Find out which side of the line you are on

The threshold is the only avoidance route with a published dollar figure, which makes it the only one you can settle in a minute. The checker asks what your state’s statute actually turns on — the value, and where it matters the year of death, who inherits and which route you are taking.

Four routes the statutes actually publish

Under the threshold, by affidavit

The common route. You sign a sworn form, wait out the statutory period — thirty days in most states, forty-five in Arkansas and Indiana, forty in California, ten in Oklahoma — and present it to whoever holds the asset. No petition and no personal representative. It is blocked almost everywhere once an application for a representative is pending or granted in any jurisdiction, so it closes if full probate has started.

Under the threshold, by a lighter court process

Not every simplified route skips the court. Iowa’s is a court administration with an appointed representative and issued letters. South Carolina’s affidavit needs the probate judge’s approval and countersignature. Pennsylvania’s route is a petition rather than an affidavit. Hawaii’s second route has the court clerk run the estate and charges three per cent of it. Read which one your state offers before assuming it means no court.

A route with no dollar limit at all

Three states carry one alongside the route that has a limit. Florida’s turns on two years having passed since the death, Louisiana’s on twenty years, and Idaho’s on the surviving spouse being the sole devisee or beneficiary. New Hampshire has no value cap anywhere in its scheme — the gate is the identity of the beneficiaries or heirs.

Property that never enters the estate

Some assets pass outside probate by operation of law rather than through the estate, which is why several statutes carve them out of the count — Delaware excludes jointly owned property from its $50,000, Washington excludes the community property interest, and Ohio’s executor commission expressly does not reach joint and survivorship property. Whether any of this applies to a particular asset is a question for an attorney licensed in your state, and we do not guess at it.

Seventeen states where the line is $100,000 or higher

People assume the small-estate route is for tiny estates. In a third of the country it is not. Read the base note beside each figure — it decides whether your estate is measured on it.

What running the full process costs instead

Add those together and the gap between clearing the threshold and not clearing it is usually the largest single cost decision in the whole process — which is why it is the first thing worth checking.

Three tools, in the order most people need them

Avoiding probate questions

Can you avoid probate entirely?

Sometimes the process can be shortened or skipped. Forty-eight states publish a threshold under which a shorter route applies, and some assets pass outside probate by operation of law rather than through the estate. What applies to your own situation is a question for a licensed attorney in your state; what this site can show you is exactly where the line sits in each state and what the process costs when it does run.

What is the easiest way to avoid probate?

Being under the small-estate limit, where you are. It is the one route with a published number you can check today, and clearing it usually removes the petition, the letters, the personal representative and the fees that follow from having one. The limit reaches $400,000 in Wyoming, $208,850 in California and $200,000 in Arizona and Iowa.

Does a small estate route avoid the court entirely?

In most states, yes — the affidavit is presented to whoever holds the asset rather than to a judge. Not everywhere. Iowa’s route is a simplified court administration where the court still appoints a representative and issues letters. South Carolina’s affidavit needs the probate judge’s approval and countersignature. Hawaii’s second route has the court clerk run the estate and charges three per cent for it.

Does the house stop me using the shortcut?

In a lot of states, yes. Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah and Washington limit their route to personal property, so real property cannot pass under it. Connecticut and Delaware go further and bar the route where there is real property at all. Arizona, California, New Mexico and South Dakota publish separate real property routes with their own ceilings and their own waiting periods.

Are there routes with no dollar limit?

Three states carry one alongside the route that has a limit. Florida’s second route turns on two years having passed since the death rather than on value, Louisiana’s on twenty years, and Idaho’s on the surviving spouse being the sole devisee or beneficiary. New Hampshire sets no value cap at all — its test is who inherits.

How much does avoiding probate actually save?

The court’s own charge is the part you can put a number on. Twenty states charge one flat filing fee whatever the estate is worth, from $45.00 in Alabama to $435.00 in California. The scaling states run much higher: on a $500,000 estate the court’s charge reaches $10,100.00 in New Castle County, Delaware, $2,120.00 in North Carolina and $1,250.00 in New York. On top of that sit the executor fee, the creditor notice, the bond, and in seven states a statutory attorney fee.

How these figures are verified

Every figure on this page is carried from a state page, and every figure on a state page was checked against the official source — the statute, the court rule, or the court’s own published fee schedule — on the date stamped beside it. No figure appears anywhere on this site that has not been opened and read at its source first. Where a source publishes no figure, we print that absence rather than filling the gap with an estimate.

The sources for each figure are listed on that state’s own page, with a direct link and a date. Our re-check cadence, and what we do when a statute changes, are set out at /methodology/.