Probate court self-help centers and small estate limits, state by state

What a probate self-help center does

A probate self-help center is the part of a state or county court website built for people handling an estate without a lawyer. Most publish the forms for opening probate, informal or summary administration, and any small estate affidavit, along with instructions written for a first-time filer. Court staff at these centers can hand you a form and tell you which box to check, but under every state's rules they cannot tell you which option to choose, fill out the form for you or give legal advice. This guide is general information for the United States, not legal, tax, financial or medical advice.

Because probate is filed at the county courthouse, the statewide self-help page is usually a starting point that links out to county-specific pages, local rules and filing fees. When a state runs one probate court per county with its own forms, such as Georgia or Ohio, check both the statewide page in the table below and your own county's probate or surrogate's court site before you file anything.

State probate court self-help pages and small estate limits

Why the numbers vary so much by state

Probate is state law, not federal law, so each state legislature sets its own small estate limit, decides whether it covers real estate, and sets its own waiting period. A handful of states, including Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, South Carolina and Wyoming, raised their limits in 2025 or 2026, in some cases by a wide margin, which is why an older article or a competitor's guide can be out of date within a year. Some states index the limit to inflation every year, including California, Colorado, Maine and Michigan, so the current figure depends on the year of death, not the year you look it up. When in doubt, use the link in the table above rather than a number copied from elsewhere.

Most limits also cover personal property only: bank accounts, vehicles, furniture and other belongings, not a house or land. States that exclude real estate from the small estate shortcut entirely include Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico (with a narrow exception for a primary residence claimed by a surviving spouse), New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin. A few states, including Arkansas, Arizona, Nebraska, Oregon, West Virginia and Wyoming, allow real property into the small estate process, usually with its own separate, often higher, dollar limit.

When to hire a probate attorney

A small estate affidavit or a state's simplified probate track is built to be used without a lawyer: the forms are free, the self-help page walks through each step, and court staff can point you to the right form even though they cannot fill it out for you. Handle it yourself when the estate is under your state's limit, the will is not contested, the heirs agree on how to divide things, and there is no business, out-of-state property or estate tax return involved.

Hire a probate attorney when the estate is above your state's limit and needs formal or informal probate, when a will is missing or contested, when the deceased owned real estate in more than one state, when a beneficiary is a minor or has a disability, when the estate may not have enough assets to pay its debts, or when family members disagree about who gets what. An attorney is paid from the estate, not out of your own pocket, in most cases. This guide is general information for the United States, not legal, tax, financial or medical advice, and a probate attorney or your state court self-help center can confirm the rule that applies to your specific estate. Keeping a record of every account, policy, deed and document in one place, the kind of information a family guide such as Omliva's is built to hold, makes it far easier for whoever settles your estate to tell quickly whether they qualify for the small estate shortcut at all.