Foster Probate Court Guide

Note: Rhode Island probate filing fees are STATUTORY and statewide, not municipal. R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-22-21 charges 1.0% of the decedent's PERSONAL PROPERTY over which the court has jurisdiction, never less than $30.00 and never more than $1,500.00, and § 33-22-29 forbids a municipal probate court from adopting any local rule that would 'expand, contract or otherwise vary' a provision of title 33, so no city or town may set its own tariff. R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-8.1-20(b) then adds a flat $4.00 Rhode Island Historical Records Trust assessment to every instrument filed under § 33-22-21, which is why the amount actually collected at the counter is $34.00 at the floor and $1,504.00 at the ceiling. The numbers stored here are that counter total. The fee is paid BEFORE the petition is filed, computed on the petitioner's own estimate, and is expressly subject to revision (a further payment or a rebate) when the estimate turns out to be wrong. It is in lieu of all subsequent filing and recording fees in the same proceeding except the enumerated extras: a $5.00 certificate of appointment, $1.50 per page for copies and $3.00 to certify a probate document, and the separate $30.00 (+$4.00) flat fees in § 33-22-21(a)(1) through (10). REAL PROPERTY IS NOT IN THE FEE BASE: § 33-9-1's inventory covers everything OTHER than real property, so a Rhode Island house never drives this fee, and the ceiling is reached once personal property hits $150,000. Advertising under § 33-22-11 is a newspaper cost the clerk collects in advance, not a court fee, and it is genuinely per-municipality. The three statutory fee waivers in title 33 (§ 33-22-22 veterans' guardianships, § 33-15-15 public-welfare petitioners, § 33-15-4.2 good Samaritan guardianships) are ALL guardianship provisions; Rhode Island has no fee waiver for settling a decedent's estate.