Kansas Probate Guide
County-specific probate filing-office contacts, filing fees, required forms, and step-by-step guidance for families settling an estate in Kansas.
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Types of Probate in Kansas
Kansas runs probate in the district court of each of the 105 counties, and the route turns on the size and shape of the estate rather than on where you file. A probate estate of $75,000 or less can be collected on a small estates affidavit under K.S.A. 59-1507b, which is not filed with any court. Above that sit the court routes: a refusal to grant letters, a petition to determine descent for a death more than six months old, a simplified estate the judge elects at the appointment hearing, and ordinary supervised administration.
See the full comparison of Kansas probate typesWhich procedures exist, who qualifies, and how the timelines compare.Find your county
Kansas Probate Filing Offices by County
Choose your county to get its probate court contacts, filing fees, and required forms. 105 counties have detailed data.
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Browse Kansas guide topics
Jump to court, executor, tax, planning, property, and probate-avoidance guides that match your next task.
Browse Kansas guide topics
Jump to court, executor, tax, planning, property, and probate-avoidance guides that match your next task.
Probate Basics
5Forms & Court
1Taxes & Deadlines
8Planning Documents
7Property Transfer
3Avoiding Probate
2Kansas Probate Self-Help and Online Resources
Kansas probate resource map by source type
All Kansas self-help resources (16 links)Official court, form, law-library, referral, and legal-education links, plus how to use each source
Kansas probate source navigation starts with state court, form, agency, legal-help, or referral links that are already tracked in Settled state data. These links are state-level starting points, not county-specific filing instructions.
Which Kansas probate source should you use?
- Start with the state court, form, or self-help source for general Kansas probate context.
- Use county filing-office, clerk, register, or court pages for local filing locations, local forms, fee schedules, and records portals.
- Use legal-help, law-library, or referral links as research or referral paths, not as a substitute for counsel.
- Verify current filing steps with the county office, court, clerk, register, legal-aid source, or counsel before filing.
Statewide process, forms, and code sources
State court, form, statute, agency, and self-help sources for general probate and estate-settlement questions.
- Kansas Judicial Branch Self-Help Website, probate and elder law
The state judiciary's own self-help pages for probate and elder-law questions. This is the first stop for a family that wants the court system's own plain-language explanation before deciding whether to hire counsel.
- Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes, Kansas Statutes Annotated
Chapter 59 is the Kansas Probate Code, and this index lists every section in it with the section number and its catchline. The Revisor states that the version published online is unofficial and that the printed Kansas Statutes Annotated is the official set.
- K.S.A. 59-1507b, transfer of certain personal property to successor
The statute behind the Kansas small-estate affidavit route, including the $75,000 figure and the words that set what the affidavit measures against what it can actually transfer.
- K.S.A. 59-3501, real estate transfer-on-death
Kansas has a statutory transfer-on-death deed for real estate, and this is the section that creates it. It has not been amended since it was enacted in 1997.
- Kansas Judicial Council, legal forms index
The Judicial Council publishes the official Kansas probate forms. K.S.A. 59-1507b points to this body's form by name, so its published version is the one to use rather than a form found elsewhere.
- Kansas Judicial Council, probate forms
The probate folder of the official form library, covering petitions, notices and orders used in a Kansas estate proceeding.
- Kansas Judicial Council, small estates affidavit under K.S.A. 59-1507b
The published affidavit for the small-estate transfer route. The statute asks for substantial compliance with the form this body sets, which is why the official version matters.
- Kansas Judicial Council, guardianship and conservatorship forms
Official forms for guardianship, conservatorship and other protective arrangements for an adult who cannot manage their own affairs.
- Kansas Judicial Council, poverty affidavit and filing-fee waiver
The form used to ask the court to waive the docket fee. K.S.A. 59-104 provides for a poverty affidavit, so the fee alone need not stop a family from opening an estate.
- Kansas Secretary of State, session laws
The enacted acts, published by session with an amended-and-repealed index. This is what settles whether a published statute has been changed since it was last posted, and it caught a 2026 amendment to the probate docket-fee section that the statute page had not yet reflected.
- Kansas Department of Health and Environment, death certificates
How to order a certified death certificate in Kansas. Certified copies are the first document most banks, insurers and title offices ask for after a death.
- Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Division of Health Care Finance
The division that houses Kansas estate recovery, the process by which the state may seek repayment of certain medical assistance from an estate after a death.
- Kansas Department of Revenue, Division of Vehicles
Titling and registration, including transferring a vehicle title after the owner dies.
- Kansas Department of Revenue, forms library
The department's own indexed form library, which is where a title or tax form should be taken from rather than from a copy hosted elsewhere.
Referral-navigation sources
Referral paths for finding certified lawyer-referral services when a family wants help locating counsel.
- Kansas Legal Services
Statewide civil legal aid for Kansans who meet its income limits, including help with probate and estate questions. Start at the home page and use its intake path to check whether you qualify.
- Kansas Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service
The state bar association's referral path for finding a lawyer when a family wants help locating counsel. A referral is not advice and does not decide whether an estate needs a court proceeding.
Settled pairs these Kansas source links with county pages, forms, first-step guides, transfer guides, and source notes so families can move from statewide context to the local office that handles the estate.
Kansas Estate Law Overview
Kansas Estate Tax Info
Kansas has no estate tax, no inheritance tax and no probate tax. Opening a Kansas estate costs a flat statewide docket fee, not a percentage of what the estate is worth.
Federal estate tax info
Federal estate tax only applies to estates exceeding $15,000,000 (2026).
Who Inherits Without a Will?
Rules for property distribution when someone dies without a valid will.
Kansas Homestead Protection
Kansas has one of the strongest homestead protections in the country and it is written into the state constitution. The protection is defined by acreage, carries no dollar cap, survives the owner's death for the family that keeps living there, and cannot be alienated during life without the consent of both spouses.
Exempt Property
Kansas gives a surviving spouse and the decedent's minor children three separate protections that come off the top of an estate: the homestead, a set of household property taken in kind, and a reasonable cash or property allowance of up to $75,000. All three are free of the decedent's debts except liens that already existed at the death.