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New Hampshire Estate Planning Basics
Pillar GuideNew Hampshire24 min read

New Hampshire Estate Planning Basics

New Hampshire estate planning runs on four documents: a will, a durable power of attorney, an advance directive, and often a trust. Here is what each one needs.

By Settled Editorial

A New Hampshire estate plan runs on four documents. A will executed under RSA 551:2 with two credible witnesses says who inherits and names the executor. A durable power of attorney under RSA 564-E puts someone in charge of your money if you cannot act. One advance directive under RSA 137-J carries both a health care agent and a living will. A revocable trust under RSA 564-B is optional and pays off for some families.

Two New Hampshire answers shape everything below. The state collects no estate tax and no inheritance tax, so planning here is about probate avoidance and incapacity rather than a death tax bill. And New Hampshire has no small estate affidavit, so "my estate is small enough" is not a plan this state supports. Read this as a planning map and check anything touching your own house or family with a licensed New Hampshire attorney. For what happens after a death, start with the New Hampshire probate guide.

The Four Documents And The Sections That Govern Them

DocumentWhat it doesNew Hampshire law
WillNames who inherits and who serves as executorRSA 551:2
Durable power of attorneyLets an agent handle your money and propertyRSA 564-E:105
Advance directiveNames a health care agent and records treatment wishesRSA 137-J:20
Revocable living trustHolds retitled property and skips the court fileRSA 564-B:1-101
Transfer on death deedPasses New Hampshire land to a named beneficiaryRSA 563-D:9

Every adult in New Hampshire should hold the first three. The trust and the deed answer a narrower question, which is what happens to the house. Add finer detail when you own real estate, have children under 18, run a business, hold large retirement accounts, or married again with children from an earlier relationship.

One vocabulary note before the documents. New Hampshire is not a Uniform Probate Code state and does not use the phrase "personal representative". RSA 553:1 says the word administrator may include every person to whom the administration of an estate or the execution of a will may be granted, and the person named in a will is the executor. Court forms use both words. Neither one is "personal representative".

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The Will

Your will is the document that speaks for you at the Circuit Court, Probate Division. It says who inherits, names the executor who settles the estate, and records who you want raising your minor children.

RSA 551:1 sets who may sign one: any person 18 or older, or a married person under that age, of sane mind, disposing of property by a last will in writing.

RSA 551:2, I then lists four requirements. A valid New Hampshire will or codicil shall:

  1. Be made by a testator qualifying under RSA 551:1.
  2. Be in writing.
  3. Be signed by the testator, or by some person at the testator's express direction and in the testator's presence.
  4. Be signed by two or more credible witnesses, who at the request of the testator and in the testator's presence attest to the testator's signature.

No seal is required, and these rules apply to every will executed on or after January 1, 1993.

New Hampshire does not recognize a holographic will. There is no handwritten-will exception anywhere in RSA 551, and RSA 551:2 admits none to the two-witness rule. One narrow escape exists and it is worth knowing. RSA 551:5, I says a will made out of this state and valid according to the laws of the state or country where it was executed may be proved and allowed here, with the same effect as if it had been executed under New Hampshire rules. So a handwritten will validly signed in a holograph state can still be allowed after a move to New Hampshire. A handwritten will signed at a New Hampshire kitchen table with nobody watching cannot.

Two more signing rules matter. A will becomes self-proved under RSA 551:2-a when the signatures of the testator and the witnesses are followed by a sworn acknowledgment before a notary public, a justice of the peace, or another official authorized to administer oaths where the will is signed. That step spares your witnesses a trip to court years later. And RSA 551:2, III(a) lets witnesses attest by simultaneous sight and sound through an electronic device, but only when the notarial officer present is the New Hampshire attorney who drafted the will, a supervised New Hampshire attorney, or a supervised paralegal. Subparagraph III(b) closes the door on the obvious next step: nothing in that paragraph allows an electronic will or codicil. New Hampshire permits remote witnessing, not an e-will.

A will has limits. It cannot move property already held in a funded trust, override a beneficiary form on a retirement account, or redirect jointly held property that carries survivorship rights. The New Hampshire will requirements guide walks the whole signing sequence, including what makes a witness credible.

The Durable Power Of Attorney

A financial power of attorney names an agent to handle your money and property while you are alive. New Hampshire adopted the Uniform Power of Attorney Act at RSA 564-E, effective January 1, 2018, and four features of the New Hampshire version catch people out.

It is durable by default. RSA 564-E:104 says a power of attorney created under the chapter is durable unless it expressly provides that it is terminated by the incapacity of the principal. Durability is the whole point, so nothing needs to be added to get it.

Signing takes a notary and a disclosure statement, not witnesses. RSA 564-E:105(a)(1) requires the principal to sign, other than by electronic signature, either personally or through another individual signing in the principal's conscious presence at the principal's direction, and requires the signature to be acknowledged before a notary public or another individual authorized by law to take acknowledgments. Subparagraph (a)(2) then requires a disclosure statement in substantially the statutory form, signed the same way, to be affixed to the power of attorney. That notice opens with the line "THIS IS AN IMPORTANT LEGAL DOCUMENT" and warns the principal that an unlimited grant hands the agent broad power to sell property and spend money without advance approval.

Your agent has to sign too, and this is the step most often missed. RSA 564-E:113(a) says a person designated as agent under a general power of attorney has no authority to act until that person has signed, other than by electronic signature, an acknowledgment in substantially the statutory form and affixed it to the document. The agent can sign at any point before using the power, so it does not have to happen the day you sign. Until it happens, the agent holds nothing. A New Hampshire power of attorney arriving at a bank without an agent acknowledgment attached is a document the bank can turn away.

Two agents must act together unless you say otherwise. RSA 564-E:111(a) provides that unless the power of attorney says something different, coagents must exercise their authority jointly. Naming two children as coagents for balance produces a document where both signatures are needed for every transaction. Say in the document that either may act alone if that is what you want.

Timing is yours to set. RSA 564-E:109(a) makes a power effective when executed unless you give it a future date or a triggering event. A springing power that turns on incapacity works, and if you named nobody to make that call, subsection (c) lets a physician or a judge or an appropriate governmental official supply the determination in writing.

Some powers never come along for the ride. Under RSA 564-E:201(a), an agent may create, amend, revoke or terminate an inter vivos trust, make a gift, create or change rights of survivorship, or create or change a beneficiary designation only if the document expressly grants that authority. Those four powers move property permanently, so New Hampshire makes you name them. New Hampshire also publishes an optional statutory form at RSA 564-E:301, and the section says plainly that using it is not required. The New Hampshire power of attorney guide covers the gift standard, the bank-refusal rules, and how the document ends.

The Advance Directive

New Hampshire folds both medical documents into one instrument. RSA 137-J:20 supplies a single New Hampshire Advance Directive Form with a "Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care" component and a "Living Will" component. You can sign one part, the other, or both. There is no separate stand-alone living will statute to hunt for.

Execution is an either-or, and readers coming from other states get this wrong. RSA 137-J:14, I says the advance directive shall be signed by the principal in the presence of either two or more subscribing witnesses or a notary public or justice of the peace. You do not need both.

The witness restrictions are strict when you take that route. Under RSA 137-J:14, I(a), a witness may not be the agent or surrogate, the principal's spouse or heir at law, a person entitled to any part of the principal's estate under a will, trust, other testamentary instrument or deed, the attending practitioner, or someone acting under that practitioner's direction. No more than one witness may be the principal's health or residential care provider or that provider's employee. The witnesses affirm that the principal appeared of sound mind, free from duress, aware of the nature of the document, and signing freely.

Two operating rules decide when the document actually does anything:

  • The agent waits for a certification. RSA 137-J:5, II says an agent's authority is in effect only when the principal lacks capacity to make health care decisions, as certified in the principal's medical record by the attending practitioner. When capacity returns, that is certified too, the agent's authority terminates, and decisions revert to the principal.
  • The agent outranks the living will. RSA 137-J:21, II says that to the extent a durable power of attorney for health care conflicts with a terminal care document or living will, the durable power of attorney for health care controls. So pick an agent who knows your wishes, and talk the living will through with that person before you need either.

Sign the directive and then hand copies out. A document nobody can find at 2 a.m. does not help the person treating you. The New Hampshire advance directive guide covers revocation, do-not-resuscitate orders, and the surrogate rules that apply when nobody holds the job.

Trusts Under The New Hampshire Trust Code

A revocable living trust holds property while you live and passes it to named beneficiaries at your death with no court file. You stay in control as trustee, and a successor trustee steps in when you die or lose capacity.

New Hampshire adopted the Uniform Trust Code. RSA 564-B:1-101 names the chapter the New Hampshire Trust Code, with the source line "2004, 130:1, eff. Oct. 1, 2004. 2015, 272:67, eff. Oct. 1, 2015." The trust instrument does most of the work and the chapter fills the gaps.

Funding is where these plans fail. A trust keeps out of probate only the property you actually retitle into it. The deed has to be signed and recorded at the registry of deeds for the county where the land sits, and the accounts have to be moved. An unfunded trust in a drawer changes nothing, which is why a pour-over will usually rides alongside it to catch anything left outside.

A revocable trust is not a shield from your own creditors. RSA 564-B:5-505 is titled "Creditor's Claim Against a Settlor of a Revocable Trust", and it exists because property you can take back is property your creditors can reach. Treat the trust as a probate and incapacity tool.

New Hampshire markets itself as a trust-friendly state, and there is one citation trap in that story. RSA 564-D, the Qualified Dispositions in Trust Act, is repealed, by 2017, 257:59, III, effective September 16, 2017. Older articles still cite it as live New Hampshire law. Self-settled asset protection is now handled inside the Trust Code itself, and it is specialist work rather than form work, so take it to a New Hampshire trust lawyer.

New Hampshire also allows a trust for the care of an animal at RSA 564-B:4-408. The trust lasts for the life of the animal, or the last surviving animal where more than one is covered, and a person named in the terms of the trust or appointed by the court enforces it. The New Hampshire pet trust guide covers how to fund one and who should hold the enforcement role.

Work the trust question through the New Hampshire revocable living trust guide before you buy one, and read it against a transfer on death deed if a single house is the whole question.

Beneficiary Forms And Titling Beat Your Will

Here is the part people skip. Beneficiary designations and joint titles pass property on their own terms, and they override what your will says. Line them up with the will or they will work against it.

Real estate. New Hampshire gained a real transfer on death deed on July 1, 2024, under RSA 563-D, the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act. It has a deadline no other state's form warns you about. RSA 563-D:9 says a transfer on death deed is void unless it meets the deed formalities in RSA 477:3, bears the title "Transfer on Death Deed", states that the transfer to the designated beneficiary is to occur at the transferor's death, and is recorded before the transferor's death, within 60 days following the date of execution, and in the registry of deeds for each county where the real estate lies. Sign the deed and get it recorded the same week. The New Hampshire transfer on death deed guide covers drafting, revocation, and the notice of death affidavit the beneficiaries record afterward.

Securities and brokerage accounts. RSA 563-C is a different act with a similar name, and it covers securities rather than land. Never cite it for a deed. Registration in beneficiary form passes the account to the named beneficiary who survives the owner, and a blank designation sends the account to the estate.

Retirement accounts and life insurance. These pass by the form on file with the plan or the insurer. Name a first choice and a backup, and refresh both after a marriage, a divorce, a birth, or a death in the family. A stale beneficiary form is the most common reason these accounts land in probate by accident.

Vehicles. New Hampshire answers the car question the opposite way from the land question. There is no transfer on death registration for vehicles anywhere in RSA 261. Instead, RSA 261:17 deems a married resident owner's family-purpose vehicle to have been jointly held with right of survivorship unless the certificate of title says otherwise, so the decedent's interest passes to the surviving spouse. Answer the land question and the car question separately.

Deeds between two people. RSA 477:18 construes a conveyance to two or more people as a tenancy in common unless the instrument says the estate is held as joint tenants, runs to them and the survivor of them, or otherwise clearly expresses that intention. Survivorship in New Hampshire is a drafting choice, not a default. Pull your recorded deed and read the granting clause.

For the whole menu of transfers that skip the court, see how to avoid probate in New Hampshire.

What New Hampshire Does When A Document Is Missing

An estate plan is not only for large estates. Here is what state law decides on your behalf when a document is not there.

  • No will. RSA 561:1 distributes the estate by decree of the probate court on a fixed formula, and the spousal share changes depending on whether children, parents, or children from an earlier relationship survive. See New Hampshire intestate succession for the tiers.
  • No power of attorney. Your family asks the Circuit Court for a guardianship, and New Hampshire sets a harder bar than almost anywhere else. RSA 464-A:9, III lets the court appoint a guardian only after finding in the record, based on evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, that the person is incapacitated and that guardianship is necessary. That is the criminal standard applied to a civil proceeding. It is public, slow, and avoidable with a document you sign while you are well. See New Hampshire guardianship planning.
  • No advance directive. Medical decisions fall to a surrogate under RSA 137-J, chosen from a ranked list of relatives rather than by you.
  • No plan for titled assets. Property in your sole name runs through the Circuit Court, Probate Division, which means filings, a public file, and months of administration.

Two New Hampshire Facts That Change The Planning Math

No state death tax, and the reason is not what most articles say. New Hampshire collects neither an estate tax nor an inheritance tax. RSA 86, the legacy and succession tax, was repealed outright, "[Repealed 2002, 232:14, II, eff. Jan. 1, 2003.]" RSA 87 is a different story and it is still printed in the code. RSA 87:9, titled "Chapter Void, When", says the chapter becomes void and of no effect for the estates of people who die after the effective date of the repeal of the federal estate tax provisions, or the portion allowing a credit for state death taxes. That credit lapsed, so RSA 87 has produced no tax for deaths on or after January 1, 2005. Saying "RSA 87 was repealed" is wrong. It self-voided, and the question still shows up on New Hampshire court forms. The federal estate tax is a separate matter and reaches only very large estates. See the New Hampshire estate tax guide.

No small estate affidavit. New Hampshire has no dollar-threshold shortcut and no voluntary administration. The two lighter routes, waiver of administration under RSA 553:32 and summary administration under RSA 553:33, both turn on who inherits and who consents, not on what the estate is worth. So a plan built on "the estate will be small enough to skip probate" has nothing to stand on here. Read New Hampshire small estate rules before you assume otherwise.

One number worth knowing while planning around a house: the New Hampshire homestead right rose to $400,000 per person under RSA 480:1, I, with homestead exemptions totaling no more than $550,000 under paragraph III. The source line reads "2025, 282:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2026." Anything published before 2026 gives the old $120,000 figure and is out of date.

Planning For Minor Children

If you have children under 18, your will is where you record who should raise them. A New Hampshire court makes the appointment, and a clear written nomination carries real weight and spares the family a fight at the worst possible time. Many parents pair the nomination with a trust that holds the children's inheritance until they are older, rather than handing a lump sum to an 18-year-old.

When To Review What You Signed

Documents drift out of date faster than people expect. Look at yours every three to five years, and sooner after any of these:

  1. A marriage or a divorce.
  2. The birth or adoption of a child.
  3. The death of a beneficiary, an agent, or your named executor.
  4. A move to New Hampshire from another state, or a move away.
  5. Buying or selling a house, or selling a business.

To change a New Hampshire will, sign a codicil that amends it or sign a fresh will that revokes the old one. A new will is usually cleaner. After a divorce, go back through every beneficiary form as well, because those forms move property no matter what the will says.

Frequently Asked Questions

What documents do I need for an estate plan in New Hampshire?

Four carry most of the weight. A will executed under RSA 551:2 with two credible witnesses says who inherits and who serves as executor. A durable power of attorney under RSA 564-E puts someone in charge of your money if you cannot act. One advance directive under RSA 137-J:20 names a health care agent and records your treatment wishes. A revocable trust under RSA 564-B is optional and earns its cost when you want privacy, out-of-state property handled, or a clean handoff if you lose capacity.

Does New Hampshire accept a handwritten will?

Not on its own. RSA 551:2 requires every will to be in writing, signed by the testator or by someone at the testator's express direction in the testator's presence, and signed by two or more credible witnesses who attest at the testator's request and in the testator's presence. There is no holographic will exception in RSA 551. One narrow route exists: RSA 551:5, I allows a will made outside New Hampshire and valid where it was executed to be proved here, so a handwritten will signed in a state that accepts holographs can still be allowed.

Does a New Hampshire power of attorney need a notary or witnesses?

A notary, and no witnesses. RSA 564-E:105(a)(1) requires the principal to sign a general power of attorney other than by electronic signature and to have the signature acknowledged before a notary public or another individual authorized to take acknowledgments. Subparagraph (a)(2) then requires a disclosure statement in substantially the statutory form, signed by the principal, to be affixed to the document.

Why does my New Hampshire agent have to sign the power of attorney too?

Because RSA 564-E:113(a) says an agent under a general power of attorney has no authority to act until the agent has signed, other than by electronic signature, an acknowledgment in substantially the statutory form and affixed it to the document. The agent can sign at any time before using the power. A New Hampshire power of attorney with no agent acknowledgment attached is a document a bank can refuse.

Does New Hampshire have an estate tax or an inheritance tax?

Neither produces a bill today, and the reason differs for each. RSA 86, the legacy and succession tax, was repealed outright by 2002, 232:14, II, effective January 1, 2003. RSA 87 is still printed in the code, but RSA 87:9 voids the chapter for people who die after the federal credit for state death taxes ends, so it has produced no tax for deaths on or after January 1, 2005. Writing that RSA 87 was repealed is wrong; it self-voided.

Is a revocable living trust worth it in New Hampshire?

It depends on what you own. New Hampshire adopted the Uniform Trust Code at RSA 564-B:1-101, and a funded revocable trust keeps retitled property out of the Circuit Court, Probate Division, stays private, and covers incapacity. It costs more than a will and only controls what you actually retitle into it. For a single house, a recorded transfer on death deed under RSA 563-D:9 often does the same job for less.

Related New Hampshire Guides

This page is general information about New Hampshire estate planning. Planning turns on facts specific to your family and your property, so confirm anything that affects your situation with a licensed New Hampshire attorney before you sign or record a document.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

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Settled Estate is not a law firm and does not give legal advice.

Information current as of August 3, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in New Hampshire can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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