Is the Estate Under Your State's Small Estate Limit?

Four cells of one row of the 51-row probate dataset behind this section's chart: the small-estate affidavit limit as the statute words it, the days to wait after the death, whether real property can pass by that route, and the limit for a short court procedure where the state has one. Each row was checked on October 14, 2026, and every cell keeps its own source. The check adds nothing to the cells: it reads the row for the state chosen and places the answers against it.

A limit is recorded for 44 states and carries a single leading dollar figure in 41. Maine and Michigan record a base figure that the statute adjusts for inflation without recording the current amount, so nothing is placed there; Colorado records a formula rather than a figure; and Florida and Pennsylvania record no affidavit procedure at all, which the result quotes rather than treating as a limit of zero.

The personal property question takes a band, not a figure. When every value in the band is at or under the recorded limit the result says at or below; when every value is over it the result says above; and when the limit lands inside the band the result says too close to call and prints the limit so it can be set against the real figure. Where a cell names more than one figure, the result compares the leading one and says so, with the whole cell quoted beside it. Each statute counts its own base toward the limit, gross value in some states and value less liens in others, and sets other conditions, and the result places the number only.

The time since death is set against the recorded wait in the same way. The waits run from 10 to 60 days in the cells that state one, and a few cells state that the statute sets none. A band that contains the recorded day count is reported as turning on the exact day. The real-property cell is quoted as recorded whether or not the estate holds real property, because several statutes name a separate route for it, and the result says when that rule is not reached by the answers given.

For Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, Tennessee and Texas, the limit was read from a copy of the code or from a secondary index rather than the legislature's own site. Those cells are compared the same way, every one says it is not confirmed against the official text, and the headline never carries their figure. The same rule applies to a wait or real-property cell read from a mirror.

For the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio and Vermont, no affidavit limit was read, and the result says not recorded rather than treating the gap as a rule; the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Ohio and Vermont record a short court procedure limit instead, which the result shows. A blank is never a no.

It does not say whether an estate can use the affidavit. Who may sign it, which assets count toward the limit, what must be paid first and which holders must honor it are set by each statute, and the check places numbers against the recorded figures only. It shows no attorney fee and no court filing fee, and it does not estimate how long any procedure takes.

Every result ends by naming the procedure and who presents it, in the statute's recorded words. The free probate fee calculator reads the same row against an exact value.