What counts toward the small estate limit

Adding up the estate

To use a small estate shortcut, the estate must be under the state's limit. To know whether it is, you have to add up the right things. A state can count an asset, leave it out, leave it out only up to a set amount, send it to its own procedure or say nothing clear about it. We read each state's rules and sorted 16 kinds of property into those groups. The table after this guide shows how many of our 49 states treat each kind of property each way.

Bank accounts, property with a named person and trusts

Money in a bank account in the person's name alone is counted in 47 of 49 states. Joint accounts with a right of survivorship and payable-on-death accounts pass to the surviving owner or the named person; 45 states leave them out. Property in a living trust is left out in 34 states, and property owned jointly with a right of survivorship is left out in 43 states. Life insurance and retirement money paid to a named person is left out in 42 states, while money payable to the estate is counted in 47 states.

Vehicles, homes and land

Vehicles are counted in 37 states and left out in 5 states, and 2 states set a dollar amount that is left out. A home or other real estate is counted in 28 states and left out in 8 states. In 12 states real estate has its own procedure and a separate limit. Because real estate can be worth a lot, a state that counts it can end the shortcut for many families. A state that leaves it out may let the family use the affidavit for the personal property only.

Wages, military pay and money from a spouse

Unpaid wages owed to the person are counted in 35 states and left out in 2 states. In 2 states a surviving spouse or children can collect them by a separate procedure. Military pay owed to the person is counted in 0 states, and 47 states have no clear rule for it. Property that goes to a surviving spouse is counted in 39 states and left out in 3 states.

Rules that surprise people

A few states have rules that change the arithmetic. In Texas, the exempt vehicle, belongings and homestead are left out only when a surviving spouse, a minor child or another family member listed in the Estates Code survives. In North Carolina, the year's allowance paid to a surviving spouse is subtracted only when the spouse uses the $30,000 limit, never under the $20,000 limit. In Kentucky, the $30,000 limit is itself the exemption for a spouse or children, so nothing is subtracted a second time. Oregon has one affidavit with two limits, one for personal property and one for real property, and both must be met. In Alaska, vehicles up to $100,000 are a separate yes-or-no condition from the $50,000 limit, and real estate that needs probate makes the affidavit unavailable. The free checker on each of those state pages applies these rules.

How to use this when you add up an estate

Write down every kind of property the person had, even if you think the state may not count it. Then look up your state's rule for each kind, using the state page. Add the ones that count. For assets that are left out up to an amount, add only what is over that amount. Do not add assets that have their own procedure; handle them under that procedure. Do not guess about assets that are not clear: ask the court self-help center. Then compare the total with the limit for the date of death, because the limit can be different for different dates.

When the law is not clear

In 123 of the 784 state-and-asset combinations we compared, the state's rules do not say how the asset is counted. We show those as “not clear” and do not add them in the checker. In that case, ask the court self-help center for your state. Free help is listed on every state page.