Who Can File a Small Estate Affidavit

Definitions omitted entirely

The successor or interested person definitions for four states are omitted entirely from this guide. The New Mexico successor definition was unread in the research file. The Maine successor definition was unread. The Massachusetts interested person definition was unread. The Alaska successor definition was unopened. No definition, gloss, or form restatement is stated for any of the four in this guide. The omission is disclosed here so no reader mistakes silence for a finding. The four states appear nowhere else in this guide except in this disclosure.

States that define successor

Virginia defines successor as a person other than a creditor who is entitled to the asset under the will or by intestacy. A designated successor is designated under the section and carries a fiduciary duty. All known successors make the affidavit in the affidavit lane. Where a successor is incapacitated or disabled, the section provides discharge routes. They include direct payment or application, a conservator or guardian, a UTMA custodian or custodial trustee, an adult relative or caregiver, or a separate fund subject to a withdrawal right. The section wording governs each route. No route is summarized beyond the section list.

West Virginia defines successor as any person other than a creditor who is nominated as personal representative or executor under the will, or entitled under the will or West Virginia intestacy law to part or all of a small asset. An authorized successor is the successor who files an affidavit and is certified and authorized by the clerk of the county commission or the fiduciary supervisor. Filing alone does not authorize. Certification does. An interested person is defined separately and includes heirs, devisees, distributees, legatees, children, spouses, creditors, beneficiaries, and others having a property right or claim. A bank or holder of estate assets may be an interested person under that definition.

Kansas defines successor to include a person entitled by will or intestacy and a person nominated as personal representative under the will. The form lane uses the word distributee. The statute word and the form word must not be silently equated. The build record flags the label difference.

Mississippi states no successor list in this guide. Two live reads of the current 2025 text of section 91-7-322(2) disagreed materially on the successor limbs, so no order is stated here. Check the current section text before relying on any successor order. The safe deposit lane and the bank lane state separate successor lists. Those lists are never merged into any section 91-7-322 list.

States that list who may file

Rhode Island lists who may file a statement for voluntary informal administration. The affiant may be a surviving spouse, child, grandchild, parent, brother, sister, niece, nephew, aunt or uncle, or any interested party. The affiant must be of full age and legal capacity and a resident of Rhode Island. The executor track states a different residency rule. A named executor need not be a Rhode Island resident. A resident agent must be appointed if the executor resides outside the state. The two residency rules must never be applied to the wrong track.

Delaware states a preference order for the affidavit. The order runs from a named executor, to spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandchild, grandparent, and then funeral director. The order is stated exactly as banked. No step is added or removed.

Connecticut states filer tiers. The spouse files first. Next of kin files next. A person with a sufficient interest, including a claimant, files after that. The affidavit must state exactly three contents. They cover state aid or care, the solely owned asset list, and the claims, expenses, and taxes list. No other contents are stated.

Louisiana states different signers for different affidavit variants. The intestate affidavit requires at least two signers including the spouse if any, plus an heir. The Louisiana domiciled testate affidavit requires unanimity of all heirs and legatees. The out of state testate affidavit requires at least two signers. The signer rules belong to their own variants and must never be merged.

New Hampshire states six qualifying circumstances for waiver of administration. They turn on who inherits and who is appointed. A sole beneficiary named in a will and appointed administrator qualifies. All beneficiaries appointed as co-administrators, or an appropriate person appointed with the assent of all beneficiaries, qualifies. A trust as sole beneficiary with an appropriate person appointed with the assent of all trustees qualifies. A sole heir, including a surviving spouse, appointed administrator qualifies in intestacy. All heirs appointed as co-administrators, or an appropriate person appointed with the assent of all heirs, qualifies. A court discretion circumstance qualifies when the court determines it appropriate. No value test qualifies or disqualifies a waiver.

Vermont waiver procedure requires a sole beneficiary or heir who is also the sole fiduciary, with no Vermont real property. Any value qualifies on those conditions. The court procedure in the separate chapter appoints an administrator on a court filing. The two Vermont procedures are mutually exclusive.

Pennsylvania section 3102 allows any party in interest to petition the Orphans Court. The five direct payment lanes in section 3101 name their own payees. Wages and benefits go to a spouse or next of kin. Deposit accounts go to a spouse, child, parent, or sibling. Patient care accounts, life insurance, and unclaimed property lanes each state their own payee and conditions. No payee is carried across lanes.

Iowa states three successor prongs. A testate reasonably ascertainable beneficiary, including a lifetime trust trustee, qualifies. An intestate reasonably ascertainable taker qualifies. The Iowa Medicaid agency qualifies only through the Department of Health and Human Services lane in the same section. The affidavit must state successor names, addresses, tax identification numbers, relationships, and disability status where applicable, and must state will delivery without probate admission.

Kentucky agreement procedure requires all beneficiaries to agree in writing under penalty of perjury, with no debts. The exemption selection procedure sets property apart to the spouse or, if none, to surviving children. The two Kentucky procedures state different filer groups.

States where the word is undefined or unopened

Oklahoma section 393 uses the word successor but never defines it. No successor definition or successor list appears in the section. The known heirs label in the bank lane belongs to a different section and must never be imported into section 393. The form lane uses successor in interest for vehicles. That label belongs to the form lane only.

Wyoming section 2-1-201 requires the affidavit to state facts of relationship and the legal basis of entitlement, including facts about intervening estates and other parties who may have a claim, and that no other distributees have a right to succeed. The distributee definition in the companion sections was not opened in full. No definition is stated here. The court forms list relationship categories for affiants. Form categories are form contents, not statute definitions, and are stated only as form contents in the state guide.

Idaho states entitlement in the affidavit, including entitlement as trust under the will. The Department of Health and Welfare is deemed a successor under a separate subsection, with a 60 day priority claim demand window. Whether a Department affidavit must also state the four affidavit statements is an unopened interpretive question. Only what the subsection states is stated here.

Hawaii states three affidavit statements only. The successor definition section was unopened. No definition is stated here. A Department of Human Services affidavit priority exists in separate sections whose scope was unopened. No priority rule is stated here.

Montana, Nebraska, Utah, Minnesota, Missouri, Indiana, Alabama, Michigan, Ohio, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Arkansas state affidavit presenters or petitioners in their sections without a banked general definition in the cited files. This guide states no definition for them. It states only the filer action each section describes. Indiana affidavits must state notice to each identified distributee. Nebraska real property affidavits must be signed by all claiming successors. South Dakota affidavits must state no Department of Social Services indebtedness for nursing or institutional medical assistance, which operates as a bar in that lane. Arkansas distributees may open an estate account at an in state bank under a separate paragraph. That paragraph states no 45 day, cap, or affidavit conditions itself, and none are imported into it here.

Government and agency filers

Wyoming section 2-1-204 is a government creditor lane only. Only the United States, Wyoming, and their agencies, instrumentalities, or political subdivisions may use it. The clock is 90 days. The value test covers the entire estate wherever located. An overplus waterfall applies. Presenting this lane as a way for heirs to collect inverts the section.

Idaho deems the Department of Health and Welfare a successor for priority claims as stated above. Hawaii Department of Human Services affidavit provisions were unopened as to scope. Iowa Department of Health and Human Services lane states a 90 day clock with funeral expense proof permitted in place of a death certificate in some cases, and a refund duty within 60 days to a superior priority claimant on notice within 1 year. The Iowa Medicaid agency successor prong operates only through that lane.

Minors, incapacitated persons, and fiduciaries

Mississippi provides representation for a minor or incapacitated successor through a guardian, conservator, custodian, or other personal representative as appointed by the court or by power of attorney. Property is received for the sole use and benefit of the minor or incapacitated adult, subject to an exception cross reference whose contents were not opened. No gloss on that exception is stated here.

West Virginia provides payment routes for an incapacitated or legally disabled successor. Payment goes to a conservator or guardian if one exists, to a UTMA custodian, or to an adult relative or other person with legal or physical care or custody, to be expended on the successor behalf or applied for the successor benefit. Virtual representation provisions may bind a successor for affidavits and designations under the article.

Rhode Island requires full age and legal capacity for the administrator track affiant. Virginia discharge routes for incapacitated successors are stated above. Iowa affidavit statements include disability status of successors. No other minor or incapacity rule is stated in this guide for any state, because no other rule was banked in the cited files for this question.

What this guide does not state

No filer rule is stated for Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, or California beyond one directory level fact. Texas requires court clerk or judge approval and is intestate only in the directory summary. No other filer definition is carried from the directory summary for any live guide state. No filer rule is stated for any state whose research file states no filer class. Silence in a research file is treated as no verified rule, not as permission to import a rule from another state.

For small estate procedures in other states, see the Small Estate Affidavits by State directory. For the questions each state procedure answers, see Small Estate Affidavit Questions.

Source

Sources: research files A412 through A451 and closure files A455 through A460 as listed in the companion notes file, and the live guide directory exemplar for the Texas intestate only fact. New Mexico, Maine, Massachusetts, and Alaska definitions are omitted entirely as disclosed above. Open flags are disclosed in the companion notes file. No new data was used.

This page explains how the process works and what the official rules say. It is general information, not legal advice. For a dispute about your specific situation, talk to the court in the state where the estate is handled or a lawyer.