Estate rules are easy to get wrong. They differ by state, they change, and old limits go on being repeated long after a law moves on. This page sets out where our rules and figures come from, how statutes are read and dated, how often they are rechecked, what is only our assumption, and where our limits are.
This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Estate law varies by state and changes. Ask the court clerk, or a lawyer or tax professional, about your case.
Where rules and figures come from
We go to the source that makes the rule, and link it at the claim:
- State law: the statute in the state’s own text, such as California, Texas, Washington, Virginia and New York. When a change is new, we read the session law as well.
- Courts: court forms and self-help pages. Forms are linked at the court or state, never hosted here.
- Federal rules: the IRS, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, along with the US Code.
- State taxes: the state’s tax agency or its statute, always with the year.
- Data: public court figures. Oregon’s courts publish how old estate cases were when closed, and we use them with their limits, below.
- The Uniform Probate Code: a model law, not any state’s law. We paraphrase it to explain how a rule usually works, and we give a state’s own statute for what applies there.
- Commercial sites and law firm pages: used only for labelled cost estimates, or as claims being checked. A rule read only on a form site or a firm’s blog is not a source.
How a claim gets on the page
Each rule and figure is sorted by how directly it was read, and that decides how we word it:
- Read in the statute, or on an official court or agency page. We state it plainly and give the citation and the date we read it.
- Read in a dated archived copy of the state’s own page. We state it, and name the date of the copy. More on this below.
- Read only in an excerpt, an unofficial copy, or a form whose statute we could not read. It can’t carry a state page’s main figure. In a table we name the source, or show “not confirmed”.
- Not confirmed. It stays off the page, or the page says “not confirmed, ask the court”. Our state table on small estate affidavits shows that for every row we could not read. We never fill a gap from a commercial page.
How statutes are read and dated
A statute can say something different from what is written about it, so we follow a few habits:
- Read date on every state figure. Each one carries its statute and the day we read it, and each page ends with the date its sources were checked.
- The date of death. Several limits apply by when the person died, not by when you file. Illinois raised its limit to $150,000 for deaths on or after 15 August 2025, and our Illinois page gives the figure for earlier deaths too.
- When a change starts. Florida raised its summary administration limit from $75,000 to $150,000 from 1 July 2026 (ch. 2026-57). The act text we read has no clause on dates of death, so we say that, and our Florida page sends readers with an earlier death to the clerk.
- Laws not yet in force. Illinois Public Act 104-624 changes which vehicles count toward the limit for deaths from 1 January 2027. We describe it as coming, not as the rule today, and we recheck the page on that date.
- What the figure counts. The same dollar amount can mean different things. California’s limit is a gross value, so debts on the property aren’t subtracted. Texas’s $75,000 is measured on the date of the affidavit and leaves out the homestead and exempt property. New York’s $50,000 is personal property only. We give the test with the number.
- Silence is not a rule. When a statute says nothing on a point, we write that the sections we read set no such rule, not that none exists. Another section, a court rule or case law may still apply.
- Bills are not law. We do not report a pending bill as a rule. We have not swept pending bills in every state.
Archived copies. Some state sites would not open for us, including the Oregon and Nebraska statute sites. There we read the state’s own pages in dated Internet Archive copies. The page cites the official address and says when we read it and how old the copy was, for example “read 5 November 2026 in an archived copy of the official page dated 24 October 2026”. A later change can’t be ruled out, so we reread these before any update, and we prefer the live text as soon as we can open it.
When sources disagree
We show the disagreement instead of quietly picking a side. Three examples:
- A court’s web page and its form. California’s self-help page still showed $184,500 for small estates when we read it on 5 November 2026. The Judicial Council’s form DE-300, revised 28 April 2025, gives $208,850 for deaths on or after 1 April 2025. The statute itself still prints a base figure “as adjusted periodically”, which is why the form carries the current number. We use the form and say why.
- A statute and a tax agency. Washington’s ESB 6347 keeps a clause on adjusting the estate tax exclusion for 2027 and after. The state Department of Revenue says the amount “is not set to increase going forward due to an expired CPI in the statute”. We give $3,000,000 for deaths from 1 July 2026, say that the Department lists the same for 2027 on, and give no indexed figure.
- A statute and an agency’s manual. 31 USC 3713 lists no exception to the priority of debts owed to the US. The Internal Revenue Manual says “courts have held that certain classes of claims can be paid before the tax debt”, and names administrative expenses, funeral expenses and homestead or family allowances. We give both, and we say the manual guides IRS staff and isn’t law. If an estate may be short of money and owes the IRS, that is a point to get a lawyer.
How pages are checked
After a page is written, a separate fact-check compares each rule, limit, deadline, fee and date with its source, and reworks every sum on the page. A final review looks for errors, gaps and anything that could lead a reader to miss a step or a deadline. A page with a serious problem still open does not go out. Each calculator formula is tested against answers worked by hand before the calculator goes live.
How often rules are rechecked
- State limits and state taxes: every three months.
- Federal tax figures: each December, for the coming year. As of 5 November 2026 we have found no IRS figures for 2027, so we give none.
- Laws with a known start date or adjustment: when the date arrives. Illinois on 1 January 2027 is one. California’s next adjustment of its limits, on 1 April 2028, is another.
- Archived readings: before any update that relies on them.
- Everything else: at least every six months, and sooner when we learn a source has changed.
A page shows an updated date only when its content really changed. Between rechecks a law can change without our knowing, which is why each state figure shows the day we read it.
What is an assumption
Where we work something out ourselves, we say so:
- Arithmetic. Applying a fee schedule to an estate is plain math, and the working is shown.
- Calculator defaults. Each one that is a rate or a rule says where it comes from and when, or that it is “our assumption”. You enter or change the estate’s own figures.
- Inferences. A conclusion the source does not state is labelled as ours.
Calculators give estimates and never tell you what you are owed. A will, a judge or a state rule can change the answer.
How fees and costs are shown
No court or government source we read gives a national cost for probate. So we do not give one. Pages show three different things, and label each:
- Statutory schedules, as read. Executor pay in some states follows a written schedule. Others say only “reasonable compensation”. We name the state and the date, and we say whether a figure is a set rate, a cap, a minimum or a presumption. Applied to the whole of a $500,000 estate as an illustration, the schedules give $13,000 in California, $19,000 in New York and $15,000 in Florida, where it is presumed reasonable. Each state measures the estate differently, so those figures are not like for like. Texas pays 5% on cash handled, not on estate value. The executor fee calculator shows each rule.
- Court fees. Given with the state and date where a statewide fee exists. Where counties set them, we give named county examples and do not call them the state’s fee.
- Published estimates, side by side. Each is named, dated where a date exists, and labelled with what it measures. We never average them, and we say when one has no date.
An estimate is not a bill, and it is not a verdict on whether a fee is right.
How we use court data
Few courts publish how long estates take, so Oregon’s 2025 table matters. Of 11,796 estates closed that year, 63.3% closed within 360 days, 86.6% within 720 days, and 13.4% took longer. We always say what that is: the age of court files at closing, in one state, in one year. It isn’t how long a family works on an estate, and it isn’t a national figure.
How we treat sales claims
Claims from sellers and law firms are reported as claims, never as fact. We don’t single out a firm when we question a line, because these lines are repeated widely. Some we have checked, as of 5 November 2026:
- “Probate costs 3-7% of the estate.” You may see figures like this on law firm pages. We looked for a study behind it and didn’t find one. We show the schedules we could read instead.
- “Probate costs $12,400 on average.” This traces to an undated survey by a software company, and that figure is for legal and accounting spending. It isn’t a measure of total probate cost.
- “Probate takes years.” Some cases do. In Oregon’s 2025 data, 63.3% closed within 360 days. See how long probate really takes.
- “Avoid probate at all costs.” We found no rule or study that supports this. The ways around probate have trade-offs, and our page on avoiding probate sets them out.
- “The executor must pay beneficiaries within a year.” There is no such national rule. See how long an executor has.
- “The executor is liable for the debts.” The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains that debts generally come out of the estate. There is a real exception for debts to the US, covered in does debt die with you.
- “Six states have an inheritance tax.” Out of date. Iowa’s ended for deaths from 1 January 2025, which leaves five.
Our limits
We read statutes and official pages. We do not survey court decisions, and a decision in your state can change how a statute applies. Some sources can’t be read, because a site blocks access or a law sits behind a login. When that decides a point, the page says the point is not confirmed. No check catches everything, so please tell us if you find a mistake. Fixes are logged on our corrections page, and our editorial policy covers the rest of how pages are made.
To act on your own estate, start with the court clerk in the county where the person lived. The executor’s job, in order shows what to gather first.
Sources on this page checked on 5 November 2026.