New Hampshire: Small Estate Affidavit Thresholds & Procedure
The short answer
New Hampshire doesn't have a dollar-value small estate shortcut anymore, it had one, but the legislature repealed it for anyone who died on or after January 1, 2006, and never replaced it with a new value-based mechanism. What New Hampshire has instead is 'Waiver of Administration,' a lighter-oversight version of ordinary probate available at ANY estate value, based entirely on who the beneficiaries or heirs are: a sole beneficiary or heir who becomes administrator, or every beneficiary or heir agreeing to serve together or appoint someone. You still have to open a real probate case and get court-approved letters of administration, there's no bank-facing affidavit here at all, but once approved, you skip the inventory, bond, and accounting an ordinary administration requires, and close the case with a sworn statement filed 6 months to a year later. It reaches real property along with everything else.
Ask Ezel about your situation
This is the general rule in New Hampshire. Ezel applies current New Hampshire law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law | RSA 553:32 (Waiver of Administration: a reduced-oversight full administration available regardless of estate value) is the closest thing New Hampshire has to a small-estate shortcut; RSA 553:33 (Summary Administration) is a separate, later-stage closing mechanism for an estate that's ALREADY been open 6+ months, not a way to avoid opening probate in the first place. New Hampshire's former dollar-based small estate statute, RSA 553:31 ('Voluntary Administration'), was repealed effective January 1, 2006, and no value-based replacement has been enacted since |
|---|---|
| Dollar threshold | None. Unlike every other state in this survey, New Hampshire's Waiver of Administration doesn't gate on the estate's dollar value at all: it gates on WHO the beneficiaries or heirs are. An estate of any size qualifies if a sole named beneficiary (or sole heir) is appointed administrator, or if every beneficiary or heir agrees in writing to serve as co-administrators or to appoint someone. New Hampshire did have a value-based small estate procedure once (former RSA 553:31), but it was repealed for any death on or after January 1, 2006, with no dollar-based mechanism enacted to replace it |
| Court filing required? | Yes, more so than in most states' shortcuts: there is no private, bank-facing affidavit at all. An interested person must open a full probate case (a Petition for Estate Administration, filed with the Circuit Court Probate Division) and be appointed administrator or executor by the court before doing anything else; the 'waiver' only removes the inventory, bond, and accounting requirements that an ordinary administration would otherwise carry, not the court process itself |
| Waiting period after death | No wait to open the case, a Petition for Estate Administration can be filed as soon as a death certificate is available. Closing the estate is timed differently: the administrator cannot file the sworn affidavit of administration that ends the case until at least 6 months, and no more than 1 year (extendable by the court for good cause), after the date of their OWN court appointment, a length-of-administration floor, not a days-after-death waiting period the way most other states frame it |
| Works with a will, intestacy, or both? | Both, but who specifically may use it is defined by relationship, not by a generic 'successor' concept. Testate: available if the will names one sole beneficiary who becomes administrator, if every named beneficiary agrees to serve as co-administrators or to appoint someone with unanimous assent, or if a trust is the sole beneficiary and its trustee(s) serve. Intestate: available if there's a sole heir who becomes administrator, or if every heir agrees the same way. The court can also allow it 'whenever, in the discretion of the court, the court determines it is appropriate under the circumstances': a catch-all beyond the listed categories |
| Does it cover real property? | Yes. Because this is a real, court-supervised administration rather than a private affidavit, it reaches real property along with everything else in the estate. The closing affidavit of administration must affirmatively 'list all real estate owned by the decedent at the time of death, including the location, book, and page,' confirming real property passes through this same process rather than needing a separate track |
| Signature formalities | The administrator's closing filing is a sworn statement (an affidavit of administration) filed with and approved by the probate court; the statute doesn't add a separate witness requirement on top of the oath. There's no private, bank-facing notarized affidavit anywhere in this mechanism the way most other states' small-estate procedures use one, since the whole process runs through an already-open court case from the start |
| Protection for the bank/holder | No separate holder-discharge clause exists in RSA 553:32, and none is needed the way one is in a bank-facing-affidavit state: by the time anyone deals with the estate's assets, the administrator already holds the probate court's own certificate of appointment (letters of administration): the same authority any personal representative has in an ordinary administration. Banks and other holders rely on that court appointment itself, not on a private affidavit's own liability-shifting language |
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Requirements one by one
Governing law
RSA 553:32, "Waiver of Administration," is the operative statute today.
A related section, RSA 553:33 ("Summary Administration"), is a separate
mechanism for closing out an estate that's already been open under
ordinary administration for at least 6 months — it explicitly doesn't
apply to estates already running under § 553:32, and like similar
provisions in other states, it's a way to close an already-open estate
faster, not a way to avoid opening probate in the first place. The state's
old dollar-value small estate law, RSA 553:31, was repealed outright
effective January 1, 2006.
Dollar threshold
There isn't one. This is the standout feature of New Hampshire's approach:
Waiver of Administration is available for an estate of any size, provided
the right relationship condition is met — a sole beneficiary or heir
serving as administrator, or every beneficiary or heir agreeing to serve
together or appoint someone. New Hampshire did have a dollar-based
mechanism once, but it stopped applying to anyone who died on or after
January 1, 2006, and the legislature has not enacted a value-based
replacement since.
Court filing required?
Yes — and this is a bigger court role than most other states' small-estate
shortcuts, not a smaller one. There's no document you can hand directly
to a bank the way a true small-estate affidavit works elsewhere. Someone
has to file a Petition for Estate Administration with the probate court
and be formally appointed administrator (or serve as the named executor)
first. What "waiver" removes is the inventory, bond, and accounting an
ordinary administration would otherwise require during that same
court-supervised case — not the court case itself.
Waiting period after death
There's no wait to get started — you can file the petition to open the
case as soon as you have a death certificate. The wait comes at the other
end: the administrator can't file the sworn affidavit of administration
that closes the case until at least 6 months, and no more than a year
(the court can extend that for good cause), after the date they were
appointed. That's a minimum length of time the case has to stay open, not
a fixed number of days counted from the death itself.
Works with a will, intestacy, or both?
Both, but New Hampshire defines who qualifies more narrowly than a simple
"heir or beneficiary" test. With a will: it works if there's exactly one
named beneficiary who becomes administrator, if every named beneficiary
agrees to serve as co-administrators (or unanimously agrees to appoint
someone else), or if a trust is the will's sole beneficiary and its
trustee serves. Without a will: it works the same way for a sole heir, or
for every heir agreeing together. Beyond those listed situations, a court
can also allow the waiver "whenever, in the discretion of the court," it
finds that appropriate.
Does it cover real property?
Yes. Because this runs through an actual probate case rather than a
private affidavit, real estate is part of what the administrator handles,
the same as personal property. The closing affidavit of administration
has to list every piece of real estate the decedent owned at death,
including its recorded location, book, and page — confirming real
property moves through this exact process rather than needing some
separate mechanism the way it does in many other states.
Signature formalities
The document that closes the case — the affidavit of administration — has
to be sworn, filed with the probate court, and approved by a judge before
the estate is actually closed. The statute doesn't add a separate witness
requirement beyond that oath. There's no notarized document handed to a
bank or other private holder anywhere in this process, unlike states that
run a true small-estate affidavit.
Protection for the bank/holder
New Hampshire's statute doesn't include a holder-discharge clause the way
bank-facing-affidavit states do, and it doesn't need one: the
administrator is already carrying the probate court's own certificate of
appointment by the time they deal with any bank, employer, or other
holder. Institutions rely on that court appointment — the same authority
backing any ordinary probate administrator — rather than on a private
affidavit's own liability-shifting language.
What trips people up
People searching for a "New Hampshire small estate affidavit" sometimes
find outdated pages describing the old, repealed dollar-threshold law and
assume it still applies — it hasn't, for any death since January 1, 2006.
The bigger surprise for most families is that New Hampshire simply
doesn't have a way to skip opening a probate case, no matter how small the
estate is; the benefit here is a lighter version of probate, not an
alternative to it. And because eligibility turns on relationships rather
than dollars, a modest estate can still be locked out of Waiver of
Administration if the heirs or beneficiaries disagree about who should
serve or can't get everyone's written assent — while, in principle, a much
larger estate qualifies easily if there's just one sole heir or
beneficiary willing to serve as administrator.
Common questions
Is there any way to collect a New Hampshire decedent's property without
opening a probate case at all?
Not through this mechanism. RSA 553:32 still requires filing a Petition
for Estate Administration and getting a court-appointed administrator; it
only lightens what happens after that, by skipping the inventory, bond,
and accounting.
What happened to New Hampshire's old small estate affidavit?
It was RSA 553:31, and the legislature repealed it effective January 1,
2006. No decedent who died on or after that date can use it; there's no
newer dollar-based mechanism that took its place.
Can multiple heirs use Waiver of Administration together?
Yes — if every heir (in an intestate estate) or every named beneficiary
(in a will) agrees in writing to serve as co-administrators, or agrees to
have one appropriate person appointed with all of their assent, the same
inventory/bond/accounting waiver applies as it would for a single sole
heir or beneficiary.
Statutes and sources
- RSA 553:32 (Waiver of Administration) —
https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/lvi/553/553-32.htm (accessed 2026-07-06) - RSA 553:31 (repealed effective January 1, 2006) —
https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/lvi/553/553-31.htm (accessed 2026-07-06) - RSA 553:33 (Summary Administration) —
https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/lvi/553/553-33.htm (accessed 2026-07-06)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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