Vermont Probate Guide

Vermont probate is the Probate Division of the Superior Court process that allows a will, appoints an executor or administrator, pays valid claims, and passes what is left to the heirs or beneficiaries. 4 V.S.A. § 272 puts one probate district in each county, and 4 V.S.A. § 312 sends the estate to the district where the person resided at death.

Two Vermont habits catch people out on day one. The state calls the person in charge an executor when a will names them and an administrator when the court picks one, and Title 14 uses that pair from start to finish. Vermont never adopted the Uniform Probate Code, so "personal representative" is not a Vermont word. The second habit is about land: deeds get recorded with the town clerk, because 24 V.S.A. § 1154 puts land records in the town where the property sits. Vermont has no county registry of deeds at all.

Read this as a map of the process rather than a filing packet. Fees and forms are statewide, so the paperwork looks the same in Essex as in Chittenden, but the court that takes it sits in your own county. Start with the Vermont probate court directory to find your courthouse, and use the Vermont first steps guide for the tasks that come before any filing.

Where Vermont Probate Starts

Venue comes first, and two short statutes settle it. 4 V.S.A. § 272(a) reads: "There shall be one Probate district in each county, which shall be designated by the name of the county. Each Probate district shall elect one Probate judge." Fourteen counties, fourteen probate districts, fourteen elected probate judges. 4 V.S.A. § 312 then points the case at "the district in which he or she resided at the time of his or her death," so residence picks your courthouse.

The court's name is where people slip. Vermont has had no county probate court since February 1, 2011, when 2009 Act 154 collapsed the old eighteen districts into fourteen. Both 4 V.S.A. § 271 and § 311 now read "Repealed. 2009, No. 154 (Adj. Sess.), § 238a(a)(1), eff. February 1, 2011." What hears the case now is the Probate Division of the Superior Court, and the Judiciary titles its own pages "Addison Probate Division" and "Essex Probate Division", with no "County" in the name. Writing {County} County Probate Court names an office that stopped existing fifteen years ago. Any source that still counts eighteen districts predates the act and should be set aside rather than reconciled.

Above the probate district sits the court unit. 4 V.S.A. § 30(b) tells the Supreme Court to "divide the Superior Court into 14 geographical units that shall follow county lines," and § 30(a)(1)(E) makes the Probate Division one of the Superior Court's five divisions, with the Vermont Rules of Probate Procedure applying inside it. Every unit carries a single county name. Caledonia and Essex share an email mailbox, and so do Franklin and Grand Isle, but a shared mailbox is not a merged court.

Vermont Says Executor or Administrator

Once a will is allowed, 14 V.S.A. § 902 has the Probate Division issue letters of administration to the person named executor, provided that person accepts the appointment and gives any required bond. Vermont uses the same phrase for both roles, which surprises executors who expect "letters testamentary".

When no will names anyone, 14 V.S.A. § 903 sets the order of appointment in four steps:

1. The surviving spouse or next of kin, or both, or a person either of them nominates.
2. One or more of the principal creditors, if the people above are unsuitable or fail to apply within a reasonable time.
3. Anyone else the Probate Division picks in its discretion, when no creditor is competent and willing.
4. A suitable person appointed on the application of the reputed owner of land, where the point of the appointment is to clear title.

Bond is not optional here. 14 V.S.A. § 906 requires an executor or administrator to give a bond, lets the court set the amount and decide whether sureties are needed, and says the bond "shall be filed before the court issues letters of administration." Its conditions carry two dates you will meet again: an inventory returned within 60 days, and an account rendered within one year. One quirk worth knowing rather than repeating to a reader as a live duty: condition (4) still points at 32 V.S.A. chapters 181 and 183, both of which the Legislature repealed years ago. The Vermont executor duties guide covers the job once letters issue.

Filing the Will Comes First

Whoever holds the will has 30 days from learning of the death to deliver it, either to the Probate Division where venue lies or to the executor the will names (14 V.S.A. § 103).

The named executor then files a death certificate and a petition to open the estate "with reasonable promptness" (14 V.S.A. § 104(a)). Vermont attaches no day count to that step, and no honest source can supply one. Section 104(b) adds a quieter route: when no assets require probate administration, the named executor files the original death certificate and the will, tells the court that fact, and skips the petition entirely.

Allowance of the will runs through 14 V.S.A. § 107. File consents from every heir at law and the surviving spouse and the will can be allowed without a hearing. Without those consents the court schedules one. Written objections are due not less than seven days before the hearing, and where none arrive on time the judge may allow the will on the testimony of a single subscribing witness, or with no witness at all if the will is self-proved under 14 V.S.A. § 108.

Three Simplified Routes, and None Is the Usual Affidavit

Search results treat "Vermont small estate affidavit" as one thing. Vermont has three separate mechanisms, and they answer to different tests.

Small estate, 14 V.S.A. § 1901. The ceiling is $45,000.00 in fair market value and the estate must consist entirely of personal property, with a time-share estate under 32 V.S.A. § 3619(a) as the single real-property exception. This opens a genuine probate estate. Section 1901(a) asks for eight things at filing: a petition to open, a list of interested persons, the filing fee, an original death certificate, an inventory, an affidavit of paid and outstanding funeral expenses and debts, a bond without surety in the amount of the estate, and the will if there is one. An interested party who does not consent gets notice and 14 days to object (§ 1901(b)). If the estate later proves to be worth more than $45,000.00, § 1901(c) forces a petition to convert it to full administration. Watch the expiry date as well: letters issued in a small estate "shall be effective for one year after the date of issuance," extendable only on a motion showing good cause (14 V.S.A. § 1902(c)).

Waiver of administration, 14 V.S.A. § 1852. Chapter 80 covers every estate other than a small estate (§ 1851), and value never enters the test. The moving party must swear to three things: that they are the sole beneficiary under the will or the sole heir of an intestate decedent, that they are the sole fiduciary, and that the decedent owned no real property in Vermont. A granted motion waives the inventory, waives or discharges the bond, and dispenses with further filings apart from a final affidavit of administration.

Affidavit procedure, V.R.P.P. Rule 80.3(g). This one exists, for an estate made up solely of assets that can pass under the will or the law of descent. The fee statute prices it at $50.00, and it does so in words worth quoting because they do not quite line up with the rule: 32 V.S.A. § 1434(a)(30) charges $50.00 for the "Affidavit procedure for small estates pursuant to Rule 80.3(h) of the Vermont Rules of Probate Procedure," while the Supreme Court's own order places the procedure at paragraph (g). Both readings come straight from the source. Neither should be quietly rewritten to match the other.

One structural point ties the three together: real property blocks both court routes. A small estate must be all personal property, and waiver requires no Vermont real property at all. Route off those tests, never off a dollar figure alone. The full comparison, including what to do when one heir will not sign, sits in the Vermont small estate and waiver of administration guide.

Vermont Probate Deadlines

The Vermont probate deadlines guide lays the same dates out as a working schedule, and how long Vermont probate takes handles the duration question on its own page.

One number is deliberately missing from that table. 14 V.S.A. § 1203(a)(1) hangs the creditor clock on notice given "in compliance with the Rules of Probate Procedure," and Vermont publishes no free official text of the paragraph that sets the publication schedule. Ask the Probate Division rather than trusting a day count you find repeated online.

The Creditor Clock Starts at First Publication

Most states start the creditor window at the date of death. New Hampshire starts it at the grant of administration. Vermont uses a third anchor, and porting either neighbor's phrasing moves every date on the calendar.

14 V.S.A. § 1203 sets four rules:

• Claims that arose before the death are barred unless presented within four months after the date of the first publication of notice to creditors, when notice complies with the Rules of Probate Procedure (§ 1203(a)(1)).
• Where notice was never published or otherwise given, the bar falls one year after the death instead (§ 1203(a)(2)). That is the fallback, not the routine rule.
• Claims arising at or after the death get four months from the date they arise, or four months after the executor's performance is due on a contract with the fiduciary (§ 1203(b)).
• Vermont Medicaid sits outside the general bar. Section 1203(a) excepts claims filed by the State on behalf of Vermont Medicaid, and § 1203(d) gives them their own four months from first publication, "regardless of the date of the decedent's death or when a decedent's executor or administrator opens the estate."

Notice itself can be excused. 14 V.S.A. § 1201(a) lets the Probate Division skip the notice-to-creditors requirement in three situations: no debts exist, the debts are all known to the fiduciary and there are funds to pay them, or the estate is worth no more than $2,500.00 and is assigned for the support of the surviving spouse. The trade is spelled out in § 1201(b). Distributed assets stay subject to claims later established, though the fiduciary avoids personal liability to distributees for the reimbursement.

When the money runs short, 14 V.S.A. § 1205 sets the payment order: costs and expenses of administration; then reasonable funeral, burial and headstone expenses plus perpetual care, capped at $3,800.00 exclusive of governmental payments, together with the medical and hospital expenses of the last illness; then wages earned in the three months before death, capped at $300.00 per claimant; then everything else. No claim outranks another in its own class, and a class that cannot be paid in full gets prorated.

What Vermont Probate Costs

Fees are statewide by statute. One schedule, no per-county variation, banded by the value of the estate under 32 V.S.A. § 1434(a).

Three lines matter more than the table. Section 1434(b) says "No fee shall be charged for necessary documents pertaining to the opening of estates, trusts, and guardianships, including the issuance of two certificates of appointment and respective letters," and it lets the court waive part of the filing fee under Rule 3.1 of the Vermont Rules of Civil Procedure. Section 1434(c) charges $5.00 for each additional certification of appointment. And § 1434(a)(29) prices a motion to reopen an estate for a newly discovered asset by running the same eight bands over the value of that asset alone, which is the only computed fee in the Vermont schedule.

A small estate buys no discount. Section 1901(a)(3) asks for "the filing fee" and § 1434(a) has no small-estate line, so the $45,000.00 ceiling sits inside band (2). A small estate pays $50.00 at or under $10,000.00 and $110.00 above it, exactly like any other estate of that size. The simplified route saves paperwork rather than money.

Fiduciary pay works the same way. Vermont sets no percentage commission and publishes no schedule. 14 V.S.A. § 1065 allows the executor or administrator "necessary expenses in the care, management, and settlement of the estate and reasonable fees for services," and makes a compensation clause in the will full satisfaction unless the executor renounces it in writing or the court orders otherwise. Budget from hours, not from a percentage.

An appeal has its own price and its own destination. Under 32 V.S.A. § 1431(b)(7), an appeal from the Probate Division goes to the Civil Division of the Superior Court, not to the Supreme Court, and costs $295.00.

Closing a Vermont Estate

The first account is due one year after letters issue, and annually after that until the estate is wholly settled (14 V.S.A. § 1055). The fiduciary can be examined under oath on anything in it.

Vermont offers a shortcut at the end that many states do not. 14 V.S.A. § 1069 waives the final accounting once an estate has been open at least six months and the remaining assets include no real estate, provided the executor or administrator files five things: a verified representation that all claims and obligations have been satisfied, a schedule of remaining assets, a schedule of proposed distribution, a waiver and consent signed by all interested parties, and a tax clearance from the Vermont Department of Taxes. Real estate in the estate at that point takes the shortcut away.

What Skips Vermont Probate

Assets with a surviving owner or a named taker never reach the Probate Division. Vermont's list has one shape people consistently get backwards.

Land moves by an enhanced life estate deed, not a transfer-on-death deed. Vermont has no TOD or beneficiary deed act. What it has is the Enhanced Life Estate Deed Act, 27 V.S.A. chapter 6, added by 2019 Act 145 (Adj. Sess.) and effective July 13, 2020, with an optional statutory form at § 660. Vermont is a Lady Bird deed state in the mold of Florida and Michigan. Anyone shopping for a Vermont TOD deed form is shopping for a document the state never created.

Cars run the other way. 23 V.S.A. § 2023(f) recognizes a transfer-on-death designation on a certificate of title, and the transferee takes ownership once a valid death certificate establishes the principal owner's death. The DMV administers it on single-owner titles through form VT-007. Section 2023(e) is the bigger practical rule for married couples: where an intestate estate consists principally of a motor vehicle, or where a will does not address motor vehicles, title to as many as two vehicles passes to the surviving spouse with no fee. So the answer is yes for a car and no for land, and the two questions have to be asked separately. Boats, snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles get neither, since 23 V.S.A. § 3816(a) lists no transfer-on-death designation for them.

Survivorship property, beneficiary designations, payable-on-death accounts and funded revocable trusts all pass outside the estate in the ordinary way.

One tax question follows. Vermont charges no inheritance tax, since 32 V.S.A. chapter 181 is wholly repealed. It does charge an estate tax, and the rate reads oddly at first glance. 32 V.S.A. § 7442a(b) applies no tax under $5,000,000.00 and 16 percent of the excess over $5,000,000.00 at or above that line, then multiplies the result by a Vermont-situs fraction. The 16 percent hits only the amount above the threshold, so a $5,100,000.00 estate is not taxed on the whole $5.1 million.

Who Inherits When There Is No Will

14 V.S.A. § 311 gives the surviving spouse the entire intestate estate when no descendant survives, or when every surviving descendant of the decedent is also a descendant of the spouse. Where a surviving descendant is not the spouse's and the will does not exclude them, the spouse takes one-half. Everything else, including the order among descendants, parents, siblings and grandparents, works through the rest of chapter 42. Step through it in the Vermont intestate succession guide.

When to Call a Vermont Attorney

Serving without counsel is normal here, and the Vermont probate without a lawyer guide shows where the self-filed path holds up. Bring in a lawyer when:

• an heir or beneficiary signals a challenge to the will, or objections land before the § 107 hearing
• the estate may not cover its debts, so the § 1205 payment order starts to matter
• real estate has to be sold during administration, which also rules out both simplified routes
• the person lived in another state and owned Vermont real property, which makes this an ancillary probate
• a surviving spouse is weighing the § 319 election, where four months runs from the later of two service dates

A Filing Sequence That Works

1. Order several certified copies of the death certificate, and keep one original aside for the court.
2. Find the will and get it to the Probate Division or the named executor inside 30 days.
3. Identify your county's Probate Division from the court directory, and pull the statewide form set from the Vermont probate forms page.
4. Decide the route before you file. All personal property under $45,000.00 points at a small estate. A sole heir or sole beneficiary with no Vermont real property points at waiver of administration. Anything else is full administration.
5. File the petition with the will, the original death certificate, the list of interested persons and the fee band that matches the estate value.
6. Once letters issue, calendar three dates: the inventory at 60 days, the creditor window closing four months after first publication, and the first account at one year.
7. Pay claims in § 1205 order, then close with a final account or, where the estate has been open six months with no real estate left, the § 1069 waiver.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is probate in Vermont?

Vermont probate is the Probate Division of the Superior Court process that allows a will, appoints an executor or administrator, pays valid claims, and passes what is left to the heirs or beneficiaries. 4 V.S.A. § 272(a) puts one probate district in each county, designated by the name of the county, so the case opens in the county where the person lived.

Does Vermont have a small estate affidavit?

Vermont has three simplified routes and no single answer. The small estate under 14 V.S.A. § 1901 opens a real probate estate by petition, caps out at $45,000.00, and requires an estate made up entirely of personal property. Waiver of administration under 14 V.S.A. § 1852 is not value-based at all and requires a sole beneficiary or sole heir who is also the sole fiduciary, with no Vermont real property. Separately, an affidavit procedure exists under V.R.P.P. Rule 80.3(g), and 32 V.S.A. § 1434(a)(30) prices it at $50.00.

How long does Vermont probate take?

The floor is structural. No estate distributes safely before the four-month creditor window closes, and that window runs from the date of first publication of notice to creditors under 14 V.S.A. § 1203(a)(1). The inventory is due 60 days after appointment under § 1051, and the first account is due one year after letters issue under § 1055. Vermont publishes no case-length statistics, so treat any longer estimate as a general range rather than a state figure.

How much does it cost to file probate in Vermont?

Filing fees are statewide by statute and banded by estate value under 32 V.S.A. § 1434(a). The entry fee is $50.00 for an estate of $10,000.00 or less, $110.00 up to $50,000.00, $265.00 up to $150,000.00, $500.00 up to $500,000.00, and it climbs to $3,250.00 above $10,000,000.00. Section 1434(b) charges nothing for the documents that open the estate, including two certificates of appointment and letters.

Does Vermont say personal representative?

No. Vermont never adopted the Uniform Probate Code, and Title 14 says executor or administrator throughout. A will names an executor. The court appoints an administrator when no will names one, following the order in 14 V.S.A. § 903. Both receive letters of administration from the Probate Division.

Sources:

• Title: 4 V.S.A. § 272, Probate districts; Probate judges. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/04/007/00272
• Title: 4 V.S.A. § 30, Superior Court. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/04/001/00030
• Title: 4 V.S.A. § 312, Resident's estate; settlement. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/04/007/00312
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 103, Custodian of will to deliver. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/003/00103
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 104, Executor to present will and accept or refuse trust. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/003/00104
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 107, Allowance of will; custody of property. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/003/00107
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 903, Administration; to whom granted. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/061/00903
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 906, Bond; amount, conditions. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/061/00906
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 1051, Inventory. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/063/01051
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 1055, Accounts of executors and administrators; time of rendering; examination. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/063/01055
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 1065, Fees and expenses. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/063/01065
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 1069, Waiver of final accounting. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/063/01069
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 1201, Notice to creditors. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/066/01201
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 1203, Limitations on presentation of claims. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/066/01203
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 1205, Classification of claims. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/066/01205
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 1852, Motion for waiver of administration; order. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/080/01852
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 1901, Commencement of small estate. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/081/01901
• Title: 14 V.S.A. § 1902, Letters of administration, small estates, notice. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/14/081/01902
• Title: 32 V.S.A. § 1434, Probate cases. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/32/017/01434
• Title: 32 V.S.A. § 7442a, Imposition of a Vermont estate tax and rate of tax. Publisher: Vermont General Assembly. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/32/190/07442a
• Title: Probate Division. Publisher: Vermont Judiciary. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.vtcourts.gov/probate/estates-and-wills
• Title: Fees. Publisher: Vermont Judiciary. Publication Date: Not listed. URL: https://www.vtcourts.gov/fees

It is not legal advice.