Settle a small estate in the District of Columbia without probate

Administration of a Small Estate (Petition for Administration of Small Estate, SEB)

Payment or delivery of small asset by affidavit (transfers by affidavit)

What counts toward the limit in the District of Columbia

For a small estate case, add up the value of the person's property subject to administration in D.C.: things in the person's name alone, including D.C. real estate and vehicles. Do not subtract debts (they are paid from the estate). Property that passes to someone else at death is not counted. The separate affidavit procedure uses a different test: the whole probate estate less liens, up to $40,000, with no real estate.

Law: D.C. Code secs. 20-105, 20-351, 20-361

In this state the total is counted at full value, without subtracting debts.

Source: Official page

Car or vehicle title after a death in the District of Columbia

A surviving joint owner gets a new title by presenting the title in both names and an authenticated death certificate (no excise tax). For a vehicle owned only by the person who died, DC DMV needs an assignment of title by the personal representative and an authenticated copy of the letters or of the small estate order listing the vehicle, plus a DMV title application and the original death certificate. For deaths on or after March 21, 2025, the DMV must also transfer a vehicle title to the designated successor named in a proper small asset affidavit, on payment of the fees.

Law: D.C. Code secs. 20-361(d), 20-351

Agency

District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles (DC DMV)

Fee

DC DMV title fees apply. A surviving joint owner's new title is exempt from excise tax; other excise tax exemptions are listed in the DMV's exemption chart.

Transfer-on-death title

An individual owner can add one beneficiary to a DC title. After the owner's death, the beneficiary brings the death certificate, their ID and the fee to a DMV service center; no letters of administration are needed, and a will does not override the designation. A lien must be satisfied or approved for transfer first.

Source: Official page

Bank accounts after a death in the District of Columbia

Accounts with a surviving joint owner or a payable-on-death beneficiary pass to that person. For an account in the person's name alone, the successors can use the small asset affidavit (60 days after death, whole estate $40,000 or less after liens, no real estate); a bank that refuses a proper affidavit without reasonable cause must pay the successors' costs and attorney's fees. Otherwise a personal representative appointed in a small estate or regular probate case collects it.

Law: D.C. Code secs. 20-361, 20-362, 20-351

Source: Official page

Transfer-on-death (TOD) and payable-on-death (POD) in the District of Columbia

Real estate (TOD deed)

Yes · Transfer on death deed (Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act)

A D.C. owner can transfer real property to beneficiaries at death with a transfer on death deed. It must have the elements of a recordable deed, state that the transfer happens at the owner's death, and be recorded with the Recorder of Deeds before the owner dies. It needs no notice to, delivery to or acceptance by the beneficiary and no payment, and it can be revoked.

Law: D.C. Code secs. 19-604.01 et seq. (D.C. Law 19-230)

Vehicle title (TOD)

Yes

Securities (TOD)

Yes

Law: D.C. Code secs. 19-603.01 et seq

Source: Official page

Surviving spouse in the District of Columbia

The surviving spouse or domestic partner has top priority (with children, if there is no will) to be personal representative of a small estate. In an estate, D.C. law gives a surviving spouse or domestic partner a homestead allowance of $30,000 and exempt property up to $20,000 (household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances and personal effects, above any security interests), and the spouse or partner and dependent children a reasonable family allowance, which the personal representative may pay in a lump sum of up to $30,000. These amounts were raised by D.C. Law 25-302 for deaths on or after March 21, 2025. If there is no spouse or partner, the children share the exempt property allowance unless a will leaves them nothing.

Debts of the person in the District of Columbia

In a small estate, the court first directs payment of allowable funeral expenses and any family allowance. If property remains, notice is published once and creditors have 30 days to file claims; the court then directs payment of proper claims and distribution of the net estate. Anyone who receives an asset by the small asset affidavit must account for it to a personal representative appointed later.

Medicaid estate recovery in the District of Columbia

DHCF must ask the estates of people who received Medicaid at age 55 or older to repay what Medicaid paid (not Medicare premiums and cost-sharing for services on or after January 1, 2010). The estate means real and personal property, including a home, that does not pass to another person at death. DHCF sends a Notice of Proposed Recovery and places a lien on the estate unless an exemption applies: it will not pursue the lien while the surviving spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child lives in the home. It waives or reduces its claim for undue hardship (for example, loss of a family business home that is the heirs' only income, or leaving an heir without shelter). Exemption and hardship applications are due within 30 calendar days of receiving the notice.

Law: DHCF Medicaid Estate Recovery Fact Sheet (Aug. 19, 2015)

Agency

D.C. Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF), Health Care Operations Administration, Third Party Liability Division

Phone

202-698-2000

Official page

Official page

Who inherits with no will in the District of Columbia

If there is no will: the surviving spouse or domestic partner gets everything if the person left no descendants and no parents. If no descendants but a parent survives, the spouse gets three-quarters. If all descendants are also the spouse's and the spouse has no other descendants, the spouse gets two-thirds; if either has descendants from another relationship, the spouse gets one-half. The rest goes to children equally (grandchildren take a deceased child's share), then parents, then brothers and sisters and their descendants, then more distant relatives.

Law: D.C. Code secs. 19-302, 19-305 to 19-310

Source: Official page

Death certificates in the District of Columbia

A copy of a government-issued picture ID must accompany each request. The recorded information line for current fees is (202) 442-9303.

Where to get it

DC Health, Vital Records Division, 2201 Shannon Place SE, Washington, DC 20020

Official page

Official page

Where to file in the District of Columbia

A small estate (SEB) petition is filed in person with the Legal Branch of the D.C. Superior Court Probate Division, Room 314, 515 5th Street NW, Washington, DC 20001; questions go to 202-879-9460 or the court's Live Chat. The small asset affidavit is not filed anywhere; it goes directly to the bank, transfer agent, DMV or other holder. A transfer on death deed must be recorded with the Recorder of Deeds before the owner dies.

Good to know in the District of Columbia

• D.C. doubled its small estate limit to $80,000 for deaths on or after March 21, 2025.
• For deaths on or after March 21, 2025, D.C. lets successors collect non-real-estate assets by affidavit when the whole estate is $40,000 or less after liens, 60 days after death; a holder that refuses without reasonable cause pays the successors' attorney's fees.
• In a small estate case, the personal representative does not need a lawyer and does not post a bond.

Changes in 2024–2026

D.C. Law 25-302 (Strengthening Probate Administration Amendment Act of 2024), effective March 21, 2025, and applying to deaths on or after March 21, 2025 (applicability clause added by D.C. Law 26-188): small estate limit raised from $40,000 to $80,000; new transfer of small assets by affidavit; homestead allowance raised to $30,000, exempt property to $20,000 and the lump-sum family allowance to $30,000; publication of probate notices reduced from 3 weeks to 2; funeral expense allowances raised; court costs not charged while a fee-waived person is personal representative. D.C. Law 26-188, effective October 2, 2026, removed the affidavit's requirement that any will first be admitted to probate.

Law: D.C. Code 20-361(a)(4) repealed

National rules that apply in every state

Federal estate tax

• For a person who died in 2026, a federal estate tax return (Form 706) is required only if the gross estate, plus certain lifetime taxable gifts, is more than $15,000,000.
• Most estates owe no federal estate tax and do not need to file a federal estate tax return.

Law: 26 U.S.C. 2010(c)(3) (as amended by Pub. L. 119-21)

The final income tax return

• Report all income up to the date of death and claim all eligible credits and deductions.
• Someone must file the final federal income tax return of a person who died, the same way it would have been filed if they were alive.
• To claim a refund due to the person who died, attach Form 1310 (Statement of Person Claiming Refund Due a Deceased Taxpayer).

Law: Form 1310 instructions (Rev. December 2025)

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Social Security

• Social Security retirement benefits are paid through the month before the month the person died.
• If the person had enough Social Security work credits (was fully or currently insured), a one-time death payment of $255 (or three times the person's basic benefit, if that is smaller) can be paid to a surviving spouse who lived with the person.

Law: 42 U.S.C. 402(a), 402(i)

Savings bonds

• If the person's savings bonds and other Treasury securities held directly with the Treasury are worth more than $100,000 at the date of death, the Treasury requires a court-administered estate.

Law: 31 CFR 353.71; FS Form 5336 (Rev. April 2026)

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Debts

• Debts are generally paid from the money and property the person left (the estate).
• If the estate cannot pay a debt and no one else shared responsibility for it, the debt may go unpaid.
• You may have to pay if you co-signed the loan, were a joint account holder on a credit card (not just an authorized user), or state law makes a spouse responsible for certain debts, such as in community property states or states with laws on necessary costs like health care.

Law: 12 CFR 1006.6(a)(4)

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A house with a mortgage

• For a home with fewer than five units, a lender may not call the whole loan due just because the home passes to a relative after the borrower's death, to a spouse or children who become owners, or to a surviving joint owner.
• Https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/how-do-i-get-mortgage-information-about-a-home-i-inherited-en-217/
• Https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/i-recently-inherited-a-house-the-mortgage-lender-said-its-required-to-determine-my-ability-to-repay-before-it-will-let-me-take-over-the-mortgage-loan-is-this-true-en-1939/

Law: 12 U.S.C. 1701j-3(d)(3), (5), (6); 12 CFR 1024.30(d), 1024.31

FDIC insurance on bank accounts

• After a deposit owner dies, FDIC insurance on the account stays the same for six months, unless the account is restructured.

Law: 12 CFR 330.3(j)

Medicaid estate recovery

• States must try to recover some Medicaid costs from the estate of a person who got benefits at age 55 or older: nursing facility services, home and community-based services, and related hospital and prescription drug services.
• The 'estate' includes at least the property in the person's probate estate under state law.
• Https://www.govinfo.gov/link/uscode/42/1396p?type=usc&year=mostrecent&link-type=html

Law: 42 U.S.C. 1396p(b)

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Death certificates

• Certified copies of a death certificate come from the vital records office of the state where the death happened, not from the federal government.

Questions about small estates in the District of Columbia