New Hampshire Probate Cost: Three Flat Tiers, Statewide
New Hampshire charges no percentage and no probate tax. One published schedule sets a flat entry fee of $150, $205 or $305 by the gross value of the estate, and it is the same in all 10 counties.
Opening a New Hampshire estate costs $150 if the gross value is $10,000 or less, $205 from $10,001 to $25,000, and $305 above $25,000. Those three tiers come from Circuit Court Probate Division Rule 169(I), the fee schedule the supreme court is required to establish for every court in the state under RSA 490:26-a, I. The top tier is flat and open-ended, which is the fact most worth carrying: an estate of $30,000 and an estate of $30,000,000 both pay $305, because there is no percentage, no per-dollar step and no probate tax anywhere in New Hampshire.
The unusual part is what the entry fee already covers. Rule 169(II) puts the $55 cost of publishing the notice of appointment INSIDE the entry fee for an estate over $10,000, and RSA 553:16 requires no publication at all when the gross value is $10,000 or less, so publication is a $0 line either way. The $30 electronic case filing surcharge and the $5 mediation and arbitration fund charge added by RSA 490:27, II are inside the listed amount too. What sits outside it is a bond premium, appraisals, certificates at $10 each, and any administrator or attorney fee, none of which New Hampshire sets by statute.
Quick Summary
- To open the estate
- $150 / $205 / $305Flat Rule 169(I) tiers by gross estate value: $10,000 or less, $10,001 to $25,000, above $25,000
- Publication of notice
- $0The $55 charge is inside the entry fee above $10,000, and RSA 553:16 requires none at or below it
- Motion for Summary Administration
- $105RSA 553:33, on top of the entry fee. Waiver of administration under RSA 553:32 costs nothing extra
- Administrator and attorney fees
- No percentageReasonable for the work, responsibility and risk, approved by the court under Rule 88
There is no county-by-county fee schedule to check in New Hampshire, and no county probate court to check it with. The probate division of the Circuit Court sits in each of the 10 counties, but RSA 490:26-a, I requires ONE equitable fee schedule for every court in the state and Rule 169 is that schedule, so Coos and Rockingham charge the same. The forms are the statewide NHJB series and the fees are paid to the clerk of the applicable circuit court under RSA 490:27. Choosing a county decides where the petition is filed, not what it costs, and RSA 547:8 makes that choice for you by sending the estate to the judge for the county where the deceased person was last an inhabitant. Exactly one probate-adjacent money field is genuinely local: RSA 478:17-g, III has each register of deeds establish and post the charge for copying a document, so the copy fee at the county registry differs from one registry to the next even though the recording fee itself is statewide.
Typical Total Cost Ranges
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| Procedure | Estate Size | Court Fee | Timeline | Attorney? | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Administration | Any estate. The default route under RSA 553 for anything that does not qualify for a waiver of administration | $150 at a gross value of $10,000 or less, $205 from $10,001 to $25,000, $305 above $25,000 (Rule 169(I)(c), (j), (k)), plus $105 for each account where the gross estate is above $25,000 | Commonly 12 to 24 months | No statutory requirement; counsel is usual where there is real estate to sell or a contested will | Estates where the beneficiaries do not all agree, or where claims need court supervision |
| Waiver of Administration | Any estate, at any value. Qualification turns on relationship and consent under RSA 553:32, never on a dollar figure | The same $150, $205 or $305 entry fee and nothing more. No account fee, because there is no account, and no bond premium, because there is no bond | Usually 7 to 12 months; the closing affidavit of administration is filed 6 to 12 months after appointment | No | The ordinary family estate where the people who inherit are the people willing to serve |
| Summary Administration | Any estate NOT governed by RSA 553:32, open at least 6 months, with no outstanding debts, obligations or unresolved claims and no estate tax due | $105 for the Motion for Summary Administration, on top of the entry fee already paid to open the estate | Usually 7 to 12 months; the motion cannot be filed before month 6 | No | An estate that could not use a waiver at the start but has since paid everything, with everyone assenting |
| Transfer on Death Deed | Real property described in a deed the owner records during life under RSA 563-D | No court fee at all. Registry of deeds recording only: $10 for the first page, $4 for each additional page, and a $25 land and community heritage surcharge on each deed (RSA 478:17-g) | Effective at the death; the beneficiary records a notice of death affidavit within 60 days (RSA 563-D:22) | No, though the RSA 563-D:9 requirements are strict enough to be worth a review | Keeping a house out of probate, where the owner will record the deed within 60 days of signing it |
Additional Costs to Expect
Petition for Estate Administration Entry Fee
Circuit Court Probate Division Rule 169(I) sets three flat tiers on the gross value of the estate: $150 at $10,000 or less under (I)(k), $205 from $10,001 to $25,000 under (I)(j), and $305 above $25,000 under (I)(c). Rule 169 states each tier in terms of gross value and states no exclusion for real property, so the house counts toward the tier even though it cannot push the fee past $305. The tier is the same in all 10 counties, the petition publishes only as the e-file form NHJB-2145-Pe, and the fee is paid to the clerk of the applicable circuit court for the benefit of the state under RSA 490:27. Two charges people expect to find added on are already inside the listed amount: the $30 electronic case filing surcharge under Rule 169(VII) and the $5 mediation and arbitration fund charge under RSA 490:27, II.
Publication of the Notice of Appointment
Unusual enough to state plainly. RSA 553:16 has the clerk publish notice of the administrator appointment within 15 days, EXCEPT that no publication is required when the estate has a gross value of $10,000 or less. Above that, Rule 169(II) prices the notice at $55 and then says "This fee is included in the Entry Fee", though the court may direct payment to the publisher instead. Either way there is no second bill. Most states charge newspaper publication as a separate out-of-pocket cost; New Hampshire does not.
Accounts, Motions and Other Probate Filings
Rule 169(I) prices the rest of the schedule flat. An account is $0 where the gross value of the estate is $25,000 or less and $105 above that. A Motion for Summary Administration is $105, a Motion to Remove Fiduciary $105, a Motion for a Successor Trustee, Executor, Administrator or Guardian $105, a Motion to Re-Examine Will $175, and a Motion to Re-Open Estate or Bring Forward $180. A Petition for an Authenticated Copy of Will and Probate from another state is $260. None of these scales with the size of the estate, and a waiver-of-administration estate pays none of the account fees because it files no account.
Certificates, Copies and Records Research
Rule 169(V) sets the document charges. A certificate under the seal of the court is $10, and that is the document a bank or a transfer agent asks for as proof of appointment, so order several at the outset. Certifying a copy is $10 plus the copy fee. Copies are $0.50 per page, or $0.25 per page printed from a court kiosk. An authenticated, or exemplified, copy of probate is $40 and is what an ancillary proceeding in another state will want. Records research is $6.50 per name per court, and Rule 169(VI) lets the clerk waive it for a request from the media.
Default and Citation Charges for a Missed Deadline
These are avoidable and worth knowing about before they arrive. RSA 554:26-a sets the fiduciary deadlines, with the inventory due within 90 days of appointment and an account within one year and annually after that. When a deadline is missed the clerk issues a notice of default, charged at $25 each occurrence, and then a citation to show cause at $50 each occurrence. One point of housekeeping worth noting for anyone chasing the citation: Rule 169(IV) and the published schedule cite DIFFERENT authority for the same two charges, but the amounts agree.
Administrator Compensation
New Hampshire fixes no commission for an administrator anywhere in the RSA. Circuit Court Probate Division Rule 88 governs: fees and expenses of fiduciaries and attorneys are subject to the approval of the court and must be reasonable for the work, responsibility and risk, judged on the time and labor required, 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. The word New Hampshire uses is ADMINISTRATOR, defined at RSA 553:1; personal representative belongs to the Uniform Probate Code and New Hampshire never adopted it. One citation to avoid: RSA 554:23 is headed "Amount Allowed" but concerns what a fiduciary may pay for the perpetual care of a burial lot, not compensation for services.
Attorney Fees
New Hampshire sets no statutory attorney-fee schedule for probate, and no attorney is required to settle an estate. The fee is agreed with the fiduciary, whether hourly, flat or otherwise, and it falls under the same Rule 88 reasonableness standard as the administrator fee, so both are reviewed on one footing. The hourly and flat ranges here are market estimates rather than statutory or judicial-branch figures, and they run lower where a waiver of administration under RSA 553:32 removes the inventory and the accounting. Ask for a written fee agreement before the work starts.
Bond Premium and Appraisals
RSA 553:13 may require a surety bond of an administrator, though the judge can waive it and a personal bond without sureties can be enough where the estate is $25,000 or less. Waiver of administration under RSA 553:32 removes the bond requirement entirely, which is one of the quieter savings on that route. Appraisals feed the itemized inventory that RSA 554:1 requires at date-of-death values within 90 days of appointment, and a waiver estate files no inventory, so it usually needs none. Both figures are market rates rather than court fees.
Recording a Deed at the County Registry
RSA 478:17-g sets recording statewide at $10 for the first page and $4 for each additional page, and RSA 478:17-g, II(a) adds $25 for recording each deed, mortgage, mortgage discharge or plan, paid by the grantee on a deed. A transfer on death deed under RSA 563-D is a deed, so budget the $25 on it too. Check the registry posted schedule before fixing an exact figure: RSA 478:17-j lets a county adopt a register-set surcharge of up to $2 per document, and the registries that have adopted one publish a payable first page of $12. The per-page COPY charge is the one probate-adjacent fee New Hampshire genuinely leaves to each county, because RSA 478:17-g, III has each register of deeds establish and post it.
Estate Tax, Inheritance Tax and the Closing Certificate
New Hampshire levies no estate tax, no inheritance tax and no personal income tax, so there is no state tax bill on a New Hampshire estate and no state return to file. State the reason precisely, because a common shortcut is wrong: RSA 86, the inheritance tax chapter, was repealed outright effective January 1, 2003, but RSA 87, the estate tax chapter, was NOT repealed. It is still printed in full and merely voided itself under RSA 87:9 when the federal state death tax credit lapsed, so it has produced no tax for a death on or after January 1, 2005. The administrative trace survives: RSA 87:25 bars the probate court from allowing a final account or granting a motion for summary administration until a Department of Revenue Administration certificate is on file.
One more cost source to check: if the person who died received Medicaid long-term care benefits, the state may file a recovery claim against the estate. The New Hampshire Medicaid estate recovery guide explains when that applies.