How we research our guides

Each state has its own rules for settling a small estate. This page explains where our information comes from and how the tools work.

Sources

Each state page is built from official sources only: the state's statutes on the legislature's own website, the state courts and their self-help pages and official forms, the state's motor vehicle agency, the state Medicaid agency, the vital records office and legal aid organizations in the LawHelp.org network. National facts (the federal estate tax threshold, the final income tax return and Form 1310, Social Security after a death, U.S. savings bonds, debts, inherited mortgages, FDIC insurance, Medicaid estate recovery and death certificates) come from the IRS, the Social Security statute, the Treasury, the CFPB, the FDIC, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the CDC. Each page lists its sources and the date it was checked.

How we check

• Every state file is researched and then checked by a second, independent reviewer against the official text, with special care for dollar limits and the dates they apply from, waiting periods, what counts toward the limit, exclusions, fees, forms and links.
• A state page is published only after that check. Until then, or when the main limit is not published by any official source, the state appears on our map and in our tables as “not covered yet,” with a link to its court self-help page (when we have one) and LawHelp.org.
• Where something could not be confirmed, we leave it out instead of guessing. We copy limits and waiting periods exactly as the source states them and never round them.

The small estate checker

The checker uses only the numbers in our state data. You enter the date of death and a value for each kind of property that your state's rules mention. The page adds what the state counts, leaves out what the state leaves out (up to the stated amount where there is one), picks the limit for the date of death you entered and shows whether your total is under or over it, with the earliest date by the waiting period. Where the law sets a different amount for different dates of death, the checker uses the amount that goes with the date you entered. Where the law does not say whether a new limit applies to deaths before it took effect, the checker shows that note next to the result instead of silently using the older amount. Assets that the state treats under their own procedure are listed separately and not added; assets the state's rules do not clearly cover are shown and not added.

The result is arithmetic on the numbers you entered, not a decision. Other rules apply, and the bank, the DMV or the court decides. A few states have extra rules that we apply on purpose: in Texas the exempt vehicle, belongings and homestead are left out only when a surviving spouse or certain children survive; in North Carolina the spouse's year's allowance is subtracted only under the $30,000 limit; in Kentucky nothing is subtracted a second time; in Oregon the personal property and real property limits are both tested; in Alaska vehicles up to $100,000 are a separate yes-or-no condition and probate real estate makes the affidavit unavailable.

The letters and the checklist

The letter to a bank or other holder presents the small estate affidavit you have already signed and lists what you enclose; we do not write or fill in the affidavit itself, and we link to the official forms. The balance letter asks a bank or holder for the date-of-death value of the accounts. Both are made on your device in English, because they go to US banks and offices; on Spanish pages a Spanish explanation is shown beside them. The checklist lists the papers each procedure asks for, with the steps, forms, fees and help from our data. When you download, copy or print any of them, we save only your name, phone or email, state and the document type — never details about the person who died — as our privacy policy explains.

What we never do

We never say that an estate qualifies, never promise that a bank will release money and never judge anyone. A court self-help center, a legal aid office or a lawyer can look at the whole estate.

Report an error

Email us at hello@robinclaim.com with a link to the official source and we'll check it.