit) before the distributee may self-issue a deed to the real property |
Both: neither § 28-41-101 nor § 28-41-102 requires intestacy or a will; the official affidavit form has a line for both 'heirs' and 'devisees' under a will. The narrower § 28-41-103 spouse/minor-child mechanism likewise doesn't turn on whether there was a will |
Yes: a genuine outlier among small-estate affidavit states. The same $100,000 affidavit (net of the homestead's own value) can reach real property, but only through an extra procedure: the distributee must publish notice of the death and the affidavit's filing within 30 days of filing, and all claims against the real property are barred 3 months after that first publication. If no claim is presented in that window (or any presented claim is satisfied without using estate property), the distributee may 'issue to himself or herself a deed of distribution for the real property... as if made by a personal representative,' then notify the county assessor. If a claim IS timely presented, the distributee must instead open a full administration of the estate |
A true sworn affidavit: the official court form (Form 23) requires the distributee(s) to 'state on oath,' and county clerk guidance confirms the affidavit must be signed before a notary (clerks themselves are barred from notarizing it); no witness signatures are required anywhere in the statute or the form |
Yes, on both sides. Section 28-41-102(a) discharges a holder who pays, transfers, or delivers property under the affidavit 'to the same extent as if made to a personal representative,' with no duty to inquire into the truth of the affidavit. The distributee who receives the property, though, holds it 'as trustee': 'answerable to any person having a prior right' and 'accountable to any personal representative thereafter appointed.' If a holder wrongfully refuses to honor a valid affidavit, the distributee can sue to recover the property or compel delivery |
| California verified 2026-07-06 | Cal. Prob. Code §§ 13100-13106 (personal property); § 890 (threshold adjustment) |
$208,850 for deaths on/after 4/1/2025; CPI-adjusted every 3 years (§ 890) |
No: affidavit goes straight to the holder, not to a court |
40 days after death |
Either: works for a will beneficiary or an intestate heir |
No: separate affidavit ($69,625) or court petition ($750,000, primary residence only) |
None required: a signed declaration under penalty of perjury |
Yes: holder discharged from liability and need not verify the affidavit |
| Colorado verified 2026-07-06 | Colo. Rev. Stat. § 15-12-1201 (collection of personal property by affidavit); §§ 15-11-403 and 15-10-112 supply and index the dollar figure |
Twice the CPI-adjusted § 15-11-403 exempt-property amount: $88,000 for a 2026 death, recalculated annually by the Department of Revenue |
No: the affidavit is presented directly to the person or institution holding the property, with no petition and no court filing |
10 days after the decedent's death |
Either: available for property 'subject to disposition by will or intestate succession,' with no restriction to one or the other |
No: not valid to transfer real estate the decedent owned; a separate recording rule applies only when the decedent held a debt secured by someone ELSE's real property (a mortgage or deed of trust), not to a house the decedent owned outright |
The statute itself doesn't spell out a formality beyond a sworn affidavit; the state's own official form requires it be sworn before a notary, with no separate witnesses |
Yes: a holder who pays out on the affidavit is discharged to the same extent as if dealing with a personal representative and has no duty to inquire into the affidavit's truth; a holder who wrongfully refuses without reasonable cause is liable for costs and attorney fees |
| Connecticut verified 2026-07-06 | Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-273 ('Settlement of small estates without probate of will or letters of administration'), Title 45a, Chapter 802b; § 45a-275 layers a 30-day exclusivity condition; a separate, much narrower section, § 45a-274, lets a probate judge name an ex parte administrator for as little as $1,000 in unpaid medical/health benefits or insurance proceeds only |
$40,000, a flat figure covering only the decedent's solely-owned tangible and intangible personal property (excluding anything that already passes outside probate by operation of law): last raised from $20,000 by a 2007 act (P.A. 07-32); a 2024 amendment (P.A. 24-81) only added a technical cross-reference and didn't touch the dollar figure. Not CPI-indexed |
Yes, a Probate Court filing, not a bank-facing affidavit. The affidavit is filed 'in the Probate Court in the district in which the decedent resided'; the court reviews it and then issues its own decree authorizing each holder to transfer or pay out the asset, a bank acts on the court's decree, not directly on the affidavit |
Not a wait before filing, but before the court can act, the court must send a copy of the affidavit to the Department of Administrative Services and 'shall not issue a decree until thirty days after' that notice. Separately, the whole procedure is available only if no will was submitted for probate and no administration was applied for within 30 days after death (§ 45a-275), a lock-out condition, not a delay for someone using this track from the start |
Both, with a detailed priority scheme if the will's terms diverge from intestate succession: an intestate estate, or a will that matches intestate shares, defaults to intestate distribution; a will that differs is followed only if the heirs at law waive their right to contest it; if they won't waive and the will's beneficiaries won't consent to intestate distribution instead, the court dismisses the affidavit and sends the matter to a real will-admission proceeding |
No, and it's disqualifying rather than merely excluded: the whole procedure is unavailable if the decedent had any solely-owned real property in Connecticut at death (survivorship/joint-tenancy real property, which already passes outside probate, doesn't count against this) |
No notary and no witnesses: the affidavit need only be 'signed under penalty of false statement,' Connecticut's statutory substitute for a sworn oath; the official court form (PC-212) has a single signature line and no notary block |
Yes, tied to the court's decree rather than the affidavit alone: a holder that transfers or pays under the decree is discharged 'from liability to any person on account thereof,' and the holder may additionally require waivers, an indemnity bond, or a receipt as a condition of paying out |
| Delaware verified 2026-07-06 | 12 Del. C. § 2306 (the affidavit and its conditions); § 2307 (effect on the holder) |
$50,000 for deaths on/after 6/10/2026 (85 Del. Laws c. 281); $30,000 for deaths before that date |
No: affidavit goes directly to the debtor/holder, no court filing required by statute |
30 days after death |
Either: one section (§ 2306) covers both a will (distribution per its terms) and intestacy (Chapter 5) |
No: decedent must own no DE real estate solely or as tenant-in-common; survivorship property is unaffected |
Sworn under oath; no separate witness requirement in the statute |
Yes: holder released as if dealing with a personal representative; recipient stays answerable to others |
| District of Columbia verified 2026-07-06 | D.C. Code § 20-361 (affidavit, $40,000); § 20-362 (effect); § 20-351 (broader $80,000 court-supervised track) |
$40,000 for the no-court affidavit; a separate $80,000 cap for the court-supervised 'small estate administration' |
No for the $40,000 affidavit (direct to holder); Yes for the $80,000 administration track (petition, appointed personal rep.) |
60 days after death for the affidavit |
Either: available to a will beneficiary/named representative or an intestate heir |
No: 'small asset' is defined to exclude real property, and the estate can't include any real property interest at all |
Not specified in the statute beyond a joint sworn affidavit of ALL known successors, under penalty of perjury |
Yes: holder discharged (§ 20-362); a holder who refuses without reasonable cause pays the successors' attorney's fees |
| Florida verified 2026-07-06 | Fla. Stat. §§ 735.201-.2063 (Summary Administration) |
$150,000, or decedent dead more than 2 years: either qualifies (eff. 7/1/2026) |
Yes: a petition filed in probate court, ending in a court order |
None required to file; the 2-year-dead rule is an alternate path, not a wait |
Both: available whether the decedent left a will or died intestate |
Yes: reaches real property generally, not just a homestead |
Signed and verified (sworn) by the surviving spouse and joining beneficiaries |
Yes, but only once the court's distribution order issues |
| Georgia verified 2026-07-06 | O.C.G.A. § 53-2-40 (No Administration Necessary petition, no dollar cap); § 7-1-239 (bank-deposit affidavit, $15,000 cap) |
No dollar cap for § 53-2-40: turns on unanimous heir agreement instead; $15,000 for § 7-1-239's bank-deposit affidavit |
Yes for § 53-2-40 (probate court petition and order); No for § 7-1-239 (affidavit handed straight to the bank) |
None for either section's main claimants; § 7-1-239 lets a funeral-expense provider claim instead after 45 days if family hasn't |
Intestate ONLY under both sections: neither one is available if the decedent left a valid will |
Yes for § 53-2-40 (the order is recorded in the county deed records); No for § 7-1-239 (bank deposits only) |
§ 53-2-40's heir agreement must be signed and attested before a notary or probate clerk; § 7-1-239's affidavit is sworn before a notary or other officer |
Yes for § 7-1-239: the bank is fully discharged from any claim; § 53-2-40's court order itself confirms and vests title |
| Hawaii verified 2026-07-06 | Haw. Rev. Stat. § 560:3-1201 (collection of personal property by affidavit) and § 560:3-1202 (effect of the affidavit); separately, §§ 560:3-1205 to 560:3-1211 (clerk of court appointed as personal representative for estates of $100,000 or less, a distinct court-run track that can reach real property) |
$100,000 gross value of the decedent's Hawaii property for BOTH the § 3-1201 affidavit and the § 3-1205 clerk-administration track: a flat, non-indexed figure. Motor vehicles registered in the decedent's name are excluded from that $100,000 calculation entirely and may be transferred at any value under the affidavit |
Splits by track. NO for the § 3-1201 affidavit, it's presented directly to the bank, debtor, or other holder, never filed with a court. YES for the § 3-1205 track: an interested person (or the clerk) files a verified petition, and the court may authorize the clerk to administer the estate as its personal representative 'without notice or hearing, at the discretion of the court', a real but genuinely lightweight court process |
None found in either track. Unlike most states' small-estate statutes, § 3-1201 sets no minimum number of days after death before the affidavit may be presented: it requires only a death certificate and that no personal representative has been appointed or is pending. § 3-1205 likewise names no death-triggered waiting period |
Both: Hawaii's own chapter-wide definition of 'successors' (§ 560:1-201) means 'persons ... who are entitled to property of a decedent under the decedent's will or this chapter,' so the § 3-1201 affidavit covers a will beneficiary or an intestate heir equally. The § 3-1205 clerk-administration track likewise works for either, subject to the clerk locating and honoring any will |
No for the § 3-1201 affidavit: limited to 'tangible personal property' and instruments evidencing a debt, obligation, stock, chose in action, or other intangible personal property; real estate needs the separate § 3-1205 track instead. Yes for that § 3-1205 clerk-administration track: the chapter's own definition of 'property' (§ 560:1-201) 'includes both real and personal property,' and § 3-1211's fee schedule expressly contemplates 'orders relating to the sale of real or personal property' under this same set of sections, confirming the clerk's authority reaches real estate |
The § 3-1201 statute text itself just requires 'an affidavit,' without spelling out a notary requirement in so many words, but Hawaii's own official court form for this exact affidavit (Form 3C-E-210, courts.state.hi.us) builds notarization directly into the form ('SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN TO BEFORE ME ... NOTARY PUBLIC'), consistent with an affidavit necessarily being sworn before someone authorized to administer oaths. No separate witness requirement. The § 3-1205 track instead requires a 'verified petition': a sworn filing with the court, not a notarized affidavit to a private holder |
Strong and explicit for the § 3-1201 affidavit track: § 3-1202 discharges the person who pays, delivers, or transfers property under the affidavit 'to the same extent as if that person dealt with a personal representative,' with no duty to inquire into the truth of the affidavit's statements; the recipient instead stays 'answerable and accountable' to any later-appointed personal representative or person with a superior right. The § 3-1205 clerk-administration track carries no comparable private third-party-holder discharge clause: its protection instead comes from the clerk's court-issued authority as personal representative and the state comptroller's mandatory annual audit of the clerk's accounts (§ 560:3-1214) |
| Idaho verified 2026-07-06 | Idaho Code § 15-3-1201 ('Collection of personal property by affidavit') and § 15-3-1202 ('Effect of affidavit'), Title 15 (Uniform Probate Code), Chapter 3, Part 12 |
$100,000, testing 'the fair market value of the entire estate of the decedent which is subject to probate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances.' Not CPI-indexed. No bill changing this figure was found pending in the current session |
No: the affidavit is presented directly to whoever holds the decedent's property (a bank, employer, etc.); nothing is filed with any court. The statute itself even conditions eligibility on no petition for a personal representative OR for summary administration being pending or granted |
30 days after death |
Neither required nor barred: the statute covers any 'claiming successor,' and its own text confirms this includes 'entitlement as a trust pursuant to a will of the decedent' as well as ordinary intestate or will-beneficiary entitlement |
No, the affidavit's operative transfer clause reaches only 'tangible personal property or an instrument evidencing a debt, obligation, stock or chose in action'; no mechanism anywhere in this Part transfers real estate. The Uniform Probate Code's own official comment to this section (adopted into Idaho's annotated code) explains why: 'Since the appointment of a personal representative may be obtained easily under the Code, it is unnecessary to make the provisions regarding small estates applicable to realty.' A house or land needs full or summary probate instead, or, for a sole surviving spouse specifically, a separate summary-administration decree under § 15-3-1205 (a distinct spousal procedure, not a bigger version of this affidavit) |
The statute itself doesn't spell out a signing ceremony beyond a sworn affidavit. Every official county form (and the Idaho Legal Aid Services template) has the affiant swear to the statement and sign it before a notary public, who completes an acknowledgment; no witness signatures are required |
Yes, on both sides. Under § 15-3-1202, a person who pays, delivers, or transfers property under the affidavit 'is discharged and released to the same extent as if he dealt with a personal representative,' with no duty to inquire into the truth of the affidavit; a holder who wrongly refuses can be compelled by a court proceeding. The person who actually collects the property, in turn, 'is answerable and accountable therefor to any personal representative of the estate or to any other person having a superior right': an open-ended obligation, not capped at any fixed dollar amount by the statute's own text |
| Illinois verified 2026-07-06 | 755 ILCS 5/25-1 (small estate affidavit); 755 ILCS 5/9-8 (summary administration, separate court track) |
$150,000 personal property (currently registered motor vehicles excluded), § 25-1(a-5)(2); OR $100,000 real+personal for § 9-8; P.A. 104-0624 narrows the vehicle exclusion for deaths on/after Jan. 1, 2027 |
No for the § 25-1 affidavit: given directly to the holder; Yes for § 9-8 summary administration |
None stated for the § 25-1 affidavit; § 9-8 requires 3 weeks' published notice, first publication >=30 days before the hearing |
Both: available whether the estate is testate or intestate, under either section |
No for § 25-1 (personal property only); Yes for § 9-8 (reaches real and personal estate combined) |
Sworn under penalty of perjury before a notary public; no other witnesses required (§ 25-1(b)) |
Yes: good-faith holder fully protected (§ 25-1(d)); affiant personally liable to those who lose out (§ 25-1(e)) |
| Indiana verified 2026-07-06 | Indiana Code Title 29, Art. 1, ch. 8 ("Dispensing With Administration"): §§ 29-1-8-1/-2 (the no-court personal-property affidavit) and §§ 29-1-8-3/-4 (the summary-disbursement and real-property-affidavit track for an already-appointed fiduciary) |
$100,000 for a decedent who died after June 30, 2022 (up from $50,000 for 2006-2022 deaths, and $25,000 before that): the gross probate estate wherever located, less liens, encumbrances, and reasonable funeral expenses; the § 29-1-8-3 fiduciary track adds the costs of administration to that same $100,000 figure before testing the estate's size |
No for the personal-property affidavit: presented directly to the holder; but the real-property affidavit under § 29-1-8-3(c) can only be used by a fiduciary already appointed for an open unsupervised estate, so some court involvement (opening the unsupervised estate) sits upstream of it even though the affidavit itself is just recorded with the county recorder, not filed with a judge |
45 days after the decedent's death for the personal-property affidavit; the fiduciary/real-property track has no separate waiting period of its own, since it presupposes an estate already opened |
Neither required nor barred: the personal-property affidavit's own text just refers to a 'distributee,' not an intestate heir specifically, though a distributee claiming under a will must independently have that will admitted to probate or recorded first before relying on it in the affidavit |
Split by track: excluded from the no-court personal-property affidavit (§ 29-1-8-1/-2 only ever pays or transfers personal property, debts, vehicles, securities, insurance proceeds, safe-deposit-box contents, or digital assets), even though real property's value still counts toward the $100,000 threshold test; reachable only through the separate § 29-1-8-3(c) recordable affidavit, and only once a fiduciary already exists for an open unsupervised estate |
The personal-property affidavit must be a sworn statement (an affidavit, made by or on behalf of the distributee); the statute's own text adds no separate witness requirement on top of that |
Two-sided, mirroring the personal-property affidavit's own effect section: a person who pays, delivers, transfers, or issues property based on the affidavit is discharged and released the same as if dealing with a personal representative, with no duty to inquire into the affidavit's truth, while the person who actually RECEIVES the property remains answerable and accountable to any personal representative of the estate or anyone else with a superior right |
| Iowa verified 2026-07-07 | Iowa Code § 633.356, 'Distribution of property by affidavit, very small estates' (a no-court affidavit reaching personal property only), and, separately, Iowa Code Chapter 635, 'Administration of Small Estates' (§§ 635.1, 635.2, 635.7, 635.8, 635.13, several other sections in the chapter were repealed by 2007 legislation), a court-opened but simplified probate that also reaches real property. § 633.356 was amended by 2026 Iowa Acts, H.F. 2660 (signed 2026-04-16, effective 2026-07-01, already in force) |
Two different figures for two different tracks, neither CPI-indexed. Section 633.356's no-court affidavit now caps at $100,000 in personal property, raised from $50,000 by H.F. 2660 effective July 1, 2026 (already in force), and unusually, the test isn't a one-time snapshot: the statute asks whether that value 'is or has been, at any time since the decedent's death,' $100,000 or less, so a value that later climbs above $100,000 can retroactively disqualify the estate. A separate, narrower mechanism in § 633.356(9), letting a holder disclose account value without the full affidavit, was NOT updated by H.F. 2660 and still refers to the old $50,000 figure, a real internal inconsistency in the statute as of this writing. Chapter 635's small estate administration caps at $200,000 in gross probate assets (§ 635.1), a figure some older secondary sources still list as $100,000, a stale pre-increase number that predates H.F. 2660 and is unrelated to it |
Splits by track: NO court role for the § 633.356 affidavit, delivered directly to whoever holds or owes the decedent's property; YES for Chapter 635 small estate administration, which requires filing a petition and having the court clerk issue 'letters of appointment' naming a personal representative, though with lighter closing requirements (a sworn closing statement rather than a full accounting) than ordinary Chapter 633 probate |
40 days after death for the § 633.356 affidavit ('if forty days have elapsed since the death of the decedent'); Chapter 635 has no comparable death-triggered wait: its timing instead runs off the same creditor-notice and closing-statement objection periods (30 days) used generally under Chapter 633 |
Both, on both tracks: § 633.356(2) defines 'successor' to include either a will beneficiary ('if the decedent died testate') or an intestate heir ('if the decedent died intestate'); Chapter 635's petition (§ 635.2(4)) likewise must simply state 'whether the decedent died intestate or testate' |
No for the § 633.356 affidavit, and as of the July 1, 2026 H.F. 2660 amendment, there is no longer any exception at all. Before that date, real property passing to joint tenants exempt from Iowa's now-repealed inheritance tax didn't count against eligibility for deaths occurring before January 1, 2025; H.F. 2660 eliminated that carve-out entirely and now simply requires the decedent's probate assets to 'consist only of personal property, with no interest in real estate.' Yes for Chapter 635 small estate administration, the appointed personal representative has the same general authority over real property as in an ordinary Chapter 633 probate |
Lighter than many states', § 633.356 only requires the affidavit be executed 'under penalty of perjury,' and Iowa's general certification statute (§ 622.1) confirms an unsworn 'under penalty of perjury' statement legally substitutes for a notarized oath outside a short list of exceptions that doesn't include this affidavit; no witness requirement either. (Some banks and online form services still ask for notarization as their own institutional practice, but the statute itself doesn't require it.) Chapter 635's closing statement is likewise only 'verified or affirmed under penalty of perjury', again no notary or witness required by the text |
Yes, and mutual. Section 633.356(7) discharges a holder who pays under a valid affidavit from further liability and lets the holder rely on it in good faith with no duty to inquire into its truth; if a holder wrongfully refuses to honor a valid affidavit, the successor can sue to compel payment and recover attorney fees if the court finds the refusal unreasonable, but the statute cuts both ways: a holder who reasonably pays out under a facially valid affidavit can also recover attorney fees if sued anyway. Chapter 635's protection instead comes from the personal representative's letters of appointment and the closing statement's unobjected 30-day window, the same protection ordinary Chapter 633 probate gives |
| Kansas verified 2026-07-06 | K.S.A. 59-1507b ('Transfer of certain personal property to successor; discharge and release; affidavit'), Chapter 59 (Probate Code), Article 15 |
$75,000, testing 'the total assets of the estate of the decedent subject to probate.' Not CPI-indexed. Raised from $40,000 to $75,000 by a 2023 act (L. 2023, ch. 77, § 7, eff. 7/1/2023); the section was touched again by L. 2024, ch. 35, § 2 (also eff. 7/1) without changing the dollar figure. No 2025 or 2026 bill amending it was found |
No: the affidavit is handed directly to whoever holds the decedent's property (a bank, employer, etc.); nothing is filed with any court or clerk, and no judge signs off |
None. The statute sets no minimum time after death before the affidavit may be used, and the Kansas Judicial Council's own official form confirms it under 'Time: Any time after death.' (A probate-guide website's claim of a mandatory 30-day wait does not appear anywhere in the statute or the official form and should not be relied on.) |
Neither required nor barred, works whether the decedent died 'testate or intestate.' The affidavit can be signed by a 'successor,' defined broadly as either (1) a person entitled to the property by will or intestate succession, or (2) a person merely nominated as personal representative in the decedent's will, meaning someone named as executor, even without a personal inheritance, can also use the affidavit |
No: the statute reaches only 'personal property of whatever nature'; there is no mechanism in this section, or any parallel small-estate section, for transferring real estate. Real property must go through Kansas's Simplified Estates Act (K.S.A. 59-3201 et seq., a lighter form of full probate) or a lifetime transfer-on-death deed (K.S.A. 59-3501 et seq.) |
The statute itself does not spell out a signature ceremony: it only requires the affidavit be 'in substantial compliance with the form set forth by the judicial council.' That official form has the affiant swear to its contents before a notary public; no witness signatures are required |
Yes, for the holder. Transferring property under the affidavit 'shall be deemed to be a transfer to the personal representative of the decedent,' and the successor's receipt 'shall constitute a full discharge and release from any further claim ... to the same extent as if the transfer had been made to an executor or administrator.' The statute does not separately spell out the successor's own liability to creditors or other claimants beyond that discharge language |
| Kentucky verified 2026-07-16 | KRS 395.450 (District Court jurisdiction), 395.455 (dispensing with administration via the § 391.030 exemption), 395.470 (a separate unanimous-agreement track with no dollar cap), 395.500 (one-year set-aside window for that agreement track); the $30,000 dollar figure itself lives in KRS 391.030, not in the small-estate chapter |
$30,000 in personal property or money on hand or in a bank (KRS 391.030(1)(c), (4)), a flat non-indexed figure; KRS 395.455 (as amended eff. 7/15/2026) lets the court dispense with administration once this exemption, alone or with paid preferred claims (funeral, administration costs, priority debts/taxes under KRS 396.095), equals or exceeds the distributable assets: not a bare 'estate value' cap by itself. The exemption route now runs expressly to a surviving spouse or, if none, to the surviving children; the $30,000 figure in KRS 391.030 is unchanged |
Yes: no bank-facing affidavit exists in Kentucky. A sworn petition (official form AOC-830, 'Petition to Dispense with Administration') is filed with the District Court, which must issue an order before a bank or other holder will release anything (KRS 395.450, 395.455); a separate track (KRS 395.470) also requires a District Court order but has no dollar cap at all if every beneficiary agrees in writing and there's no debt |
None found: no statute sets a minimum number of days after death before the petition may be filed |
Both: KRS 395.455(1) lets the court dispense with administration in both testate and intestate estates 'without requiring the renunciation of a will,' and 395.455(2) separately lets the court order that a will be 'probated only' with no administration at all |
No: limited to 'personal property or money on hand or in a bank or other depository' (KRS 391.030); no fetched provision of KRS 395.455, 395.470, or 391.030 extends the mechanism to real estate |
Sworn and notarized, not a bare declaration: the standard petition (AOC-830) has the petitioner verify the statements and sign 'subscribed and sworn to before me' with a notary block; the separate unanimous-agreement track (KRS 395.470, as amended eff. 7/15/2026) instead requires every beneficiary's written agreement to be made and acknowledged 'under penalty of perjury,' with the creditor advertisement likewise evidenced by an acknowledgment under penalty of perjury (§ 395.470(1)(b), (c), (2)(a)) |
No explicit bank/holder-discharge clause found in the fetched text of KRS 395.450, 395.455, 395.470, 395.500, or 391.030: the practical protection for a bank is presenting the District Court's own order, not a separate statutory immunity clause. What the statutes do address is creditor exposure on the agreement track: a KRS 395.470 order can be reopened for up to one year by a creditor with an unpaid claim (KRS 395.500), and the court may order the persons who obtained it to post a surety bond covering creditors who file within six months (KRS 395.470(8), discretionary since the 7/15/2026 amendment); the KRS 395.455 exemption-based route carries no comparable bond or set-aside window in the sections fetched |
| Louisiana verified 2026-07-06 | La. Code Civ. Proc. arts. 3421-3434 ('Small Successions,' Book VI, Title V); art. 3421 sets the dollar threshold, arts. 3431-3434 govern the no-court affidavit route |
$125,000 gross value of the property, valued as of the date of death (art. 3421(1)-(2)), not CPI-indexed; a separate value-irrelevant track applies once the decedent has been dead 20+ years (art. 3421(3)). Signed but not-yet-effective: 2026 Act No. 293 raises the Louisiana-domiciliary figure to $200,000 on 8/1/2026 |
No for most qualifying estates: the affidavit goes straight to the bank or other holder, no petition or docket number (arts. 3431-3434); an estate that doesn't meet the no-court conditions (chiefly a Louisiana-domiciliary testate estate with Louisiana real estate) still goes through a judicial small-succession proceeding, at half the ordinary court costs (art. 3422) |
None: no article requires any number of days to pass after death before the affidavit may be signed, consistent with ownership passing to heirs immediately at death under Louisiana law; the only day-count in these articles is a 30-day mail notice to a non-signing heir or legatee |
Both, through three different affidavit forms: intestate (art. 3432), Louisiana-domiciliary testate (art. 3432.1, needs every heir and legatee to agree to waive probate), or non-Louisiana-domiciliary testate (art. 3433, needs a certified copy of another state's probate order) |
Splits by which affidavit applies: YES for the intestate affidavit (art. 3432) and the non-Louisiana-domiciliary testate affidavit (art. 3433), both recordable in the parish conveyance records (art. 3434(C)); NO for the Louisiana-domiciliary testate affidavit (art. 3432.1), which is barred entirely if the decedent owned any Louisiana immovable property |
Lighter than Louisiana's usual notary-plus-two-witness 'authentic act': just sworn before any officer or person authorized to administer oaths, signed by the surviving spouse (if any) and at least one heir/legatee, or at least two heirs/legatees if there's no surviving spouse |
Yes: art. 3434 makes the affidavit full authority for a bank or other holder to pay or deliver the property, discharges the holder once paid, and bars any creditor, heir, legatee, or succession representative from suing over it; a separate, narrower statute (R.S. 9:1513) gives a surviving spouse the same kind of no-affidavit discharge for up to $20,000 |
| Maine verified 2026-07-06 | 18-C M.R.S. § 3-1201 (collection of personal property by affidavit) and § 3-1202 (effect of the affidavit); the dollar figure itself is set by a separate cost-of-living formula in § 1-108, not stated as a fixed number in § 3-1201 itself. Separately, §§ 3-1203 and 3-1204 let a personal representative in an ALREADY-OPEN estate close it out via a sworn statement once its value falls under exempt allowances: a distinct closing shortcut, not a way to avoid opening probate in the first place |
$52,500 for a decedent who died in 2026, but this is a DYNAMIC, year-of-death-specific figure, not a flat number. § 3-1201(1)(A) sets a $40,000 base figure 'adjusted for inflation pursuant to section 1-108'; § 1-108 recalculates it annually against the CPI-U, using 2017 as the reference base year, for every death after 2018. Critically, the applicable figure is locked to the CALENDAR YEAR THE DECEDENT DIED, not the year the affidavit is actually used, an heir settling a 2024 death today still uses that year's $49,700 figure, not the current 2026 figure. As of 2026-07-06, the officially published year-by-year figures are: 2024 death, $49,700; 2025 death, $51,100; 2026 death, $52,500. A 2025 amendment (PL 2025, c. 76, signed 2025-05-16) also added an affirmative statutory duty (§ 3-1201(3)) requiring the county probate courts to publish the current adjusted figure themselves each year |
No for the § 3-1201 affidavit: it's presented directly to the bank, employer, transfer agent, or other holder, never filed with any court. The separate §§ 3-1203/3-1204 mechanism, by contrast, requires an estate that's already open under full administration with a court-appointed personal representative; that representative then files a sworn closing statement with the court rather than a private affidavit to a third party |
30 days after the decedent's death for the § 3-1201 affidavit (measured from the date of death itself, not from any appointment or filing). The §§ 3-1203/3-1204 closing-shortcut track instead runs off the inventory and appraisal of an estate that's already open, not a fixed number of days after death |
Both: § 3-1201 applies to 'a person claiming to be the successor of the decedent' without distinguishing a will beneficiary from an intestate heir, so it works the same way whichever applies. The §§ 3-1203/3-1204 closing shortcut likewise applies to an already-open estate regardless of whether it's testate or intestate |
No. § 3-1201's own text limits the affidavit to 'personal property or an instrument evidencing a debt, obligation, stock or chose in action': no mention of real estate anywhere in the section, and the value test itself is keyed only to the estate value the affidavit can actually reach. Transferring real property requires opening a probate case (informal or formal administration), not this affidavit |
Sworn and notarized. Maine's own official form (AF-102, maineprobate.net) has the affiant swear the statements are true before a notary public or attorney-at-law, consistent with an affidavit generally requiring an oath; the statute's own text doesn't add a separate witness requirement beyond the sworn oath itself |
Strong and explicit. § 3-1202 discharges the person who pays, delivers, transfers, or issues property under a valid-looking affidavit 'to the same extent as if the person dealt with a personal representative of the decedent,' with no duty to inquire into the truth of any statement in the affidavit. The person who received the property, not the holder who handed it over, stays 'answerable and accountable' to any personal representative or other person with a superior right |
| Maryland verified 2026-07-06 | Md. Code, Estates and Trusts §§ 5-601 through 5-607 (Title 5, Subtitle 6, "Small Estates") |
$50,000 or less for the property of the decedent subject to administration in Maryland; $100,000 or less if the surviving spouse is the sole legatee or heir: value is the fair market value of the property less debts of record secured by that property |
Yes: a petition is filed with the Register of Wills, who reviews it, appoints the petitioner as personal representative, directs payment of funeral expenses and family allowances, and, if property remains, admits any will to probate; the statute doesn't describe a separate evidentiary hearing for the typical case |
None stated: unlike most states in this survey, the small-estate subtitle itself sets no minimum number of days after death before the petition can be filed |
Both: if there's a will, the register admits it to probate as part of the small-estate proceeding once expenses and allowances are covered; if the decedent died intestate, the estate is distributed under Maryland's regular intestacy law instead |
Yes, generally: because the register actually appoints a real personal representative (not just a private affidavit), and the register may 'direct sale of property as may be necessary to satisfy expenses and allowances,' real property isn't walled off into a separate procedure the way it is in several other states, and its value (net of any mortgage or other recorded lien) counts directly toward the $50,000/$100,000 threshold |
Not an affidavit-to-a-bank model, there's no separate sworn-affidavit-with-witnesses requirement in this subtitle; the petition itself must disclose specific facts (a diligent search for property and debts, a property list, a creditor list, pending litigation), and if the decedent left a will, the petition must separately list the names and addresses of the WILL's own attesting witnesses, a different requirement about the will, not about signing this petition |
Framed around the personal representative rather than a third-party bank or holder: the appointed representative 'does not incur any personal liability by payment of claims or distribution of assets ... if, at the time of payment or distribution, the representative has no actual knowledge of a valid unbarred claim that has not been filed with the register' |
| Massachusetts verified 2026-07-06 | M.G.L. c. 190B, §§ 3-1201 (collection of personal property by affidavit) and 3-1202 (effect of the affidavit) |
$25,000 or less in personal property, not counting one motor vehicle of any value: a flat figure fixed in the statute text, not indexed or adjusted |
Filed with the Probate and Family Court, the register of probate dockets the sworn statement and issues an attested copy, but no judge reviews or approves it and there's no hearing, a lighter-than-TX, heavier-than-CA middle shape |
30 days after the decedent's death, and only if no petition to appoint a personal representative is already pending in that county |
Both: the statute asks for the names of people who would take intestate AND, separately, people who would take under a will 'if any,' so it works the same way whether or not the decedent left a will |
Excluded entirely, not just from the transfer: the estate must 'consist entirely of personal property' to qualify at all; owning any real estate solely in the decedent's name disqualifies the estate from voluntary administration completely |
No witnesses required. The statement itself must be 'verified by oath, or affirmation', a sworn statement, but the statute doesn't add a witness requirement on top of that |
Two-sided: a debtor/holder who pays or delivers property under the attested statement is discharged from liability to everyone (unless a later-appointed personal representative already made written demand), and separately the voluntary personal representative who receives the property is personally liable, the same as a wrongdoing personal representative, to anyone harmed and to any personal representative later appointed |
| Michigan verified 2026-07-06 | MCL 700.3982 (court petition, 'Petition and Order for Assignment') and MCL 700.3983-.3984 (no-court affidavit), Estates and Protected Individuals Code |
$53,000 for a 2026 death, both tracks: indexed annually under MCL 700.1210; §3982's real-property lien deduction is capped separately at $264,000 for 2026 |
Two shapes: §3982 is a true court petition needing a judge's signed order; §3983's sworn statement is presented directly to the holder, no court filing at all |
None stated for the §3982 court petition; 28 days after death for the §3983 affidavit |
Both work regardless of a will, but differently: §3982's petition assigns the property to the surviving spouse or heirs by law even if there's a will, ignoring its devisees; §3983's affidavit lets a will's devisee (or an intestate heir) act as successor and collect directly |
Only through the §3982 court petition; the §3983 affidavit affirmatively excludes any estate that includes real property, no matter how small its value |
Petition track (form PC 556): petitioner's signature under penalty of perjury, no notary, but a judge must sign the order; affidavit track (form PC 598): sworn statement signed before a notary public |
§3984 discharges a holder who pays or delivers property under a valid §3983 affidavit, the same as dealing with a personal representative; an heir who receives property under a §3982 order is liable for the decedent's unsatisfied debts for only 63 days, but nothing in §3982-.3984 caps at 63 days the liability of an affidavit recipient who isn't a surviving spouse or minor child |
| Minnesota verified 2026-07-06 | Minn. Stat. § 524.3-1201 (collection of personal property by affidavit) |
$75,000 or less for the entire probate estate, a flat statutory figure with no inflation indexing |
No: the affidavit is presented directly to the holder, with no petition or court filing |
30 days after death (or 30 days after a safe-deposit-box inventory is filed, for box contents specifically) |
Either: available to a successor named in a will or entitled by intestate succession |
No: the official instructions require that the probate estate contain NO real property at all before this affidavit can be used; there is no separate real-property track |
Sworn affidavit, notarized (or sworn before a deputy court administrator per the official form); no separate witnesses required |
Yes: the holder is discharged to the same extent as dealing with a personal representative and need not verify the affidavit's truth, including a safe-deposit box's contents; the recipient stays answerable to any later-appointed personal representative or anyone with a superior claim |
| Mississippi verified 2026-07-06 | Miss. Code Ann. § 91-7-322 ('Payment of indebtedness or delivery of personal property of decedent to decedent's successor; affidavit of successor'), the no-court affidavit; a separate, will-only mechanism, § 91-5-35 ('Muniment of Title'), lets a chancery court admit a will just to transfer Mississippi real property, conditioned on the decedent's non-real-property estate also falling under § 91-7-322's own dollar figure |
$75,000, covering the 'entire probate estate... wherever located,' excluding liens and encumbrances. Not CPI-indexed. Raised from $50,000 to $75,000 by a 2020 act (Laws 2020, ch. 343, S.B. 2850, eff. 7/1/2020); a 2025 bill (HB 164) that would have raised it further to $100,000 died in committee on 2025-02-04 and is not law |
No: the affidavit is presented directly to whoever owes the decedent money or holds the decedent's property; nothing is filed with any court or clerk. (The separate Muniment of Title track for real property IS a genuine chancery court petition, just one that skips appointing an executor or administrator) |
30 days after death: the affidavit may be used 'at any time after thirty (30) days from the death of a decedent' |
Neither required nor barred, but with a distinctive twist: § 91-7-322 doesn't ask whether there's a will at all. Instead it defines 'successor', the only person who may sign the affidavit, by a FIXED relationship order (spouse, then children, then grandchildren, then a parent or sibling) that applies the same way whether or not a will exists. A will's own beneficiary isn't automatically the 'successor' unless that beneficiary also happens to be highest on this relationship list; the actual successor who collects the property must then account to 'those having a superior right,' which can include a different will beneficiary |
No: § 91-7-322's affidavit only reaches 'tangible personal property or an instrument evidencing a debt, obligation, stock, or chose in action'; there's no mechanism in the section for transferring real estate. Real property has its own, entirely separate track: Muniment of Title (§ 91-5-35), available ONLY when the decedent left a valid will devising the real property, and only if the decedent's non-real-property estate (excluding real property and certain exempt property) also falls at or under the same $75,000 figure used in § 91-7-322 |
A true sworn affidavit: Mississippi's own official probate form (and county-court versions of it) has the affiant 'SWORN TO AND SUBSCRIBED before' a notary public, with a notary seal/commission-expiration block; no witness signatures are required |
Yes, on both sides. A holder who pays, delivers, or transfers property under the affidavit 'shall be discharged and released to the same extent as if such person had dealt with a personal representative,' with no duty to inquire into the truth of the affidavit; if a holder wrongfully refuses, the successor can sue in chancery court to compel delivery. The successor who actually receives the property, in turn, 'shall be answerable and accountable to the personal representative of the estate, if any, or to any other person having a superior right': an open-ended, uncapped exposure |
| Missouri verified 2026-07-06 | RSMo § 473.097 (small estate: distribution of assets without letters); a separate, uncapped mechanism for a surviving spouse or minor children's exempt property exists under § 473.090 and is not covered by this dollar-threshold answer |
$40,000 or less for the ENTIRE estate, real and personal property combined, less liens, debt, and encumbrances; a single flat figure covering both kinds of property together, not two separate caps |
A sworn affidavit and a required bond (unless the court waives it) must be filed with the clerk of the probate division, who reviews it and attaches a certificate; if the estate exceeds $15,000, the clerk must also publish a notice to creditors in a local newspaper for two consecutive weeks before the process is complete |
30 days after the decedent's death, and only if no application for letters, administration, or refusal of letters is pending or has been granted (unless a prior refusal of letters was later revoked) |
Both: works whether the decedent left a will or died intestate, but if there IS a will, it must have already been independently presented for probate within the statute's own filing deadline before the small estate affidavit can rely on it |
Yes, genuinely and directly: unlike states that wall real estate off into a separate mechanism, Missouri's single $40,000 threshold counts real and personal property together, and the SAME clerk-certified affidavit doubles as the document a distributee records with the county recorder of deeds to establish title to real property |
The statute itself requires only a sworn affidavit with no separate witness clause; county probate court intake checklists (reviewed for this page) direct that the affidavit must be notarized or signed in front of the probate clerk |
Missouri doesn't use a separate 'holder discharge' clause the way some states do: instead it requires a bond (unless waived) conditioned on paying the decedent's debts, including debts to the state, funeral and burial costs, complying with future court orders, and delivering any excess property to the rightful owners; separately, the affiant's OWN personal liability for unpaid claims is capped at the value of the property the affiant actually received |
| Montana verified 2026-07-06 | Mont. Code Ann. § 72-3-1101 (collection of personal property by affidavit) and § 72-3-1102 (effect of the affidavit); separately, §§ 72-3-1103 and 72-3-1104 let a personal representative in an estate that's ALREADY open under summary administration close it out with a sworn statement, a distinct later-stage shortcut, not a way to avoid opening probate at all |
$100,000, a flat figure raised from $50,000 by a 2023 amendment (2023 Mont. Laws ch. 453), not indexed for inflation. A narrow separate carve-out in § 72-3-1101(2) lets the Department of Revenue refund UNCLAIMED property (a distinct escheat-type category under Title 70, chapter 9, part 8) of $5,000 or less to a successor regardless of the estate's overall value, a different, narrower exception, not a general alternate threshold |
No: the affidavit is presented directly to the bank, employer, transfer agent, or other holder of the property, never filed with any court. The separate §§ 72-3-1103/-1104 mechanism only applies once an estate is already open under court-supervised summary administration with an appointed personal representative, who then files a sworn closing statement with the court itself |
30 days after the decedent's death, measured from the date of death itself |
Both: § 72-3-1101 applies to 'a person claiming to be the successor of the decedent' without separately defining that term by will-beneficiary or intestate-heir status, so it works the same way whichever applies |
No. The affidavit is limited by its own text to 'tangible personal property or an instrument evidencing a debt, obligation, stock, or chose in action': no mention of real estate anywhere in the section. Montana's own state courts' self-help materials say so explicitly: 'You cannot use this packet for real property, like land or a house' |
Sworn and notarized. The statute's own text just calls for 'an affidavit,' but Montana's official court-approved form (Affidavit for Collection of Personal Property, courts.mt.gov) has the affiant swear the statements 'after being first duly sworn' and includes a full notary acknowledgment block; no separate witness requirement appears anywhere |
Strong and explicit. § 72-3-1102 discharges the person who pays, delivers, transfers, or issues property under the affidavit 'to the same extent as if the person dealt with a personal representative,' with no duty to inquire into the truth of any statement in the affidavit. The person who received the property, not the holder who handed it over, stays answerable and accountable to any personal representative or other person with a superior right |
| Nebraska verified 2026-07-06 | Neb. Rev. Stat. § 30-24,125 ('Collection of personal property by affidavit') and § 30-24,126 ('Effect of affidavit') for personal property; § 30-24,129 ('Succession to real property by affidavit') for real property: all part of Nebraska's Uniform Probate Code, Chapter 30, Article 24, Part 12. A separate 'summary administration' track (a lighter COURT process, not an affidavit) is also available when the estate's value doesn't exceed the decedent's homestead, exempt-property, and family allowances plus administration/funeral/medical costs |
$100,000 for personal property (§ 30-24,125(a)(1)) and a SEPARATE $100,000 for real property (§ 30-24,129(a)(1), based on assessed value on the year of death, less real estate taxes due). Neither figure is CPI-indexed. Both were raised from $50,000: the real-property cap by 2024 LB1195, effective July 19, 2024. Several secondary sources (a 50-state survey aggregator, a state-bar-adjacent probate summary) still show the pre-2024 $50,000 figures for one or both tracks: confirm the $100,000 current figure against the live statute text, not an older summary |
No for personal property, the affidavit goes directly to the bank or other holder, and Nebraska's own courts explicitly instruct filers: 'Do not file the Affidavit for Transfer of Personal Property with a court.' Real property works differently: that affidavit must be signed by ALL successors and RECORDED with the county register of deeds (a county recording office, not a court) in every county where the property sits, a filing step, but not a judicial one |
30 days after death for both the personal-property and real-property affidavits |
Neither required nor barred for personal property: the successor states a relationship to the decedent 'or, if there is no relationship, the basis of the successor's claim,' covering both a will beneficiary and an intestate heir. The real-property affidavit is more specific: the successor must be entitled by homestead allowance, exempt-property allowance, family allowance, intestate succession, OR devise under a will (attaching a copy of the will if claiming that way), and must affirmatively state an investigation turned up no later will |
Yes, through a wholly separate affidavit (§ 30-24,129), not the personal-property affidavit itself. It must be signed by every successor claiming an interest, requires the claimant to have investigated for and found no subsequent will, and is recorded with the register of deeds rather than presented to a private holder, a materially different mechanism from the bank-facing personal-property track even though both now share the same $100,000 cap |
The statutes themselves require only a sworn or affirmed affidavit, with false statements exposing the signer to perjury penalties under § 28-915; no witness requirement appears in either section. In practice, the state's own official court forms (both the personal-property and real-property versions) must be signed in the presence of a notary public, and the personal-property form's own instructions warn: do not sign until a notary is present and watching you sign |
Yes, on both sides, for personal property. Under § 30-24,126, a person who pays, delivers, or transfers property under the affidavit 'is discharged and released to the same extent as if he dealt with a personal representative,' with no duty to inquire into the truth of the affidavit; a holder who wrongly refuses can be compelled by court proceeding. The person who actually collects the property is separately 'answerable and accountable ... to any personal representative of the estate or to any other person having a superior right': with liability further capped by the courts' own guidance at no more than the value of property actually received, and a 3-year (or 1-year-post-distribution, whichever is later) limit on creditor recovery. The real-property affidavit's own text focuses on making the affidavit 'prima facie evidence of the facts stated' rather than a parallel holder-discharge clause, since there's no private holder involved |
| Nevada verified 2026-07-06 | NRS 146.080 ('Estates not exceeding certain amounts: Transfer of assets without issuance of letters of administration or probate of will'), a no-court affidavit reaching personal property only; and, separately, NRS 146.070 ('Estates not exceeding $150,000... Procedure to set aside estate'), a court petition that can reach real property too |
Two different figures for two different tracks, neither CPI-indexed. NRS 146.080's affidavit uses a two-tier 'applicable amount': $150,000 if the claimant is the decedent's surviving spouse, but only $25,000 for any other claimant, and the calculation excludes amounts due the decedent for U.S. Armed Forces service and the value of any registered motor vehicles. NRS 146.070's court set-aside is a single flat $150,000 regardless of who's claiming. Both figures were raised by the Nevada Legislature in 2025 (Stats. 2025, at 2311 and 2314/3616), some still-circulating secondary sources describe the older $100,000 (146.070) and $25,000/$100,000 (146.080 general/spouse) figures, which are now superseded |
Splits by track: NO court role for the NRS 146.080 affidavit, presented directly to whoever holds or owes the decedent's property (except that if property sits in another state requiring a court order, or must be transferred by an out-of-state stock/bond agent, the claimant instead files an ex parte court petition for a transfer order, using the same dollar caps); YES for NRS 146.070, a genuine petition with notice to heirs, devisees, and the state health authority, and a hearing before the court's order issues |
40 days after death for the NRS 146.080 affidavit, PLUS a separate condition: the affiant must give 14 days' written notice to anyone with an equal or superior right to the property before using the affidavit. NRS 146.070 proceedings 'must not begin until at least 30 days after the death of the decedent' |
Both, on both tracks: NRS 146.080 covers 'a person who has a right to succeed to the property... pursuant to the laws of succession for a decedent who died intestate or pursuant to the valid will of a decedent who died testate'; NRS 146.070's petition likewise distributes 'pursuant to a valid will,' or by intestate succession if there is none |
No for the NRS 146.080 affidavit, an absolute bar, not a partial exclusion: it's only available if 'a decedent leaves no real property, nor interest therein, nor mortgage or lien thereon, in this State' at all. Yes for NRS 146.070's court set-aside, the statute sets no personal-property-only limit, and the whole 'estate' (which can include real property) is what gets set aside by the court's order |
A true sworn affidavit for NRS 146.080: the statute doesn't spell out a notary requirement in so many words, but Nevada's own courts self-help center confirms the affidavit must be 'signed in front of a notary,' consistent with the ordinary legal meaning of 'affidavit'; no witness signatures required. NRS 146.070 instead requires a verified court petition, not a notarized affidavit |
Yes for both, but structured differently. NRS 146.080(4) immunizes a holder who relies in good faith on a facially valid affidavit from civil liability; on the other side, an affiant who submits a false or incomplete affidavit exposes the property received to all the decedent's debts, and an affiant who skips the required notice to other successors holds the property 'in trust' for them instead. NRS 146.070's protection instead comes from the court's own order, the same protection an ordinary probate distribution gives |
| New Hampshire verified 2026-07-06 | RSA 553:32 (Waiver of Administration: a reduced-oversight full administration available regardless of estate value) is the closest thing New Hampshire has to a small-estate shortcut; RSA 553:33 (Summary Administration) is a separate, later-stage closing mechanism for an estate that's ALREADY been open 6+ months, not a way to avoid opening probate in the first place. New Hampshire's former dollar-based small estate statute, RSA 553:31 ('Voluntary Administration'), was repealed effective January 1, 2006, and no value-based replacement has been enacted since |
None. Unlike every other state in this survey, New Hampshire's Waiver of Administration doesn't gate on the estate's dollar value at all: it gates on WHO the beneficiaries or heirs are. An estate of any size qualifies if a sole named beneficiary (or sole heir) is appointed administrator, or if every beneficiary or heir agrees in writing to serve as co-administrators or to appoint someone. New Hampshire did have a value-based small estate procedure once (former RSA 553:31), but it was repealed for any death on or after January 1, 2006, with no dollar-based mechanism enacted to replace it |
Yes, more so than in most states' shortcuts: there is no private, bank-facing affidavit at all. An interested person must open a full probate case (a Petition for Estate Administration, filed with the Circuit Court Probate Division) and be appointed administrator or executor by the court before doing anything else; the 'waiver' only removes the inventory, bond, and accounting requirements that an ordinary administration would otherwise carry, not the court process itself |
No wait to open the case, a Petition for Estate Administration can be filed as soon as a death certificate is available. Closing the estate is timed differently: the administrator cannot file the sworn affidavit of administration that ends the case until at least 6 months, and no more than 1 year (extendable by the court for good cause), after the date of their OWN court appointment, a length-of-administration floor, not a days-after-death waiting period the way most other states frame it |
Both, but who specifically may use it is defined by relationship, not by a generic 'successor' concept. Testate: available if the will names one sole beneficiary who becomes administrator, if every named beneficiary agrees to serve as co-administrators or to appoint someone with unanimous assent, or if a trust is the sole beneficiary and its trustee(s) serve. Intestate: available if there's a sole heir who becomes administrator, or if every heir agrees the same way. The court can also allow it 'whenever, in the discretion of the court, the court determines it is appropriate under the circumstances': a catch-all beyond the listed categories |
Yes. Because this is a real, court-supervised administration rather than a private affidavit, it reaches real property along with everything else in the estate. The closing affidavit of administration must affirmatively 'list all real estate owned by the decedent at the time of death, including the location, book, and page,' confirming real property passes through this same process rather than needing a separate track |
The administrator's closing filing is a sworn statement (an affidavit of administration) filed with and approved by the probate court; the statute doesn't add a separate witness requirement on top of the oath. There's no private, bank-facing notarized affidavit anywhere in this mechanism the way most other states' small-estate procedures use one, since the whole process runs through an already-open court case from the start |
No separate holder-discharge clause exists in RSA 553:32, and none is needed the way one is in a bank-facing-affidavit state: by the time anyone deals with the estate's assets, the administrator already holds the probate court's own certificate of appointment (letters of administration): the same authority any personal representative has in an ordinary administration. Banks and other holders rely on that court appointment itself, not on a private affidavit's own liability-shifting language |
| New Jersey verified 2026-07-06 | N.J.S.A. 3B:10-3 (surviving spouse/civil union partner/domestic partner) and 3B:10-4 (heir, with other heirs' written consent); N.J.S.A. 3B:10-5 discharges a holder who relies on either affidavit |
$50,000 for the spouse/partner track (3B:10-3); $20,000 for the no-spouse heir track (3B:10-4): both count real AND personal assets together, not personal property alone; the spouse/partner track additionally exempts the first $10,000 from the decedent's debts |
No hearing or judge's order, but the affidavit itself must be executed before the county Surrogate or the Superior Court (not a private notary alone), then filed and recorded there |
None stated in either 3B:10-3 or 3B:10-4: unlike New Jersey's formal-administration process, the small-estate affidavit sections impose no minimum number of days after death |
Intestate only: both 3B:10-3 and 3B:10-4 apply only to 'the estate of an intestate'; New Jersey has no equivalent no-administration shortcut for an estate with a will |
Yes: both tracks reach 'the real and personal assets of the estate' together and vest the affiant with an administrator's full rights and duties over both, a broader scope than most states' personal-property-only affidavits |
The affidavit must be executed in person before the county Surrogate (or the Superior Court), not merely signed before any private notary; the heir track (3B:10-4) additionally requires the written consent of every other heir, filed along with the affidavit |
Strong: 3B:10-5 discharges any bank or other holder that pays or delivers assets on a certified true copy of the affidavit, 'notwithstanding' that the estate actually exceeds the dollar limit, the affidavit's statements are erroneous, or (for the heir track) the required consent was never obtained |
| New Mexico verified 2026-07-06 | N.M. Stat. Ann. § 45-3-1201 ('Collection of personal property by affidavit') and § 45-3-1202 ('Effect of affidavit'), Chapter 45 (Uniform Probate Code), Article 3, Part 12 |
$50,000, testing 'the value of the entire estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances.' Not CPI-indexed. Raised from $30,000 to $50,000 effective January 1, 2012 (2011, ch. 124, § 50); no bill to raise it further was found pending in the current session |
No: the affidavit is presented directly to whoever holds the decedent's property (a bank, a corporate transfer agent for securities, etc.); nothing is filed with a court. (Some county probate-court forms are captioned with a case-number blank as a matter of local practice, but the statute itself creates no filing requirement) |
30 days after death: the statute requires the affidavit state that '(2) thirty days have elapsed since the death of the decedent' |
Neither required nor barred: New Mexico's general Uniform Probate Code definitions (§ 45-1-201(A)(50)) define 'successors' as 'persons, other than creditors, who are entitled to property of a decedent under the decedent's will or the Uniform Probate Code,' covering both a will beneficiary and an intestate heir |
No, § 45-3-1201(C) says so directly: 'The affidavit made pursuant to this section may not be used to perfect title to real estate.' A separate, narrower mechanism (§ 45-3-1205, an Affidavit of Surviving Spouse) lets a surviving spouse claim just the couple's primary residence after 6 months, capped at $500,000 in assessed value, but only for a spouse and only for that one residence, a distinct procedure from this general small-estate affidavit, not an extension of it |
The statute itself doesn't spell out a signing ceremony: it only requires 'an affidavit made by or on behalf of the successor' stating the required facts. Every official county and self-help affidavit form has the affiant swear to the statement and sign before a notary public, who completes an acknowledgment block; no witness signatures are required |
Yes, on both sides. Under § 45-3-1202, a person who pays, delivers, or transfers property under the affidavit 'is discharged and released to the same extent as if he dealt with a personal representative,' with no duty to inquire into the truth of the affidavit; a holder who wrongly refuses can be compelled by a court proceeding. Separately, 'any person to whom payment, delivery, transfer or issuance is made is answerable and accountable therefor to any personal representative of the estate or to any other person having a superior right': an open-ended exposure for the person who actually collects the property |
| New York verified 2026-07-06 | N.Y. SCPA art. 13 (§§ 1301-1312), "Settlement of Small Estates Without Court Administration" |
$50,000 in personal property, excluding EPTL § 5-3.1(a) exempt property (since 11/25/2019) |
Filed with the Surrogate's Court clerk ($1 fee): no judge's order needed |
None: usable immediately after death |
Both: named executor has first right if there's a will; distributees if intestate |
No: excluded entirely, even if the decedent also owned real property |
A notarized affidavit in the official court form: no witnesses required |
Yes: delivery of the court's short certificate fully discharges the holder |
| North Carolina verified 2026-07-06 | N.C. Gen. Stat. § 28A-25-1 (intestate) and § 28A-25-1.1 (testate), both 'Collection of property by affidavit' |
$20,000 personal property net of liens; up to $30,000 if the affiant is the surviving spouse and sole heir/devisee, net of any year's allowance already paid |
No hearing or judge's order needed, but the affidavit must be filed with the clerk of superior court before any assets are collected |
30 days after death, under both the intestate and testate tracks |
Both: parallel intestate (§ 28A-25-1) and testate (§ 28A-25-1.1) versions of the same procedure |
No: personal property only; real property must be listed in the affidavit but isn't transferred by it |
A sworn affidavit (official form AOC-E-203B), in practice notarized and typically signed by all distributees |
Yes: § 28A-25-2 discharges anyone who pays/delivers property on a valid affidavit, same as dealing with a personal representative |
| North Dakota verified 2026-07-06 | N.D.C.C. §§ 30.1-23-01 (the affidavit and threshold), 30.1-23-02 (effect on the holder) |
$100,000 (raised from $50,000 by 2025 HB 1224, eff. 8/1/2025), net of liens, for the entire estate |
No: affidavit goes directly to the debtor/property holder, not to any court |
30 days after death |
Both: the statute applies to any 'successor of the decedent' without limiting to testate or intestate |
No: the statute doesn't obligate anyone holding real property; any real estate bars use of this affidavit entirely |
No witnesses in the statute; a sworn affidavit, notarized in practice via the courts' own form |
Yes: holder discharged (§ 30.1-23-02); the recipient stays answerable to a personal representative or superior claimant |
| Ohio verified 2026-07-06 | R.C. § 2113.03 (Release from Administration); § 2113.031 (Summary Release from Administration) |
$35,000 general, or $100,000 if spouse gets everything (§ 2113.03); $5,000 (non-spouse funeral payor) or up to $45,000 (spouse) (§ 2113.031) |
Yes for both: a probate court application and order; Ohio has no no-court private affidavit |
None stated in either section; real property stays subject to creditor claims until the 6-month bar under § 2117.06 runs |
Both: available whether the decedent left a will or died intestate, under either section |
Yes for both: the court's order can transfer real estate, not just personal property (§§ 2113.03(B)/(E), 2113.031(D)(3)) |
§ 2113.031's application must be signed and acknowledged before a notary or deputy clerk; § 2113.03 has no comparable statutory requirement |
Yes: the court's order protects an innocent purchaser/holder the same as formal administration would (§§ 2113.03(G), 2113.031(E)) |
| Oklahoma verified 2026-07-06 | 58 O.S. §§ 393-394 (a no-court 'small estate affidavit' for personal property only) and, separately, 58 O.S. §§ 245-247 ('summary administration,' a court-supervised track that also reaches real property); a different section, § 241, only simplifies procedure inside an ALREADY-OPEN probate and isn't a separate small-estate track |
Two independent flat figures for two different tracks: $50,000 (58 O.S. § 393(A)(1)) for the no-court affidavit, measuring the fair market value of property subject to disposition by will or intestate succession, less liens and encumbrances; $200,000 (58 O.S. § 245(A)(1)) for court-filed summary administration, which also automatically qualifies any estate regardless of value if the decedent has been dead more than 5 years or lived out of state at death. Neither figure is CPI-indexed. Enacted but not yet effective: 2026 HB 2650 (signed 4/27/2026) raises the summary-administration threshold to $300,000; the enrolled act has no emergency clause, so it takes effect under Oklahoma's default constitutional rule of 90 days after the legislature's sine die adjournment (Okla. Const. art. V, § 58); the 2026 session adjourned sine die 2026-05-14, putting the effective date at 2026-08-12, still future as of this page's verification. The $50,000 affidavit threshold is untouched |
Splits by track: NO court role for the § 393 affidavit, presented directly to the debtor, holder, or transfer agent; YES for summary administration (§§ 245-247), a real court petition with a combined notice, published notice, and (absent a proper waiver) a hearing before the court issues a final order |
10 days after death for the § 393 no-court affidavit ('At any time ten (10) or more days after the date of death'); no comparable death-triggered wait for summary administration, whose timing instead runs off the filing date |
Both, on both tracks: § 393 doesn't mention testacy at all, so it applies regardless of a will; § 245(B) expressly contemplates either a will (attached to the petition, with a diligence statement) or intestacy (a statement that the petitioner diligently searched and found none) |
No for the § 393 affidavit: limited to tangible personal property, debts owed to the decedent, and instruments evidencing debt/stock/a chose in action (severed mineral interests have their own separate heirship-affidavit mechanism under § 393(D)); yes for summary administration, whose petition must list the legal description of all Oklahoma real property and whose order gets recorded with the county clerk where that real property sits |
Just a sworn affidavit for § 393: the statute requires an 'affidavit' (inherently sworn) with no separate witness requirement in the text; summary administration instead requires the petition to be verified by the petitioner or signed by the petitioner's attorney (§ 245(C)), not notarized or witnessed |
Yes, explicit and strong for the § 393 affidavit route: § 394 discharges the person who pays or delivers property 'to the same extent as if the person dealt with a personal representative,' with no duty to inquire into the affidavit's truth, while the recipient of the property stays personally 'answerable and accountable' to any personal representative or person with a superior right; § 393(E) separately criminalizes a knowingly false affidavit. Summary administration's protection instead comes from the court's own final order, which 'shall have the same force and effect as a final decree' |
| Oregon verified 2026-07-06 | ORS 114.505 to 114.560 ('Simple Estates'); 114.510 sets the dollar/eligibility criteria, 114.515 the filing procedure, 114.525 the affidavit's required contents, 114.535/.545/.547/.549/.555/.560 the transfer, fiduciary-duty, sale, liability, and remedy mechanics. Formerly called a 'small estate affidavit,' renamed 'simple estate affidavit' by 2021 and 2023 amendments |
Two separate flat caps, not one combined figure, $75,000 for personal property excluding manufactured homes, and $200,000 for the combined value of real property plus manufactured homes (ORS 114.510(1)(a)), valued at full fair market value with no deduction for liens or debts, as of the date of death (or within 45 days of filing if filed more than a year after death). Not CPI-indexed, a 2025 committee draft of SB 15 would have added automatic annual inflation adjustment, but that language was dropped before final enactment; the figures currently in force are flat |
A court filing, but administrative rather than adjudicated: the affidavit is filed with the clerk of the probate court, not presented directly to a bank, and the clerk 'may acknowledge' it after checking the affiant's ID and sworn statement, with no judge's hearing unless a dispute later arises (ORS 114.515(1), (8)) |
30 days after death: 'A simple estate affidavit may not be filed until 30 days after the death of the decedent' (ORS 114.515(3)) |
Both: available for intestate estates and for testate estates generally (ORS 114.510(1)(a)), plus a distinct testate-with-trust variant where only specifically-devised property is capped and the residual estate passes to the decedent's pre-existing inter vivos trust with no cap at all (ORS 114.510(1)(b)) |
Yes, up to $200,000 combined with manufactured homes (ORS 114.510(1)(a)(B)), but transferring it requires every heir or devisee who would succeed to that specific interest to join in the conveyance (ORS 114.547(1)(a)); if one refuses, only a Medicaid/public-assistance-recovery affiant approved under ORS 114.517 may convey unilaterally to a third party for value (ORS 114.545(2)) |
No notary and no witnesses: the affiant's own statement under penalty of perjury is enough; the probate court clerk 'may acknowledge' the affidavit after checking the affiant's identification, but that's an identity check by the clerk, not a notarial act (ORS 114.515(8)) |
Strong, on multiple fronts: a bank or other holder that pays a debt or delivers property under the affidavit 'is discharged and released from any liability... in the same manner... as if... delivered to a personal representative' (ORS 114.535(4)); a financial institution that opens a deposit account for the affiant is separately not liable for opening it or for the affiant's later withdrawals (ORS 114.545(5)); a good-faith purchaser of estate property from the affiant takes free of any claiming successor's interest (ORS 114.547(6)). The affiant is personally a fiduciary who remains answerable to creditors and to any later-appointed personal representative for property received (ORS 114.545(1), (4)) |
| Pennsylvania verified 2026-07-06 | 20 Pa.C.S. §§ 3101 (direct payments) & 3102 (settlement of small estates) |
$50,000 gross value, excluding real estate and § 3101 payments (§ 3102) |
Yes: a petition to Orphans' Court, decided at the judge's discretion |
None for the § 3102 petition; life insurance payout waits 60 days (§ 3101(d)) |
Both: available whether or not letters issued or a will was probated |
No: excluded entirely, regardless of the estate's size |
None: petition just needs to be verified and signed (Pa.O.C. Rule 3.4(d)) |
Yes: the court's decree (or a § 3101 payment) fully protects the holder |
| Rhode Island verified 2026-07-06 | R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 33-24-1 (intestate) and 33-24-2 (named executor); heirs figured under § 33-1-10 |
$15,000 of intangible personal property; tangible personal property is excluded from the calculation entirely |
Yes: filed with and certified by the probate court, but no hearing required in the ordinary case |
30 days after death |
Either: § 33-24-1 for intestacy, § 33-24-2 (nearly identical) for a will naming an executor |
No: the estate must consist entirely of personal property; any real property bars this procedure altogether |
No witnesses. The statement must be 'verified by oath or affirmation' before the court |
Yes for the holder (discharged); the voluntary administrator/executor personally answers for mishandling |
| South Carolina verified 2026-07-06 | S.C. Code Ann. § 62-3-1201 (collection of personal property by affidavit); § 62-3-1202 (effect of the affidavit) |
$45,000 or less for the entire probate estate, raised from $25,000 by 2025 Act No. 26 (H.3472), effective 5/8/2025 |
A hybrid: the affidavit must be approved and countersigned by the probate judge and filed with the probate court, but without a hearing |
30 days after death |
Both: covers property passing under the decedent's will plus property passing by intestacy |
No: the qualifying estate value excludes any interest in real property entirely, per the affidavit's own official form |
Sworn affidavit notarized before the affidavit is submitted; no separate witnesses required |
Yes: a holder who relies on a valid affidavit containing the statute's own no-liability clause is discharged the same as if dealing with a personal representative, with no duty to verify it; the recipient stays accountable to any later personal representative or superior claimant |
| South Dakota verified 2026-07-06 | SDCL §§ 29A-3-1201, -1202 (personal property affidavit); § 29A-3-1203 (separate real-property affidavit) |
$100,000 for the whole estate (personal-property affidavit); a separate $50,000 cap for the real-property affidavit |
No: personal property affidavit goes to the holder directly; real property affidavit files with the Register of Deeds, not a court |
30 days for personal property; 60 days for real property: two different clocks |
Both: neither section is limited to a will or to intestacy |
Yes, but only through the separate $50,000 real-property affidavit (§ 29A-3-1203), not the personal-property one |
No witnesses in either section; both are sworn affidavits, notarized in practice |
Yes: holder/purchaser discharged in both tracks; the recipient stays answerable to anyone with a superior right |
| Tennessee verified 2026-07-06 | T.C.A. Title 30, ch. 4, the Small Estate Probate Act: §§ 30-4-102 (definitions), 30-4-103 (petition and issuance of Limited Letters), and 30-4-104 (effect and liability); § 30-4-105 was repealed in 2023 |
$50,000 or less in personal property: a flat figure, not indexed, and by definition excludes real property entirely from the calculation |
Yes, and more formally than a simple affidavit since a 2023 rewrite: a sworn PETITION is filed with the probate court, and the clerk issues 'Limited Letters of Administration' (or 'Limited Letters Testamentary') once the petitioner posts a bond equal to the property's value or qualifies for a bond waiver; the statute doesn't describe a separate hearing |
45 days after the decedent's death, waivable by the court for good cause shown, and only if no one has already filed to appoint a full personal representative |
Both: an intestate heir files one kind of petition (§ 30-4-103(1)(A)); if there's a will, the named executor instead either petitions to probate the will as a muniment of title, or simply records the original will with witness affidavits (§ 30-4-103(1)(B)) |
Excluded from this chapter entirely by definition: 'property' under § 30-4-102(8) means only personal property, so real property never counts toward the $50,000 threshold and Limited Letters give the representative no authority over real estate at all, but owning real estate elsewhere doesn't disqualify the personal property from using this chapter |
The petition itself must be sworn, with no separate witness requirement for the standard route; but a testator's WILL can be recorded without a muniment-of-title probate petition only if accompanied by the attesting witnesses' affidavits, or, for a holographic will, affidavits from two disinterested people attesting to the decedent's handwriting |
Two-sided: anyone who pays, transfers, or delivers property to the holder of Limited Letters is discharged to the same extent as if dealing with a fully appointed personal representative, with no duty to verify how it's used; separately, the person who actually RECEIVES the property stays personally liable for a full year afterward to unpaid creditors, anyone with a prior right, or a later-appointed personal representative |
| Texas verified 2026-07-06 | Tex. Estates Code ch. 205 (§§ 205.001-.009) |
$75,000, excluding homestead and exempt property (§ 205.001(3)) |
Yes: filed with the court clerk and must be approved by a judge |
30 days after death |
Intestate only: barred if the decedent left a will |
Homestead only, and only if it's the sole real property in the estate |
Sworn to by 2 disinterested witnesses plus every distributee |
Yes: holder released same as paying a personal representative; signers stay liable for errors |
| Utah verified 2026-07-06 | Utah Code § 75-3-1201 (Title 75, Utah Uniform Probate Code, Ch. 3, Part 12), 'Collection of personal property by affidavit'; § 75-3-1202 sets the holder's discharge and recipient-liability rules. A separate, unrelated mechanism, §§ 75-3-1203-1204 ('summary administrative procedure'), only speeds up CLOSING an estate that already has a personal representative appointed: it isn't a substitute for opening probate the way § 75-3-1201's affidavit is, and Utah has no separate small-estate track just for real property |
$100,000 flat, unchanged since at least 2007 and not CPI-indexed. The cap is 'the value of the entire estate subject to administration, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances' (§ 75-3-1201(1)(a)), and the Code's own definitions make 'estate' and 'property' include real property, so a decedent's real estate counts toward that $100,000 figure even though the affidavit itself can never transfer title to it. A 2025 amendment (Chapter 123, HB 89, 'Water Transfer Amendments') added a water-company-shares exclusion and updated a vehicle-title cross-reference; it left the dollar figure untouched |
No: the affidavit is presented directly to whoever owes money to, or holds property of, the decedent (a bank, a debtor, a stock transfer agent, or the Motor Vehicle Division for up to four vehicles or boats); nothing is filed with a court. The affidavit itself must swear that no application or petition for a personal representative is pending or has been granted in ANY jurisdiction |
30 days after the date of death (§ 75-3-1201(1), (1)(b)) before the affidavit may be presented; there's no separate or different wait for any part of this procedure |
Both: § 75-3-1201 doesn't mention testacy at all, and Utah's definition of 'successor' (the person entitled to use the affidavit) covers both a will beneficiary and an intestate heir (§ 75-1-201(59)). A companion section, § 75-3-102, expressly exempts this affidavit from the Code's general rule that a will must be probated before it can transfer property |
No, the affidavit only reaches tangible personal property, debts and choses in action owed to the decedent, securities (through a transfer agent), and up to four vehicles or boats (through the Motor Vehicle Division); it provides no mechanism at all to transfer real estate, and Utah has no separate small-estate track for real property the way some states do. Because the $100,000 cap counts the value of the ENTIRE estate 'wherever located', which, under the Code's own definitions, includes real property, owning a house or land of real value will typically push the estate over the cap and block the affidavit even for the personal property alone. That's why Utah's own courts self-help page states flatly that 'there is no real property' as a requirement, even though the statute's own text never uses those words |
A true sworn affidavit, not a mere declaration: the official court form requires the signer to sign 'while under oath or affirmation' in a notary's presence, with a notary seal block; no witness signatures are required anywhere in the statute or the form |
Yes, on both sides. Section 75-3-1202 discharges the person who pays, delivers, or transfers property 'to the same extent as if he dealt with a personal representative,' with no duty to inquire into the truth of the affidavit; a holder who wrongfully refuses can be sued and, at the court's discretion, held liable for up to three times the property's value plus costs and attorney fees. Whoever actually RECEIVES the property under the affidavit stays personally 'answerable and accountable' to any personal representative later appointed, or to anyone else with a superior right: an open-ended exposure, not capped at fair market value the way some states cap it |
| Vermont verified 2026-07-06 | 14 V.S.A. § 1901 (commencing the small estate); § 1902 (letters of administration and notice) |
$45,000, a flat figure covering the entire personal-property estate |
Yes: a real probate case is opened (petition, bond, letters of administration), just an abbreviated one, not a bank-facing affidavit |
None specified: the petition can be filed at any time after death, unlike most states' 30-60 day wait |
Both: § 1902(a) covers a testate estate (will admitted) and an intestate one in the same section |
No, except a time-share interest: the estate must consist entirely of personal property, with one named exception |
Not specified beyond the sworn petition and funeral-expenses affidavit filed with the court |
No small-estate-specific provision: the court issues actual Letters of Administration, so ordinary fiduciary law governs a holder's reliance |
| Virginia verified 2026-07-06 | Virginia Small Estate Act, Va. Code §§ 64.2-600 to -604 (Title 64.2, ch. 6, Article 1); the two main tracks are § 64.2-601 (affidavit) and § 64.2-602 (no-affidavit, permissive) |
$75,000 for the decedent's entire personal probate estate under § 64.2-601's affidavit; $35,000 per individual asset under § 64.2-602's no-affidavit track: both flat figures, raised from $50,000/$25,000 by 2025 c.148, effective 2025-07-01 |
No court role under either track: the affidavit (or, under § 64.2-602, nothing at all) is presented directly to whoever holds the asset; nothing is filed with a court |
60 days after death for both § 64.2-601 and § 64.2-602 (a separate, narrower funeral-expense-priority track under § 64.2-604 uses only 30 days) |
Both: works whether the decedent died testate or intestate, but if there is a will, § 64.2-601's affidavit requires it to already have been duly probated |
No: "small asset" is defined in § 64.2-600 to exclude real property entirely; neither track transfers real estate |
A sworn affidavit made by ALL known successors (not just one), on a form the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia prescribes; § 64.2-602's no-affidavit track needs no signed document of any kind |
§ 64.2-603 discharges a holder who pays or delivers under either § 64.2-601 or § 64.2-602 to the same extent as dealing with a personal representative, with no duty to verify the affidavit's truth; the recipient stays accountable to any later personal representative or a successor with an equal or superior right |
| Washington verified 2026-07-06 | RCW 11.62 ("Small Estates: Disposition of Property"): § 11.62.005 (definitions), § 11.62.010 (the affidavit itself), § 11.62.020 (discharge and effect) |
$100,000 for the decedent's entire estate subject to probate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances: a flat figure, not indexed for inflation, and NOT counting the surviving spouse's/domestic partner's own community-property interest |
None at all: the affidavit is presented directly to whoever holds the property, with no court role, though a copy (with the decedent's Social Security number) must be mailed to the state Department of Social and Health Services |
40 days after death before the affidavit can be used at all, PLUS, if there are other successors, an additional 10 days after giving them written notice of the claim |
Both: 'successor' is defined to include a will beneficiary, an intestate heir, OR a surviving spouse/domestic partner claiming their own community-property share; the same affidavit mechanism covers all three |
Counted toward the $100,000 cap if it's part of the probate estate, but never transferred by the affidavit: title to real property still requires some other process regardless of value |
A sworn affidavit (in practice notarized, 'subscribed and sworn to before' a notary on the standard form); if the claimant is collecting on other successors' behalf, each of them signs a separate written authorization/declaration under penalty of perjury |
§ 11.62.020 discharges a holder who pays, delivers, transfers, or issues property under a valid affidavit UNLESS the holder had actual knowledge a statement in it was false at the time; the recipient remains accountable to any later personal representative or anyone with a superior right |
| West Virginia verified 2026-07-06 | W. Va. Code §§ 44-1A-1 through 44-1A-4 (the West Virginia Small Estate Act, enacted 2021 by SB 80, eff. 7/1/2021), Chapter 44, Article 1A |
$50,000, testing the aggregate fair market value of the decedent's 'small assets' (probate personal property) as of the date of death. Not CPI-indexed. Originally (2021-2025) the Act ALSO let real property up to $100,000 qualify through the same recorded affidavit, that provision was removed by 2025 HB 2867 (eff. 7/9/2025), which now requires the decedent to own NO real property or interest in real property at all for the Act to apply to any part of the estate. The Act's own definitions section, § 44-1A-1(b)(5), was never updated to match, it still describes a 'small estate' as allowing up to $100,000 of real property, language now superseded in practice by § 44-1A-2's stricter, real-property-free eligibility test |
A hybrid: not a court petition, but not a pure private-holder affidavit either. The sworn affidavit is tendered for recording to the clerk of the county commission (or fiduciary supervisor), who reviews it for completeness and records it: no judge signs off at that stage. But any interested person can file a written objection within 30 days of the clerk mailing out copies, which sends the matter to a fiduciary commissioner for determination and can result in the certificate being revoked and full probate required |
Depends on who's filing: 30 days after death if the successor is the personal representative or executor nominated in the will; 60 days after death if the successor is not the nominated executor, or if the decedent died intestate |
Neither required nor barred, the Act applies whether the decedent left a will or died intestate. 'Successor' is defined broadly: 'any person, other than a creditor, who is nominated as a personal representative or executor under the provisions of the will of the decedent, or who is entitled under the provisions of the decedent's will or the laws of intestate descent and distribution ... to a part or all of a small asset', so a nominated executor without a personal share, a will beneficiary, and an intestate heir can all qualify |
No, and this changed recently. Since 2025 HB 2867 (eff. 7/9/2025), § 44-1A-2 requires the decedent to have died 'without owning any probate real property or without owning any interest in probate real property' for the Act to apply at all; owning even a small amount of real estate disqualifies the ENTIRE estate from this simplified process, not just the real property itself. Before that amendment, the Act let real property up to $100,000 pass through the same recorded affidavit (§ 44-1A-4(c), still on the books but now effectively unreachable since no qualifying affidavit can include real property in the first place). Real estate of any value now requires full probate administration |
The Act's own statutory form (codified directly in § 44-1A-2(e), not just a county-created form) has the affiant swear to the affidavit's contents 'under penalty of perjury' and sign it before a notary public, who completes an acknowledgment block. No witness signatures are required anywhere in the Act |
Yes, on multiple sides. Under § 44-1A-4(a), anyone who pays or delivers a small asset under the Act 'is discharged and released to the same extent as if that person dealt with the personal representative,' with no duty to inquire into the truth of the affidavit; a holder who wrongly refuses can be sued for delivery plus damages in magistrate or circuit court. Separately, the 'authorized successor' (the person who filed and was certified) owes an explicit fiduciary duty to safeguard and pay or deliver the small assets to whoever is actually entitled, and is personally liable to those other successors, including any personal representative later appointed, for breach of that duty for three years after the certificate issues. A good-faith payment isn't voided just because the estate is later found to exceed $50,000 |
| Wisconsin verified 2026-07-06 | Wis. Stat. § 867.03 (Transfer by Affidavit); §§ 867.01-.02 are separate court-petition alternatives |
$50,000 or less gross value, a flat statutory figure covering real and personal property together |
No for personal property: affidavit goes directly to the holder; real property is transferred by recording the same affidavit with the county register of deeds, not by filing with a court |
None generally; a 30-day wait after the affidavit is received applies only when the affiant is the person named in the will to act as personal representative |
Both: available to an heir, a trustee, a former guardian, or the will-named personal representative, but that last category cannot use the affidavit to receive real property at all |
Yes, through the same affidavit, recorded with the register of deeds after 30 days' notice to the decedent's heirs, except a will-named personal representative acting alone is barred from real property |
Sworn affidavit administered before a notary public or other officer authorized to take oaths (Wis. Stat. § 887.01); no separate witnesses required |
Yes: the transferor is released to the same extent as if it had paid a personal representative; the affiant separately assumes a duty to pay debts and distribute correctly, and a good-faith real-property purchaser or lender takes free of the estate's claims |
| Wyoming verified 2026-07-06 | W.S. § 2-1-201 (county-clerk affidavit, personal property); § 2-1-202 (effect); § 2-1-205 (court-filed track for real or personal property) |
$400,000 for the entire estate (raised from $200,000 by 2025 SF 104, eff. 7/1/2025), same combined cap for both tracks |
No for personal property (filed only with the county clerk); Yes for real property: a district court application with published notice and a decree |
30 days after death for both tracks |
Both: § 2-1-201(a)(i) applies 'either testate or intestate' |
Only through the separate § 2-1-205 court process; the county-clerk affidavit itself reaches personal property only |
No witnesses in the statute; a sworn affidavit, notarized in practice per the county clerks' own forms |
Yes: holder discharged (§ 2-1-202(a)); a distinctive rule awards attorney's fees if a holder withholds payment past 45 days without just cause |
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