First Steps After a Death in Idaho

A medical professional has to pronounce the death. If the death was expected under hospice care, the hospice team can usually handle this; if it was unexpected, call 911. Then choose a funeral home or cremation provider to take your person into their care and help with the death record. Ask how many certified death certificates they can order for you.

Lock the residence, keep the utilities and property insurance paid, and do not hand out belongings yet. Under Idaho Code 15-3-101, separate property passes under the will or to the heirs, and the decedent's half of the community property passes under the will or, with no will, to the surviving spouse. All of it passes subject to the homestead allowance, exempt property, creditors' rights, the spouse's elective share and administration, and community property the decedent managed stays liable for the decedent's debts. Nothing is safely anyone's until that is sorted out.

Look for the original signed will and any codicils, plus trust documents, deeds, vehicle titles, account statements and life insurance policies. Whoever has custody of a will must deliver it with reasonable promptness after the death to someone able to probate it, or to an appropriate court if no such person is known (Idaho Code 15-2-902). Idaho sets no fixed number of days. The Idaho Secretary of State keeps an optional will registry that shows where a registered will was kept; only interested persons or their attorneys may search it (Idaho Code 15-2-1001).

Certified copies come from the Idaho Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics, part of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Each certified copy costs $16. The bureau has no public counter: order by mail with the Certificate Request Form (Death), or online through VitalChek, which adds its own fee. Standard orders take about three to five weeks. You must have a direct and tangible interest in the record, and Estate Settlement is a listed purpose. Order more than you think you need: banks, insurers, the motor vehicle office and the court each want one.

Idaho probate is heard by the DISTRICT COURT in every one of the 44 counties (Idaho Code 15-1-201(8)), in the magistrate division that Idaho Code 1-2201 establishes in each county. There is no separate probate court. Venue is the county where the decedent was domiciled at death, or for a nonresident, any county where they had property (Idaho Code 15-3-201). You file with the clerk of the district court, who is the elected county clerk (Idaho Code 31-2001). The Idaho Supreme Court's County Courthouse Directory lists every courthouse address and phone number.

Idaho is a community property state. Property acquired during the marriage is presumed community (Idaho Code 32-906), and the surviving spouse already owns their own half, which is not part of the decedent's estate to give away. Then separate what passes outside probate. A payable-on-death account goes to the named payee (Idaho Code 15-6-104(b)). A joint account goes to the surviving party only if an intent to give the account can be shown (Idaho Code 15-6-104(a)), which is narrower than many states. Securities registered in transfer-on-death form go to the beneficiary (Idaho Code 15-6-307). Life insurance and retirement benefits pass under the policy or plan (Idaho Code 15-6-201). What is left in the decedent's name alone is the probate estate, and that list decides your route.

Idaho Code 15-3-1201 lets a successor collect money owed to the decedent, tangible personal property and stock by affidavit, with no court case and no court fee, once 30 days have passed since the death, if the fair market value of the entire probate estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000, and no petition to appoint a personal representative or for summary administration is pending or granted anywhere. The affidavit is not filed with a court. Real property counts toward the $100,000, but Idaho has no affidavit that transfers real property, so land needs another route.

Idaho has two no-court routes for a vehicle. If the owner died without a will, has no creditors and left no other property needing probate, the surviving spouse, children, parents, brothers or sisters can use ITD 3414, Affidavit of Inheritance (Idaho Code 49-514), with no dollar limit. Otherwise, in an estate of $100,000 or less, a successor can use ITD 3413, Small Estate Affidavit. Both are filed with ITD 3337, the title application, at a county assessor's motor vehicle office. Idaho has no transfer-on-death option for vehicle titles.

Where the surviving spouse is the sole devisee or heir, the spouse can file a verified petition under Idaho Code 15-3-1205 for a decree that works like a formal decree of distribution, with no administration of the estate. The trade-off is that the spouse assumes all of the decedent's debts. The spouse can appear at the hearing by phone or by affidavit, and there is no dollar cap.

Most uncontested Idaho estates are opened by a verified application to the registrar, who in Idaho is a magistrate or judge of the district court. Idaho Code 15-3-301 lists what the application must state. The registrar may informally probate a will only once five days have passed since the death (Idaho Code 15-3-302) and may appoint a personal representative once 120 hours have passed (Idaho Code 15-3-307); for a nonresident decedent the appointment waits 30 days unless an exception applies. The fee to open is $166 in every county.

Idaho Code 15-3-203 sets the order: the person named in a probated will, then a surviving spouse who is a devisee, then other devisees, then the surviving spouse, then other heirs, then any creditor once 45 days have passed. If 60 days pass after a petition with no proper person consenting to act, the county public administrator acts. Nobody under 18 may serve. Before letters issue, the personal representative files a statement of acceptance with an oath and any required bond (Idaho Code 15-3-601), and only then has authority to act for the estate (Idaho Code 15-3-103).

Within 30 days after appointment, mail the heirs and devisees the information Idaho Code 15-3-705 requires: your name and address, whether bond was filed and where the court papers are. If the decedent received Medicaid at age 55 or older, you must also give written notice of your appointment to the director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare within 30 days (Idaho Code 56-218).

Apply for a free employer identification number for the estate from the IRS, then open an account in the estate's name. Keep estate money completely separate from your own, and keep a receipt for every payment and every distribution. You will need the EIN for the estate's federal Form 1041 and Idaho Form 66.

Idaho Code 15-3-801 says the personal representative MAY publish a notice to creditors once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county. Publishing is what starts the four-month claim bar. Without it, creditors are limited only by the three-year outer bar in Idaho Code 15-3-803. A creditor you notify in writing has the later of four months after publication or 60 days after your notice.

Within three months after appointment, list the property the decedent owned at death, in reasonable detail, with each item's fair market value at the date of death and any encumbrance (Idaho Code 15-3-706). Send a copy to any interested person who asks for it. Filing the original with the court is optional.

The surviving spouse may claim a $50,000 homestead allowance (Idaho Code 15-2-402) and up to $10,000 of tangible personal property, above any security interests, as exempt property (Idaho Code 15-2-403). With no spouse, the homestead allowance is divided among children under 21 the decedent had to support and disabled children the decedent supported, and the exempt property goes to the children jointly. In Idaho these are not automatic: they must be applied for in the same manner and time as a creditor claim, which is within four months after first publication where notice was published (Idaho Code 15-2-405). Idaho has no family allowance.

If the estate cannot pay everything, Idaho Code 15-3-805 pays costs and expenses of administration first, then reasonable funeral expenses, then debts and taxes preferred under federal law, then last-illness medical and hospital expenses, then debts and taxes preferred under other Idaho law, then everything else. A claim you disallow is barred unless the creditor acts within 60 days after your notice of disallowance, if the notice warns of that (Idaho Code 15-3-806).

Idaho has no estate tax, no inheritance tax and no gift tax; the Idaho State Tax Commission says the estate tax expired for deaths in 2004. File the decedent's final federal Form 1040 and final Idaho income tax return, due April 15 after the year of death for a calendar-year filer (Idaho Code 63-3032). An estate with $600 or more of gross income files Idaho Form 66, the fiduciary income tax return (Idaho Code 63-3030). A federal Form 706 is due only for the largest estates.

In an unsupervised estate the personal representative files a verified closing statement no earlier than six months after the original appointment, stating that the creditor-claim time has expired, the estate is fully administered and distributed, and that a copy and a full written account went to the distributees and to known unpaid creditors (Idaho Code 15-3-1003). If nothing involving the personal representative is pending one year after it is filed, the appointment ends.

Idaho's second small-estate route has no dollar figure. If the inventory shows the estate, less liens, does not exceed the homestead allowance, exempt property, administration costs, reasonable funeral expenses and last-illness medical costs, the personal representative may distribute right away without notice to creditors (Idaho Code 15-3-1203) and close by the sworn statement in Idaho Code 15-3-1204.