New Hampshire Probate Types: Waiver of Administration vs Full Administration
New Hampshire opens every estate the same way and then decides how much paperwork it needs. The question is not how big the estate is; it is who inherits, who agrees, and whether anything is still owed.
Compare eligibility, timing, court involvement, and local verification points
How to Compare New Hampshire Probate Types
New Hampshire has no dollar-threshold small estate and no small estate affidavit. Every estate starts with a Petition for Estate Administration in the Circuit Court, Probate Division for the county where the deceased person was last an inhabitant, and an administrator is appointed. What changes from one route to the next is how much of the inventory, bond, accounting and receipts survive. Waiver of administration under RSA 553:32 removes the inventory, the bond and the accounting at the outset because of who is inheriting. Summary administration under RSA 553:33 removes the final account and the receipts at the end, once the estate has been open 6 months with nothing outstanding.
Two pieces of vocabulary keep New Hampshire pages accurate. The person in charge is the ADMINISTRATOR: RSA 553:1 defines the word to cover everyone to whom administration is granted, and executor is used for the person named in a will. New Hampshire is not a Uniform Probate Code state, so personal representative is not the term here. And the court is a division of one statewide Circuit Court under RSA 490-F rather than a county probate court, so it is named by circuit number and city, as in the 9th Circuit - Probate Division - Nashua, even though the jurisdiction that decides where to file is still the county.
Waiver of Administration vs Full Administration at a Glance
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| Category | Waiver of Administration | Full Administration | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| How the estate opens | The same Petition for Estate Administration, with the waiver requested on the petition and the required assents filed with it | The same petition without the assents, after which the administrator gives bond unless the judge waives it | Tie |
| Cost to open | No extra court fee at all. Only the $150, $205 or $305 Rule 169 entry fee, and the surety bond premium goes away with the bond | The same entry fee, plus a bond premium where a surety bond is required and $105 for each account above a $25,000 gross estate | Waiver of Administration |
| Who can use it | Only one of the six relationship-and-consent situations in RSA 553:32, I(a). Everyone who has to assent must actually assent | Anyone. No conditions, no assents, and no agreement required among the beneficiaries | Full Administration |
| Inventory and accounting | None. The waiver removes the RSA 554:1 inventory, the RSA 553:13 bond and the RSA 554:26-a accounting entirely | An itemized inventory at date-of-death values within 90 days, then an account within one year of appointment and annually after that | Waiver of Administration |
| How it closes | An affidavit of administration filed 6 to 12 months after appointment, listing the real estate with location, book and page | A final account allowed by the court, after the Department of Revenue Administration certificate required by RSA 87:25 is filed | Waiver of Administration |
| Timeline | Usually 7 to 12 months, floored by the 6-month wait before the affidavit can be filed | Usually 12 to 24 months | Waiver of Administration |
| What does not change | Creditors still have 6 months from the grant under RSA 556:3, valid debts still get paid first, and any interested person can petition for full administration before the affidavit is filed | The same creditor window and the same order of payment, with the court watching each step | Tie |
Main New Hampshire Probate Options
| Probate Type | Threshold | Filing Fee | Timeline | Real Estate | Attorney | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full Administration RSA 553 (Petition for Estate Administration, form NHJB-2145-Pe) | No threshold and no conditions. The default route for any estate that does not qualify for a waiver of administration. | $150, $205 or $305 by gross estate value under Rule 169(I), plus $105 for each account where the gross estate is above $25,000 | Commonly 12 to 24 months | Yes | No statutory requirement; counsel is usual where there is real estate to sell, a contested will, or an insolvent estate | Estates where the beneficiaries do not all agree, where someone outside the family serves, or where claims have to be sorted out under court supervision |
Waiver of Administration RSA 553:32 (assents on form NHJB-3233-Pe) | No dollar threshold. Qualification turns on RELATIONSHIP AND CONSENT in one of six situations in RSA 553:32, I(a): a sole beneficiary under a will who is appointed administrator; all will beneficiaries appointed as co-administrators or assenting to an appropriate person; a trust as sole beneficiary with all trustees assenting; a sole intestate heir, which may be the surviving spouse, who is appointed; all intestate heirs appointed or assenting; or the court in its discretion. | No additional court fee. Only the $150, $205 or $305 entry fee, and the surety bond premium disappears with the bond | Usually 7 to 12 months, because the affidavit cannot be filed before month 6 | Yes. The closing affidavit expressly lists the real estate with book and page | No | The ordinary New Hampshire family estate, where the people who inherit are the people willing to serve |
Summary Administration RSA 553:33 (forms NHJB-2149-P and NHJB-2122-P) | No dollar threshold, and expressly limited to estates OTHER than those governed by RSA 553:32. The estate must have been open at least 6 months, have no outstanding debts, obligations or unresolved claims, owe no New Hampshire estate tax or have paid it with an RSA 87:26 certificate on file, owe no federal estate tax or have filed and paid it, and carry receipts or assents from every specific legatee and assents from everyone else beneficially interested. | $105 for the motion, on top of the entry fee already paid to open the estate | Usually 7 to 12 months, because the motion cannot be filed before month 6 | Yes | No | An estate that could not use a waiver at the start but has since paid everything and has everyone assenting |
Transfer on Death Deed RSA 563-D, statutory form at RSA 563-D:19 | Not a probate route. Planning done during the lifetime of the owner that moves the described real property outside probate at the death. | 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 deed has no effect at all while the owner lives and stays revocable | Yes, and only real property | No, but the 60-day recording rule is unforgiving enough to be worth a review | An owner who wants the house to pass without probate and is willing to record the deed within 60 days of signing it |
Insolvent Estate RSA 554:19-b | Known claims and expenses of administration exceed the value of the assets. | The same $150, $205 or $305 entry fee; the insolvency petition itself is not a separately priced line on the Rule 169 schedule | Usually 8 to 18 months | Yes | Strongly advised, because creditors are being paid in a statutory order and a shortfall invites objections | Estates where the funeral, the last illness and the debts outrun what there is to pay them with |
Full Administration
RSA 553 (Petition for Estate Administration, form NHJB-2145-Pe)
Estates where the beneficiaries do not all agree, where someone outside the family serves, or where claims have to be sorted out under court supervision
Threshold: No threshold and no conditions. The default route for any estate that does not qualify for a waiver of administration.
Filing Fee: $150, $205 or $305 by gross estate value under Rule 169(I), plus $105 for each account where the gross estate is above $25,000
Timeline: Commonly 12 to 24 months
Real Estate: Yes
Attorney: No statutory requirement; counsel is usual where there is real estate to sell, a contested will, or an insolvent estate
Waiver of Administration
RSA 553:32 (assents on form NHJB-3233-Pe)
The ordinary New Hampshire family estate, where the people who inherit are the people willing to serve
Threshold: No dollar threshold. Qualification turns on RELATIONSHIP AND CONSENT in one of six situations in RSA 553:32, I(a): a sole beneficiary under a will who is appointed administrator; all will beneficiaries appointed as co-administrators or assenting to an appropriate person; a trust as sole beneficiary with all trustees assenting; a sole intestate heir, which may be the surviving spouse, who is appointed; all intestate heirs appointed or assenting; or the court in its discretion.
Filing Fee: No additional court fee. Only the $150, $205 or $305 entry fee, and the surety bond premium disappears with the bond
Timeline: Usually 7 to 12 months, because the affidavit cannot be filed before month 6
Real Estate: Yes. The closing affidavit expressly lists the real estate with book and page
Attorney: No
Summary Administration
RSA 553:33 (forms NHJB-2149-P and NHJB-2122-P)
An estate that could not use a waiver at the start but has since paid everything and has everyone assenting
Threshold: No dollar threshold, and expressly limited to estates OTHER than those governed by RSA 553:32. The estate must have been open at least 6 months, have no outstanding debts, obligations or unresolved claims, owe no New Hampshire estate tax or have paid it with an RSA 87:26 certificate on file, owe no federal estate tax or have filed and paid it, and carry receipts or assents from every specific legatee and assents from everyone else beneficially interested.
Filing Fee: $105 for the motion, on top of the entry fee already paid to open the estate
Timeline: Usually 7 to 12 months, because the motion cannot be filed before month 6
Real Estate: Yes
Attorney: No
Transfer on Death Deed
RSA 563-D, statutory form at RSA 563-D:19
An owner who wants the house to pass without probate and is willing to record the deed within 60 days of signing it
Threshold: Not a probate route. Planning done during the lifetime of the owner that moves the described real property outside probate at the death.
Filing Fee: 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)
Timeline: Effective at the death; the deed has no effect at all while the owner lives and stays revocable
Real Estate: Yes, and only real property
Attorney: No, but the 60-day recording rule is unforgiving enough to be worth a review
Insolvent Estate
RSA 554:19-b
Estates where the funeral, the last illness and the debts outrun what there is to pay them with
Threshold: Known claims and expenses of administration exceed the value of the assets.
Filing Fee: The same $150, $205 or $305 entry fee; the insolvency petition itself is not a separately priced line on the Rule 169 schedule
Timeline: Usually 8 to 18 months
Real Estate: Yes
Attorney: Strongly advised, because creditors are being paid in a statutory order and a shortfall invites objections
* New Hampshire probate filing fees are statewide and flat. Circuit Court Probate Division Rule 169(I) sets three tiers for the Petition for Estate Administration by the GROSS value of the estate: $150 at $10,000 or less, $205 from $10,001 to $25,000, and $305 above $25,000. The top tier is open-ended, so an estate of $30,000 and an estate of $30,000,000 pay the same $305, and no percentage or per-dollar step exists above $25,000. The $55 cost of publishing the notice of appointment is INCLUDED in the entry fee above $10,000, and RSA 553:16 requires no publication at all at $10,000 or less. A Motion for Summary Administration is $105, an account is $105 where the gross estate is above $25,000 and $0 at or below it, and a certificate of appointment is $10. The amounts do not vary by county: RSA 490:26-a, I has the supreme court set one equitable fee schedule for every court in the state, and Rule 169 is that schedule.
Unfamiliar terms in the comparison? The New Hampshire probate glossary defines them in plain language.
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