First Steps After a Death in North Dakota

A physician, or the hospice team if the death was expected under hospice care, pronounces the death; if it was unexpected, call 911. Then choose a funeral home or cremation provider. North Dakota registers every death electronically: the funeral director gathers the facts of death from the next of kin and files them within three days after taking custody of the body, and the physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner, or the county coroner when an inquiry is needed, files the medical certification within ten days (N.D.C.C. 23-02.1-19). The funeral home can usually order your first certified copies.

Lock the house, keep utilities and property insurance paid, and do not divide belongings yet. In North Dakota a person's real and personal property passes at death to the devisees under the will, or to the heirs without one, but subject to the homestead allowance, exempt property, the family allowance, the rights of creditors, the surviving spouse's elective share, and administration (N.D.C.C. 30.1-12-01). Until those are settled nobody holds a clear title.

Look for the original signed will and codicils, any signed list of personal belongings the will refers to, trust documents, deeds, vehicle titles, account statements and life insurance policies. Whoever holds the will must deliver it with reasonable promptness, after the death and on request of an interested person, to someone able to probate it or, if none is known, to an appropriate court, and a person who willfully fails to deliver it is liable for the damage (N.D.C.C. 30.1-11-02). Also ask the county recorder whether the will was deposited there for safekeeping during the person's life; North Dakota allows a lifetime deposit with a recorder (30.1-11-01). An interested person may also open a safe-deposit box by affidavit to search for a will or burial documents (30.1-23-05).

North Dakota death records are confidential, and all copies are issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, not by the county (N.D.C.C. 23-02.1-19(1)). A certified complete copy, with the cause of death and Social Security number, goes to a relative (current or surviving spouse, parent or legal guardian, child, grandparent, grandchild or genetic sibling), an authorized representative, a funeral director, a person whose property interests depend on the record, or by court order; a facts-of-death copy (no cause of death) can also go to a licensed attorney who needs it for a legal determination; an informational copy, without either, goes to anyone (23-02.1-27(2)). HHS charges $15 for the first copy and $10 for each additional copy ordered at the same time. Order online, by an in-person appointment at (701) 328-2360, or by mailing form SFN 5531 with a check to "ND DHHS" and a copy of your photo ID. Banks usually accept the facts-of-death copy.

North Dakota has no separate probate court. The district court hears every estate case (N.D.C.C. 30.1-02-02), and the right county is the one where the decedent was domiciled at death; for a decedent who lived outside North Dakota, any county where the decedent had property (30.1-13-01). You file with the CLERK OF DISTRICT COURT of that county. In a county of 6,000 people or fewer the county recorder may also serve as the ex officio clerk (11-10-02), so the same office can handle both. The 53 counties are grouped into judicial districts, but you always file in the county.

Separate property in the decedent's sole name from property that passes by contract or title. A joint account with survivorship or a payable-on-death account belongs to the surviving party or beneficiary (N.D.C.C. 30.1-31-09), securities registered in beneficiary form pass to the surviving beneficiary (30.1-31-27), and a transfer on death deed recorded with the county recorder before the death passes real estate outside probate (chapter 30.1-32.1). Life insurance and retirement accounts with a living named beneficiary are paid by contract. North Dakota has NO transfer-on-death beneficiary for a vehicle title. What is left over is the probate estate, and that list decides your route.

N.D.C.C. 30.1-23-01 lets a successor collect money owed to the decedent, tangible personal property and instruments such as stock or account balances by affidavit, with no court case and no court fee, once 30 days have passed since the death, no application or petition for appointment of a personal representative is pending or granted anywhere, and the value of the ENTIRE estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000. The figure rose from $50,000 on August 1, 2025 (2025 HB 1224), so for a death before that date the $50,000 figure is the cautious one to use. Real estate in the estate COUNTS toward the $100,000, yet the affidavit cannot transfer it. The affidavit is signed before a notary and handed to the bank or other holder, which is then discharged as if it had paid a personal representative (30.1-23-02). The Department of Transportation publishes the affidavit as form SFN 2916 for vehicles.

North Dakota vehicle titles carry no transfer-on-death beneficiary. The Department of Transportation's Registration Manual lists three routes: a surviving joint owner with right of survivorship presents the title and a copy of the death certificate; an estate within the affidavit limit may use SFN 2916; otherwise the department needs a copy of letters testamentary or of administration, or a court order. The manual says a will alone cannot be accepted. A title issued when ownership passes other than by voluntary transfer costs $5 (N.D.C.C. 39-05-19), and a vehicle acquired by inheritance is exempt from the motor vehicle excise tax (57-40.3-04).

Most uncontested North Dakota estates use informal probate: a verified application to the district court, decided without notice to other interested persons (N.D.C.C. 30.1-01-06(26), 30.1-14-01). The court may act once at least 120 hours have passed since the death; for a nonresident decedent it waits 30 days unless the domiciliary personal representative applies or the will directs North Dakota law, and once every requirement is met it must appoint and issue letters within ten working days (30.1-14-07(1)). In an uncontested case the clerk may sign the documents without a judge if the applicant is named in the will or has priority (30.1-02-06). The court must provide the application forms, prepared by the state court administrator, at cost, and no attorney is required (30.1-14-01.1). The filing fee in 27-05.2-03(1)(a) is $160 since July 1, 2025; confirm the amount with the clerk.

N.D.C.C. 30.1-13-03 sets the order: the person named in a probated will; a surviving spouse who is a devisee; other devisees; the surviving spouse; other heirs; the decedent's guardian or conservator at death; a trust company; and, 45 days after the death, any creditor. Someone with priority can renounce in writing and, if they are in the spouse, devisee or heir rows, nominate a qualified person instead. Nobody under 18 may serve. Appointing someone without priority needs a formal proceeding.

Not later than 30 days after appointment the personal representative must deliver or mail information of the appointment to each heir and devisee whose address is reasonably available: the personal representative's name and address, whether bond was filed, the court where the papers are on file, and that the estate is being administered without court supervision (N.D.C.C. 30.1-18-05). Missing it is a breach of duty, though it does not undo the appointment. Bond is not required in an informal appointment unless the will requires it or someone with an interest or claim over $1,000 files a written demand (30.1-17-03 and 30.1-17-05).

In North Dakota publication is a choice, not a duty: the personal representative MAY publish a notice once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, and if it does, must also mail the notice to known and reasonably ascertainable creditors (N.D.C.C. 30.1-19-01). Claims are then barred unless presented within three months after the first publication or mailing. Without notice, a pre-death claim can be presented for up to THREE YEARS after the death (30.1-19-03(1)(b)), which is why most estates publish. Get an EIN from the IRS and open an estate account before you start paying anything.

On the grant of letters every personal representative must forward to Health and Human Services a copy of the petition or application that opened the probate, with the names of the legatees, devisees, surviving joint tenants and heirs (N.D.C.C. 50-24.1-07(3)). This is how the Medicaid estate recovery unit learns of the estate, and it applies whether or not you think the decedent received Medicaid.

The personal representative prepares an inventory of the property the decedent owned at death, listing each item with its fair market value on the date of death and the type and amount of any encumbrance, within six months after appointment or nine months after the death, whichever is later (N.D.C.C. 30.1-18-06(1)). You may file the original with the court and send copies only to interested persons who ask; if you do not file it, you must mail a copy to each heir (no will) or each devisee (probated will) and to anyone else interested who asks (30.1-18-06(2)). The personal representative also values the homestead and reports it with the inventory (30-16-05).

Once three months have passed from the first publication and mailing of the notice, the personal representative pays allowed claims in the statutory order after providing for the homestead, family and support allowances (N.D.C.C. 30.1-19-07(1)). A personal representative who pays a claim early without taking security for a refund, or who negligently pays out of order, is personally liable to an allowed claimant who is hurt by it (30.1-19-07(2)). If the estate cannot pay everyone, 30.1-19-05 pays costs and expenses of administration first, then reasonable funeral expenses, then debts and taxes with a federal preference, then last-illness medical and hospital expenses, then the decedent's child support that was due and unpaid before death, then debts and taxes with a North Dakota preference, then everything else.

Tell the Social Security Administration about the death and file the decedent's final federal and North Dakota income tax returns. A resident estate files North Dakota Form 38 if it must file federal Form 1041 (Office of State Tax Commissioner). No North Dakota estate tax is paid for deaths after January 1, 2005, and North Dakota has no inheritance tax, but the Tax Commissioner asks for Form 54-91 from every estate that must file a federal estate tax return (Form 706), due 15 months after death; the statute is inconsistent on that point, so follow the Commissioner.

In an unsupervised estate the personal representative closes by filing a verified statement that the estate has been fully administered, claims, expenses and taxes have been paid or settled, the assets have been distributed, and a copy and a full written account went to the distributees and to any known unpaid, unbarred creditors (N.D.C.C. 30.1-21-03(1)). If notice to creditors was published and mailed, the statement cannot be filed until three months after the first publication and mailing. If no proceeding is pending one year after the closing statement, the appointment ends (30.1-21-03(2)).

If no closing statement has been filed within three years from the date of DEATH, any devisee, heir, distributee or claimant can ask, or the court can order on its own, that the personal representative and the estate's attorney show cause at a hearing within 90 days why the estate is still open. Within 20 days they must report a closing timetable, the reasons for delay, and a detailed accounting of every fee paid to the personal representative and the attorney (N.D.C.C. 30.1-21-03.1).

North Dakota's second small-estate route has no dollar figure. If the inventory shows the whole estate, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed the SUM of the homestead as defined in 47-18-01, up to $15,000 of exempt property, the family allowance, costs of administration, reasonable funeral expenses and reasonable last-illness medical and hospital expenses, the personal representative may distribute without notice to creditors and close by sworn statement (N.D.C.C. 30.1-23-03 and 30.1-23-04). This route still needs an appointed personal representative.