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New Hampshire Executor Duties
Pillar GuideNew Hampshire19 min read

New Hampshire Executor Duties

New Hampshire executor duties in order: qualify as administrator, file the 90-day inventory, run the six-month claim window, then account and close.

By Settled Editorial

New Hampshire executor duties run in a fixed order: file the will within 30 days, petition the Circuit Court Probate Division, give the bond, notify legatees and heirs, file the 90-day inventory, let the six-month claim window run from the grant of administration, pay claims in the statutory order, then account and close.

Start with the word New Hampshire uses, because it changes what you search for and which forms you pull. 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. So administrator is the umbrella term, and executor is the case where a will names you. New Hampshire never adopted the Uniform Probate Code, so personal representative is not its statutory term, and a form or article built on that vocabulary was written for another state.

The second correction is the court. New Hampshire folded its standalone county probate courts into the unified Circuit Court, and each county is now a judicial district for the Probate Division under RSA 490-F:4. You file with the circuit clerk, not with a Register of Probate, and each division is named by its circuit number and city rather than by its county. The New Hampshire probate court directory maps all ten counties to the division that hears their estates. For the whole sequence from petition to decree, read the New Hampshire probate guide alongside this page.

Your authority comes from the appointment, not from the will naming you. The document that proves it in New Hampshire is the certificate of appointment, which RSA 553:13, I(f) requires you to hand back to the court if a later appointment is granted. Banks and registries here ask for that certificate. Letters testamentary and letters of administration are the words other states use for the same proof, so expect the phrasing to differ from what a national article told you to request.

File the Will First, Because the Clock Starts at 30 Days

Two 30-day duties run before anyone is appointed, and they land on different people.

  • Whoever holds the will. Every person having custody of a will delivers it to the court of probate, or to the person named in it as executor, within 30 days after learning of the death (RSA 552:2).
  • The named executor. The person named as executor files the will with the probate court within 30 days after the death, or within 30 days after learning of the nomination, whichever is later (RSA 552:3). If the estate holds assets, that person either proves the will or files a written refusal to accept the trust. If it holds none, the named executor files the will with a certificate of death and no administration.

Neglect carries a price. RSA 552:4 forfeits twenty dollars for each month of delay past those thirty days, recoverable by any person interested in the will, unless you give the court a satisfactory excuse. It is a civil forfeiture rather than a crime, and it accrues monthly.

Where there is no will, RSA 553:2 sets who may be appointed, in order: the executor named in the will, then the widow, husband or any of the next of kin or a suitable person they nominate, then one of the devisees or creditors, then such other person as the judge thinks proper. RSA 553:3 is a waiting rule rather than a deadline. Nobody further down that list can be appointed until the people ahead of them renounce in writing or let 30 days pass after the death. If there is no will at all, the New Hampshire intestate succession rules decide who inherits, which is the same list of people with standing to ask.

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Your Bond Is a Checklist of the Job

RSA 553:13 bars you from administering an estate until you give bond to the judge with sufficient sureties, or other security the judge accepts. Read the conditions, because they are the duties themselves in the statute's own words:

  1. Return a true and perfect inventory, upon oath, within 90 days from the date of appointment
  2. Administer the estate according to law
  3. Render an account of administration, upon oath, within one year, and annually after that until a final account is filed and allowed
  4. Pay all taxes for which you may become liable under RSA 87
  5. Pay and deliver the residue on allowance of the final account or a motion for summary administration
  6. Deliver the certificate of appointment back to the court if a later appointment is granted

Two relief valves sit in the same section. When the estate has a gross value of $25,000 or less, only a personal bond without sureties is required. And under paragraph III the judge may waive the bond and surety requirements outright, which is the ordinary result in a family estate with one heir. The judge can also raise or reduce a bond later on motion. The New Hampshire bond requirements guide works through which estates draw a surety and what it costs.

Give Notice, and Know Which Notice Is Yours

Publication of the notice of appointment is the clerk's job, not yours. Under RSA 553:16 the clerk causes notice to be published within 15 days of the appointment, and no publication is required when the estate has a gross value of $10,000 or less. That threshold waives a newspaper notice. It does not create a small-estate route, and treating it as one is the most common New Hampshire mistake.

The notice that belongs to you runs on a different clock. RSA 552:15 requires every executor, within 60 days after appointment, to notify each legatee named in the will that they appear to be interested, and to notify the surviving spouse and known heirs at law that the will has been proved. Within 90 days after appointment you certify to the judge that you gave that notice, stating in what manner and to whom. Keep the mailing list and the postal receipts; the certification is a sworn statement about work you have to be able to show.

File the Inventory Within 90 Days of Appointment

RSA 554:1 requires every administrator to file with the court, within 90 days after the date of appointment, a full, true and itemized inventory of all the estate that has come to the administrator's knowledge. The statute is specific about the contents: a detailed itemized list of all real and personal property, the fair market value of each as of the date of death, and how that value was determined, whether by appraisal, tax information, bank statement or another source. The court form is NHJB-2125-P, Inventory of Fiduciary.

Three details reward attention here.

  • No appraiser is required. Paragraph II says no appraiser need give an opinion of value on the assets you list, though the judge may appoint one on motion or on the court's own action when the property or the size of the estate makes it advisable.
  • A false entry is a crime. The statute makes a false statement on the inventory an unsworn falsification punishable under RSA 641:3.
  • Default is automatic and dated. Miss the filing date by 30 days and you are in default. The clerk mails you notice within 10 days and then issues a citation under RSA 554:26-a, which carries default and citation fees.

If someone claims a present legal or equitable right to property you listed, RSA 554:1, III lets you petition the court under RSA 547:11-b to settle the question between the parties rather than guessing. Every one of these dates, plus the ones below, sits on a single page in the New Hampshire probate deadlines guide.

The Creditor Clock Runs From the Grant, Not From the Death

This is where New Hampshire departs from its neighbors, and where an executor who ports another state's schedule gets personally exposed. Three periods all run from the original grant of administration.

  • Six months to exhibit. No action lies against you unless the demand was exhibited within six months after the original grant, excluding any time the administration was suspended (RSA 556:3). A notice by registered mail setting out the nature and amount of the claim plus a demand for payment is a sufficient exhibition and demand (RSA 556:2).
  • No suit inside six months. RSA 556:1 blocks any action begun against an administrator within six months after the original grant. Months zero to six are a window in which a creditor must present but cannot sue.
  • One year to sue. RSA 556:5 bars any suit for a cause of action against the deceased unless it is begun within one year after the original grant, subject to narrow exceptions.

Keep RSA 556:29 separate in your head. That one runs from the death: if no administration is granted within two years of the date of death, no creditor may afterward reach real estate the decedent owned. Merging it with the six-month and one-year rules produces the wrong answer in both directions. The New Hampshire creditor claims guide walks how a demand comes in and how you allow or dispute it.

Pay in the RSA 554:19 Order, Never in Order of Arrival

RSA 554:19 sets one order of payment, and paragraph III forbids paying any lower class until the class above it is paid in full:

  1. Costs and expenses of administration
  2. Reasonable and necessary funeral, burial and cremation expenses
  3. Debts and taxes with preference under federal law
  4. Claims for financial or medical assistance provided by the Department of Health and Human Services, debts collected under RSA 126-A:34, and charges under RSA 166:19
  5. Just debts of the deceased
  6. Legacies under the will, or distribution to heirs according to law

Notice where class four sits. New Hampshire puts the state's medical-assistance recovery ahead of general creditors, and RSA 554:19-a requires you to notify the office of reimbursements if you know of liability under RSA 126-A:37. Paying an ordinary bill first because it arrived first can leave you answering for the shortfall. If the known claims exceed the assets, RSA 554:19-b lets you petition for a determination of insolvency, which stays actions against the estate and can waive the inventory and accounts. The New Hampshire debt payment priority guide sets out how each class behaves when money runs short.

Real Estate Follows Its Own Rules

You receive the rents and profits of the real estate, keep it in repair, and account for the net proceeds in case the estate is insolvent (RSA 554:15). When personal property will not cover debts and legacies, RSA 554:17 requires you to apply for and obtain a license to sell as much of the real estate as needed. Neglect or refusal to get that license, to make the sale, or to account for the proceeds is treated as maladministration and a breach of your bond, which is unusually blunt statutory language.

One quiet duty sits nearby. When the inventory or another filing shows real estate in a different New Hampshire county, RSA 554:14-a makes the court notify that county's register of deeds within 15 days, and the register indexes the decedent's name and date of death. The registry of deeds and the Probate Division are separate offices, and the deed side keeps the register title that the court side lost.

Handle the Spouse's Election Before You Distribute

A surviving spouse may waive the will and the homestead right and take a statutory share instead, and the deadline runs from your appointment, not from the death. RSA 560:14 requires the waiver and release to be in writing and filed in the probate office within six months after the appointment of an executor or administrator, and not afterward, unless the judge permits it for good cause shown. Where real estate is involved, the waiver is also recorded in the registry of deeds for the county where the land lies. The court form is NHJB-2498-P, Waiver by Surviving Spouse.

The judge may also make a reasonable allowance out of the personal estate for the surviving spouse's present support, accounted for later in the decree of distribution (RSA 560:1). Read the New Hampshire surviving spouse rights guide before you set anything aside for anyone else.

Account Within One Year, Then Every Year After

RSA 554:26-a fixes the account at one year after the date of appointment, and being 90 days late puts you in default with the same clerk notice and citation the inventory carries. RSA 554:26 requires an annual account after that unless the judge excuses you on petition, and caps any excuse at three years. RSA 554:25 says what goes in it: an itemized account of every sum received and paid out, with the date and a statement of the source or the consideration. The form is NHJB-2117-P, Executor's / Administrator's Accounting. See the New Hampshire probate accounting guide for what the court expects to see in each schedule.

What New Hampshire Pays You

There is no percentage commission in New Hampshire, and no RSA section sets one. Compensation comes from a court rule. Probate Division Rule 88 makes the fees and expenses of fiduciaries and attorneys subject to the approval of the court, and requires in all cases that they be reasonable for the work, responsibility and risk. The rule lists the factors a judge may weigh: the time and labor required, the size of the estate, the requisite skill, the customary fee, a fee agreement, the results obtained, time limitations, and the length of the professional relationship. One rule covers you and your attorney on the same standard, so keep contemporaneous time records from day one. To put a number on your own estate before you ask the court to approve one, run the New Hampshire executor compensation calculator.

Watch out for a citation trap. RSA 554:23 is titled "Amount Allowed" and sits in a chapter about accounts, so it reads like a fee section. It is not. Read with RSA 554:22 above it, it fixes what a fiduciary may pay a cemetery for perpetual care of a burial lot. Citing it for executor pay is wrong.

Two Ways to Close Early

New Hampshire has no dollar-threshold small estate, no small-estate affidavit and no voluntary administration. What it has instead are two routes qualified by relationship and consent, and both are still real court-appointed administrations.

  • Waiver of administration (RSA 553:32) removes the inventory, the bond and the accounting when the sole beneficiary or all beneficiaries serve as administrator or assent to one, or when a sole heir serves in an intestate estate. You close by filing an affidavit of administration between 6 and 12 months after appointment, listing every parcel of real estate the decedent owned by location, book and page.
  • Summary administration (RSA 553:33) applies to every other estate and eliminates the final account and receipts. You may move for it no earlier than 6 months after appointment, swearing that the estate has been open six months, that no claims are outstanding, that no New Hampshire or federal estate tax is due, and that court supervision is no longer needed, with assents attached from everyone beneficially interested.

The New Hampshire small estate rules compare the two side by side, including which one fits an estate with a will and which one fits a sole heir.

Before You Distribute Anything

Walk this list before a dollar or a deed leaves the estate:

  1. Is the will on file and proved, or has the court appointed you in an intestate estate?
  2. Did the legatees and heirs get notice within 60 days, and did you certify it within 90?
  3. Is the inventory on file within 90 days of appointment?
  4. Has the six-month exhibition window under RSA 556:3 run from the grant?
  5. Are allowed claims paid in the RSA 554:19 order, with the state's assistance claim ahead of general debts?
  6. Has the surviving spouse's six-month waiver deadline passed, or been resolved?
  7. Are the final income tax returns filed or accounted for?
  8. Do you hold signed receipts or assents from the people who received property?

Distributing before the claim window closes is the fastest way to turn an estate debt into your own. New Hampshire also treats meddling with estate property outside an appointment harshly: RSA 553:17 makes anyone who unlawfully intermeddles with, wastes or destroys personal estate liable to creditors as executor in his own wrong, for double the value.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the duties of an executor in New Hampshire?

Qualify in the Circuit Court Probate Division for the county where the decedent lived, give the bond required by RSA 553:13, notify legatees and heirs within 60 days and certify that notice within 90 days under RSA 552:15, file a full itemized inventory within 90 days of appointment under RSA 554:1, let the six-month claim window in RSA 556:3 run from the original grant of administration, pay claims in the RSA 554:19 order, then file an account within one year and close.

When is the New Hampshire estate inventory due?

Within 90 days after the date of appointment. RSA 554:1 measures that clock from the appointment rather than from the death, and the inventory must be a full, true and itemized list of all real and personal property with fair market values as of the date of death and a note of how each value was determined. The court form is NHJB-2125-P, Inventory of Fiduciary. An administrator who is more than 30 days late is in default, and the clerk mails a default notice within 10 days.

How long do creditors have to file a claim against a New Hampshire estate?

Six months from the original grant of administration, not from the death and not from the published notice. RSA 556:3 bars any action unless the demand was exhibited to the administrator inside that window, RSA 556:1 blocks any suit begun in those same first six months, and RSA 556:5 requires suit within one year of the grant. A separate rule, RSA 556:29, bars a creditor from reaching the decedent real estate if no administration was granted within two years of the death.

Does a New Hampshire executor have to post a bond?

Usually yes. RSA 553:13 bars anyone from administering an estate until that person gives bond to the judge with sufficient sureties, or other security the judge approves. Two things soften it. When the estate has a gross value of $25,000 or less, only a personal bond without sureties is required. And under RSA 553:13, III the judge may waive the bond and surety requirements outright. Estates that qualify for waiver of administration under RSA 553:32 need no bond at all.

How much does a New Hampshire executor get paid?

Whatever the court approves as reasonable. New Hampshire sets no percentage commission anywhere in its statutes. Probate Division Rule 88 subjects the fees and expenses of fiduciaries and attorneys alike to court approval and requires them to be reasonable for the work, responsibility and risk, weighing time and labor, the size of the estate, the requisite skill, the customary fee, any fee agreement, the results obtained, time limitations and the length of the professional relationship.

Is a New Hampshire executor called a personal representative?

No. New Hampshire never adopted the Uniform Probate Code, so personal representative is not its statutory term. 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, which makes administrator the umbrella word and executor the will-named case. The court forms follow the statute, as in NHJB-2117-P, Executor's / Administrator's Accounting.

This guide is general information about New Hampshire estates. Confirm anything that affects your situation with the circuit clerk of your Probate Division or a licensed New Hampshire attorney. If you are still deciding whether the will you hold is valid, start with the New Hampshire will requirements guide.

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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