North Dakota Family Allowance

The North Dakota family allowance is money paid out of a decedent's estate to support the surviving spouse and the children the decedent supported while the estate is being settled. NDCC 30.1-07-02 sets no dollar amount. It promises a reasonable allowance in money, paid ahead of every creditor. The only numbers sit in 30.1-07-03(1): the personal representative may set the allowance at up to $27,000 as a lump sum, or up to $2,250 a month for one year, without asking a judge.

The family allowance is one of three protections North Dakota gives a surviving family during probate. The other two are exempt property, worth up to $15,000 under 30.1-07-01, and the homestead, protected by 47-18-01 and the homestead estate in chapter 30-16. Each has its own rules, and they do not add up to one sum a family is owed.

Every rule below was read on September 28, 2026 in the chapter text of the North Dakota Century Code published by the Legislative Council at ndlegis.gov, which states that all changes approved by the 69th Legislative Assembly in 2025 are reflected. Each link opens the chapter at the section cited. North Dakota probate runs through the district court under 30.1-02-02. This page is general information about North Dakota law, not advice about one estate, so confirm your figures with the clerk of district court holding the file or with a licensed North Dakota attorney.

Who Qualifies for the Family Allowance

NDCC 30.1-07-02(1) names three groups:

1. The surviving spouse.
2. Minor children the decedent was obligated to support. A legal duty of support is enough. The child need not have lived with the decedent.
3. Children who were in fact being supported by the decedent. This group turns on real support, not age. An adult child who depended on the parent can fall here.

The allowance is for "their maintenance during the period of administration." It is support money for a household that lost its income, which is why the statute pays it in money rather than in property.

Here is how the payment flows. The allowance "is payable to the surviving spouse, if living, for the use of the surviving spouse and minor and dependent children; otherwise to the children, or persons having their care and custody." When a minor or dependent child does not live with the surviving spouse, the allowance may be split, part to the child or the child's guardian or caretaker and part to the spouse, "as their needs may appear."

One threshold rule comes first. Under 30.1-07-00.1, chapter 30.1-07 applies to the estate of a decedent who dies domiciled in North Dakota. For someone who lived in another state, the family allowance follows the law of that state, even for property located in North Dakota.

What the $27,000 Figure Means

Read 30.1-07-03(1) closely, because the number it prints limits the personal representative and not the family. The personal representative "may determine the family allowance in a lump sum not exceeding twenty-seven thousand dollars or periodic installments not exceeding two thousand two hundred fifty dollars per month for one year and may disburse funds of the estate in payment of the family allowance."

Two things follow.

1. Inside the ceiling, no court order is needed. A personal representative, often called the executor, who finds that a widow and two children need $2,000 a month can decide that and pay it.
2. Above the ceiling, the district court decides. The same subsection lets the personal representative or any interested person aggrieved by a selection, determination, payment, proposed payment or failure to act petition the court for relief, "which may include a family allowance other than that which the personal representative determined or could have determined."

So a family with a real need above $27,000 can ask for more, and a creditor or heir who thinks the personal representative set it too high can object. The legal test in both directions is "reasonable" under 30.1-07-02(1). Twelve monthly payments of $2,250 also come to $27,000, so the two forms of the ceiling match.

North Dakota prints these figures as fixed dollar amounts in the section itself. The Legislative Council's session-law tables for 2005 through 2025 show 30.1-07-03 last amended by 2009 House Bill 1072 (Session Laws chapter 283) and no amendment to 30.1-07-02 in that period. For a death before the 2009 act took effect, check the earlier text before relying on these figures.

How Long the Allowance Runs

The allowance covers "the period of administration." Two limits cut it off.

• The one-year limit for a short estate. Under 30.1-07-02(1) the allowance "may not continue for longer than one year if the estate is inadequate to discharge allowed claims." When the estate can pay its debts, that sentence sets no one-year cap, although the personal representative's own authority under 30.1-07-03(1) still stops at one year of installments. Payments past that point need a court order.
• The death of the person entitled. Under 30.1-07-02(2), "The death of any person entitled to family allowance terminates the right to allowances not yet paid." Installments already paid stay paid.

Chapter 30.1-07 sets no filing deadline for asking. The deadline that matters is the estate itself: once the personal representative has distributed the assets and closed the file, nothing is left to pay an allowance from. The North Dakota executor duties guide covers the inventory and closing steps that set that pace.

Where the Family Allowance Ranks Against Creditors

This is the reason the allowance matters most in an estate that cannot pay everyone. Here is the order the statutes produce.

1. Family allowance. "Exempt from and has priority over all claims except the homestead allowance" (30.1-07-02(1)).
2. Exempt property. Rights to exempt property "have priority over all claims against the estate," but the right to other assets that make up a shortfall "abates as necessary to permit earlier payment of the homestead allowance and family allowance" (30.1-07-01).
3. Claims, in the 30.1-19-05 order. Costs and expenses of administration; reasonable funeral expenses; debts and taxes with preference under federal law; medical and hospital expenses of the last illness; the decedent's child support that was due and unpaid before death; debts and taxes with preference under other North Dakota law; and all other claims.

A word on that "homestead allowance" exception. Sections 30.1-07-00.1 and 30.1-07-02 still use the phrase, but chapter 30.1-07 holds only four sections and none of them creates a dollar homestead allowance. North Dakota protects the family home through a different route: the homestead of 47-18-01 and the homestead estate of 30-16-02, which passes to the surviving spouse for life or until the spouse remarries. The North Dakota exempt property guide covers exempt property and the homestead in full.

So the family allowance is paid ahead of the attorney, the funeral home and the hospital. Credit cards and personal loans sit at the bottom of the list. The North Dakota debt payment priority guide walks through the seven claim classes, and the North Dakota creditor claims guide covers the optional notice and the three-month window it opens.

Medicaid estate recovery

A family that received Medicaid help should know how 50-24.1-07 works. It makes the medical assistance paid for a recipient who was 55 or older, or permanently institutionalized, a preferred claim against the estate. That claim comes after, in order, the recipient liability expense for the month of death, funeral expenses up to $3,500, expenses of the last illness, expenses of administering the estate, and several listed state claims. Under 50-24.1-07(2)(a), the claim may not be required to be paid "during the lifetime of the decedent's surviving spouse, if any, nor while there is a surviving child who is under the age of twenty-one years or is blind or permanently and totally disabled." The Medicaid statute's list does not mention the family allowance, so a personal representative facing both should raise the question with the court before paying.

The Allowance Comes on Top of an Inheritance

This rule changes real money for a surviving spouse.

NDCC 30.1-07-02(2) says the family allowance "is not chargeable against any benefit or share passing to the surviving spouse or children by the will of the decedent, unless otherwise provided, by intestate succession or by way of elective share." Exempt property under 30.1-07-01 carries the same "in addition to" wording.

Let's break it down with a spouse who takes half the estate under the will. The spouse receives the family allowance, then the half share. The allowance does not come out of the half. The same holds for a spouse inheriting without a will, and for children. The North Dakota intestate succession guide shows the shares when there is no will.

A spouse who elects against the will keeps the allowances too. NDCC 30.1-05-01(3) says that if the right of election is exercised, "the surviving spouse's homestead allowance, exempt property, and family allowance, if any, are not charged against, but are in addition to, the elective-share and supplemental elective-share amounts." North Dakota's elective share is a flat 50 percent of the augmented estate. The North Dakota surviving spouse rights guide covers every protection a surviving spouse has, including the election and its deadline.

One special case sits in 30.1-07-03(2). If the election is made on behalf of a surviving spouse who is an incapacitated person, the personal representative may add any unspent family allowance, exempt property and homestead allowance to the support trust the court sets up under 30.1-05-06(2).

Reaching Nonprobate Property When the Estate Is Short

Many North Dakota estates hold little in probate because the land passed by a transfer on death deed and the bank accounts passed to a named survivor. Two sections let the allowance reach that property, and each runs on its own clock.

Transfer on death deeds. Under 30.1-32.1-12, to the extent the probate estate is insufficient to satisfy "a statutory allowance to a surviving spouse or child," the estate may enforce the liability against property that passed by a transfer on death deed. Liability is split among several deeded properties in proportion to their net values at death. The estate cannot pursue a buyer or lender who took the property for value. The proceeding may not begin later than 18 months after the death. The North Dakota transfer on death deed guide explains how the deed passes the land.

Joint and payable-on-death accounts. Under 30.1-31-12, if other estate assets are insufficient, a transfer by right of survivorship or payable-on-death designation "is not effective against the estate of a deceased party to the extent needed to pay claims against the estate and statutory allowances to the surviving spouse and children." Three procedural rules decide whether this works:

1. Start with a written demand. No proceeding may begin unless the personal representative has received a written demand by the surviving spouse, a creditor, a child, or a person acting for a child.
2. The account holder owes a proportionate share. A surviving party or beneficiary who took money from the account accounts to the personal representative for the decedent's share, only to the extent needed after the probate estate is used up.
3. The clock is one year from the death. The proceeding must be commenced within one year after the decedent's death.

That one-year account clock is the firmest deadline a North Dakota family faces on the allowance. A spouse relying on a thin probate estate should make the demand early.

The Allowances Set the Summary Administration Ceiling

The family allowance also helps size the smallest estates North Dakota lets a personal representative close quickly. Under 30.1-23-03, if the inventory and appraisal show that the entire estate, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed the sum of:

• the homestead as defined in 47-18-01;
• exempt property under 30.1-07-01;
• the family allowance;
• costs and expenses of administration;
• reasonable funeral expenses; and
• reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness,

then the personal representative, "without giving notice to creditors, may immediately disburse and distribute the estate to the persons entitled thereto" and file a closing statement under 30.1-23-04.

The statute prints no single dollar figure for this test, because the family allowance is a reasonable amount and the other items vary by estate. This procedure also differs from the small estate affidavit of 30.1-23-01, which works without any probate at all and has its own $100,000 limit. The North Dakota small estate affidavit guide covers small estates and the allowances side by side.

When no one opens probate at all, the allowances still follow the property. Under 30.1-20-01, heirs and devisees take "subject to all charges incident to administration, including the claims of creditors and allowances of surviving spouse and dependent children."

Next Steps for a Personal Representative

1. Identify who qualifies. List the spouse, the minor children the decedent had to support, and any child the decedent was in fact supporting.
2. Set an amount inside the ceiling, or petition. Pick a lump sum up to $27,000 or monthly installments up to $2,250 for one year, and document why the amount is reasonable. For more, petition the district court under 30.1-07-03(1).
3. Pay it before creditors. The allowance comes ahead of every 30.1-19-05 claim class. Keep the payment records with the estate file.
4. Check the nonprobate clocks. If the estate is short, note the one-year limit for accounts and the 18-month limit for transfer on death deeds.

The North Dakota probate guide shows where this fits in the case, and the North Dakota probate courts by county list the clerk of district court for each county.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is the North Dakota family allowance?

NDCC 30.1-07-02 sets no fixed amount. It gives the surviving spouse, the minor children the decedent was obligated to support, and children the decedent was in fact supporting a reasonable allowance in money for their maintenance during administration. The figures in the code limit the personal representative: under 30.1-07-03(1) the personal representative may set the allowance at a lump sum of up to $27,000 or installments of up to $2,250 a month for one year. Anything larger goes to the district court on a petition.

Who can receive a family allowance in North Dakota?

Three groups under NDCC 30.1-07-02(1): the surviving spouse, the minor children the decedent was obligated to support, and children who were in fact being supported by the decedent. The money is payable to the surviving spouse, if living, for the use of the spouse and the minor and dependent children. Otherwise it goes to the children or the people who have their care and custody.

How long does the North Dakota family allowance last?

It covers the period of administration. NDCC 30.1-07-02(1) says the allowance may not continue for longer than one year if the estate is inadequate to discharge allowed claims. The personal representative's own authority under 30.1-07-03(1) also stops at one year of installments. Under 30.1-07-02(2), the death of a person entitled to the allowance ends that person's right to allowances not yet paid.

Is the family allowance paid before creditors in North Dakota?

Yes. NDCC 30.1-07-02(1) says the family allowance is exempt from and has priority over all claims except the homestead allowance. That puts it ahead of every class in 30.1-19-05, including the costs of administration and funeral expenses. North Dakota's chapter 30.1-07 sets no dollar homestead allowance; the homestead itself is protected separately under 47-18-01 and chapter 30-16.

Does the family allowance reduce a spouse's inheritance in North Dakota?

No. NDCC 30.1-07-02(2) says the family allowance is not chargeable against any benefit or share passing to the surviving spouse or children by the will, unless the will says otherwise, by intestate succession, or by way of elective share. NDCC 30.1-05-01(3) repeats the point for a spouse who elects: the allowances are in addition to the elective-share and supplemental elective-share amounts.

Can a family allowance reach a transfer on death deed or a payable-on-death account?

Yes, if the probate estate is short. NDCC 30.1-32.1-12 lets the estate enforce a statutory allowance to a surviving spouse or child against property that passed by a transfer on death deed, in a proceeding started within 18 months after the death. NDCC 30.1-31-12 does the same for survivorship and payable-on-death bank accounts, but only after a written demand to the personal representative and within one year after the death.

Related North Dakota Guides

• North Dakota Surviving Spouse Rights
• North Dakota Exempt Property
• North Dakota Small Estate Options
• North Dakota Debt Payment Priority
• North Dakota Creditor Claims
• North Dakota Executor Duties
• North Dakota Probate Courts by County

Sources:

• Title: NDCC 30.1-07-02, Family allowance. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t30-1c07.pdf#nameddest=30p1-07-02
• Title: NDCC 30.1-07-03, Source, determination, and documentation. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t30-1c07.pdf#nameddest=30p1-07-03
• Title: NDCC 30.1-07-01, Exempt property. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t30-1c07.pdf#nameddest=30p1-07-01
• Title: NDCC 30.1-07-00.1, Applicable law. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t30-1c07.pdf#nameddest=30p1-07-00p1
• Title: NDCC 30.1-02-02, Subject matter jurisdiction. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t30-1c02.pdf#nameddest=30p1-02-02
• Title: NDCC 30.1-05-01, Elective share. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t30-1c05.pdf#nameddest=30p1-05-01
• Title: NDCC 30.1-05-06, Right of election personal to surviving spouse - Incapacitated surviving spouse. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t30-1c05.pdf#nameddest=30p1-05-06
• Title: NDCC 30.1-19-05, Classification of claims. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t30-1c19.pdf#nameddest=30p1-19-05
• Title: NDCC 30.1-20-01, Successors' rights if no administration. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t30-1c20.pdf#nameddest=30p1-20-01
• Title: NDCC 30.1-23-03, Small estates - Summary administrative procedure. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t30-1c23.pdf#nameddest=30p1-23-03
• Title: NDCC 30.1-23-04, Small estate - Closing by sworn statement of personal representative. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t30-1c23.pdf#nameddest=30p1-23-04
• Title: NDCC 30.1-31-12, Rights of creditors and others. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t30-1c31.pdf#nameddest=30p1-31-12
• Title: NDCC 30.1-32.1-12, Liability for creditor claims and statutory allowances. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t30-1c32-1.pdf#nameddest=30p1-32p1-12
• Title: NDCC 47-18-01, Homestead exemption - Area and value. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t47c18.pdf#nameddest=47-18-01
• Title: NDCC 30-16-02, Descent and distribution of homestead estate. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t30c16.pdf#nameddest=30-16-02
• Title: NDCC 50-24.1-07, Recovery from estate of medical assistance recipient. Publisher: North Dakota Legislative Council, North Dakota Century Code. Publication Date: Accessed 2026-09-28. URL: https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t50c24-1.pdf#nameddest=50-24p1-07

It is not legal advice.