Work it out on your own number

Connecticut is the one state in this database whose court fee is a sliding scale on estate value while both professional fees are left to the court’s judgment. The scale is below, and it computes exactly.

What each part costs

Every row is one figure, one source, one date. Where Connecticut fixes no price, the row says so instead of guessing.

What can change the bill — allowances, waivers and one-off charges

What changes YOUR number in Connecticut

The surviving spouse halves the court fee

Any portion of the basis determined by property passing to a surviving spouse is reduced by fifty per cent. On a million-dollar estate passing entirely to a spouse that is the difference between $3,115.00 and $1,865.00. It is the only court fee in this database that depends on who inherits rather than on what the estate is worth.

The basis is the greatest of four measures

Not the inventory alone. The court takes the greatest of the succession-tax gross estate, the inventory including all supplements, the Connecticut taxable estate, and the estate-tax gross estate — then adds damages recovered for injuries resulting in death and subtracts the unreimbursed medical costs of treating those injuries and the costs of recovering the damages. Out-of-state real and tangible personal property comes out for a Connecticut domiciliary; for a non-domiciliary only Connecticut-situated real and tangible personal property goes in.

Interest on an unpaid court bill cannot be forgiven

Fees unpaid thirty days after the invoice accrue at one-half of one per cent per month until paid, and a late or unfiled estate-tax return runs interest from thirty days after the due or extension date. The court can grant an extension for undue hardship, and no interest accrues during it — but outside an extension the court has no power to waive the interest. Interest does not apply where the basis is $40,000.00 or less, or $500,000.00 or less where any portion passes to a surviving spouse.

Publishing does not start the creditors’ clock

This is Connecticut’s most consequential departure from every other state on this site. The hundred-and-fifty-day claim period runs from the appointment of the first fiduciary, and the statute says in terms that it is not interrupted or affected by a failure of publication or a defective publication. Everywhere else, publishing is what starts the clock. Here it runs anyway. A fiduciary who distributes in good faith after that day is not chargeable for a claim presented later, unless the creditor can prove actual knowledge of the claim at the time.

The court buys the notice and bills you what it paid

You do not negotiate with a newspaper in Connecticut. The Probate Court causes the publication within fourteen days of the first fiduciary’s appointment, and charges the estate the actual amount it was charged. There is no rate ceiling because there is no private buyer to protect.

The bond can turn on debts rather than assets

Where a bond is ordered, the floor is the greatest of twice the estimated debts, the tax on untaxed property plus the estimated succession tax, or the amount named in the will. An estate with modest assets and heavy liabilities can therefore carry a large bond, which is the reverse of how most states work.

A single objection reopens a will’s bond waiver

The court follows the will’s no-bond direction only while nobody objects. An objection alone is enough — the court does not have to form its own view — and once one is filed the greatest-of floor applies. Connecticut is the only state in this database where a third party can reopen the question that way.

The historic scales are not on this page

Subsection (b) governs deaths on or after 1 July 2016 and is the only scale shown here. Deaths between 1 January 2015 and 30 June 2016 use a different scale with no maximum at all, and earlier estates use scales capped at $12,500.00. If the death was before July 2016, none of the figures on this page apply.

Three tools, in the order most people need them

Connecticut probate cost questions

How much does an executor get paid in Connecticut?

Connecticut sets no commission and no percentage. The fiduciary’s compensation is settled on the account: the Probate Court has jurisdiction of the interim and final accounts of executors and administrators, and on allowing an account it determines the rights of the fiduciary who rendered it and of everyone interested in it, subject to appeal. So an executor cannot look the figure up in advance. What is fixed in Connecticut is the court’s own fee, which is a published sliding scale on the size of the estate.

Does Connecticut set probate attorney fees by statute?

No. There is no percentage and no scale anywhere. The fee statute for a decedent’s estate sets what the court charges and nothing else, and the whole fee block of the chapter consists of court-fee provisions. What you pay your attorney is agreed with them and reaches the estate through the account the Probate Court allows. Two provisions that come up in searches are not attorney fees: probate magistrates are paid fifty dollars an hour capped at two hundred and fifty a day, and attorney probate referees receive no compensation at all.

What does it cost to file for probate in Connecticut?

It depends on the size of the estate, because Connecticut charges the court fee on a sliding scale. A hundred thousand dollar estate pays four hundred and sixty-five dollars, a five hundred thousand dollar estate one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and a million dollar estate three thousand one hundred and fifteen. The scale stops at forty thousand dollars, which is reached at eight million eight hundred and seventy-seven thousand. Property passing to a surviving spouse counts at half. Unpaid fees run interest at half a per cent a month, and the court cannot waive that interest outside an extension it has granted.

Does an executor need a bond in Connecticut?

A probate bond is required of an executor unless the law excuses it. A will directing that no bond, or only a bond of a certain amount, shall be required is followed — but only while nobody objects. If an objection is filed, or the court finds for cause shown that a bond is needed to protect creditors or assure payment of succession taxes, a bond is ordered in an amount not less than the greatest of twice the estimated debts, the tax on untaxed property plus the estimated succession tax, or the amount named in the will. Connecticut is a floor state: the statute sets a minimum and no maximum.

Does Connecticut have a small estate affidavit?

Yes, for solely owned tangible and intangible personal property of forty thousand dollars or less, excluding anything passing outside probate by operation of law — and only where the person owned no solely owned Connecticut real estate at death. That real-property bar is absolute rather than a second cap. The surviving spouse files first, then next of kin, then anyone with a sufficient interest including a creditor. The court sends a copy to the Department of Administrative Services and cannot issue a decree until thirty days later, but may otherwise act without notice or hearing.

Sources & verification

Every figure on this page was checked against the official source on the date shown. The Connecticut General Assembly publishes one page per chapter, so each link below opens the chapter and the section number is printed beside it. All six Connecticut rows were re-checked against the 2026 Supplement, revised to 1 January 2026.