Letter to a bank or other holder in Rhode Island

A letter that presents the small estate affidavit you have already signed. It says what you enclose and asks the holder to release the property.

Required when you mail the letter.

It goes into the letter only. It is never saved or sent to us.

Papers you are enclosing

Check what you will include. Only checked items go in the letter.

It goes into the letter as you type it. You can add a ready-made sentence:

Other formats

Do not send original documents unless the holder asks; keep copies. Sign the letter and keep a copy.

Official forms (linked, not reproduced here)

This site does not write the affidavit. Use the official form or the holder's own form:

Before you send it

Some banks have their own form or ask for a notary. Call the bank's estates department first and ask what it needs. Keep a copy of everything you send.

Voluntary Informal Administration of Small Estates (Petition for Voluntary Informal Administrator, form PC 1.10)

A sworn statement filed with the local probate court when there is no will. After the judge reviews it, the clerk issues a certificate that lets you collect the listed assets.

Limit

Up to $15,000 Counted at full value, without subtracting debts.

The person's personal property, not counting tangible personal property, cannot be worth more than $15,000, and the person cannot have owned real estate.

What counts

Only the person's personal property that would be listed on a probate inventory (such as bank accounts and stocks in the person's sole name), not counting tangible personal property (belongings such as cars, furniture and jewelry). The estate must consist entirely of personal property: the person cannot have owned any real estate.

Waiting period

More than 30 days must have passed since the death, and no petition for letters of administration or probate of a will may have been filed in the probate court of the person's city or town.

Who can use it

The surviving spouse, child, grandchild, parent, brother, sister, niece, nephew, aunt or uncle, or any interested party, who is an adult with legal capacity and a Rhode Island resident. The person who died must have been a Rhode Island resident.

Court or where to file

Probate court of the city or town where the person lived (each Rhode Island city and town has its own probate court).

Notary

The statement is verified by oath or affirmation; the state probate form is signed before a notary.

Papers to attach
  • Certified copy of the death certificate
  • Schedule of every asset titled solely in the person's name and its estimated value
  • Names and addresses of the people who would inherit under Rhode Island inheritance law
Steps
  1. Wait more than 30 days after the death.
  2. List every asset in the person's name and its value; check that there is no real estate and the non-tangible personal property is $15,000 or less.
  3. Fill in form PC 1.10 and sign it before a notary.
  4. File it with the probate court of the city or town where the person lived, with the death certificate and the $30 fee.
  5. After the judge reviews it (no hearing is required, but the judge may hold one), pay $5 for the certification of appointment.
  6. Use copies of the certification to collect each asset; pay funeral, last-illness and administration expenses and debts, then distribute the rest.
Fee

$30 to file the statement and $5 for the certification of appointment.

Debts and responsibility

The voluntary administrator or executor must first pay the funeral and last-illness expenses and administration expenses (without a fee for their own services), then the person's debts in the legal order, and then distribute the rest to the surviving spouse or, if there is no spouse, to the heirs under R.I. Gen. Laws 33-1-10. They are liable as an 'executor in his or her own wrong' to anyone harmed by their handling of the estate, and to any executor or administrator appointed later.

What the bank or holder must do

When shown a copy of the certification of appointment, a proper written receipt and the passbook, policy, certificate or other document, the holder may pay or deliver the asset listed in the statement. Payment discharges the holder unless it has already received a written demand from an appointed executor or administrator.

Law: R.I. Gen. Laws sec. 33-24-1

Source: Official page

Bank accounts after a death in Rhode Island

Joint and payable-on-death accounts pass to the surviving owner or beneficiary. For an account in the person's name alone, a voluntary administrator or executor appointed by the local probate court can collect it with a copy of the certification of appointment, a written receipt and the passbook or other document, if the small estate rules are met.

Law: R.I. Gen. Laws secs. 33-24-1(c), 33-24-2(d)

Source: Official page

Death certificates in Rhode Island

Order a certified copy from the Rhode Island Department of Health, Center for Vital Records, or from the clerk of the city or town where the death happened. Ask the office for the current fee.

Where to get it
Rhode Island Department of Health, Center for Vital Records (Cranston), or the clerk of the city or town where the death happened

Surviving spouse in Rhode Island

Unless the will says otherwise, the person's cars pass to the surviving spouse, who can register them with no title fee. With no will, the spouse receives personal property as set by R.I. Gen. Laws 33-1-10 and a life estate in the real estate (33-1-5); in a probate case the court may also award the spouse up to $150,000 of real estate (33-1-6).

Law: R.I. Gen. Laws 31-3.1-37

Who inherits with no will in Rhode Island

If there is no will, real estate goes to the children or their descendants, then parents, then brothers and sisters and their descendants, then grandparents and other relatives; a surviving spouse gets a life estate in the real estate. Of personal property left after debts, the spouse gets one-half if there are children, or $50,000 plus one-half of the rest if there are none; the rest goes to the other heirs in the same order as real estate.

Law: R.I. Gen. Laws secs. 33-1-1, 33-1-2, 33-1-5, 33-1-10

Source: Official page

Good to know in Rhode Island

  • Rhode Island's small estate procedure leaves out tangible personal property (cars, furniture, jewelry) when counting the $15,000.
  • Unless the will says otherwise, a person's motor vehicles pass by law to the surviving spouse.
  • The small estate procedure is only for a person who lived in Rhode Island, and the voluntary administrator must be a Rhode Island resident.

Related pages

Free help in Rhode Island

A court self-help center or a legal aid office can check whether the estate qualifies, free of charge or at low cost.