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Idaho route screening

Idaho small-estate limit: $100,000

A claiming successor may collect the decedent's personal property by presenting an affidavit stating that the fair market value of the entire estate subject to probate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000); that thirty (30) days have elapsed since death; and that no application or petition for appointment of a personal representative or for summary administration is pending or has been granted (Idaho Code § 15-3-1201(a)).

Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.

Threshold evidence and currency

What the reviewed source establishes

Currency: No later session-law supersession is recorded in the reviewed source set for this threshold. The edition/currentness label below is the basis for the published figure.

Controlling citation: Idaho Code § 15-3-1201 — Idaho Statutes are updated to the website July 1 following the legislative session..

Verbatim threshold text from that source:

(1) The fair market value of the entire estate of the decedent which is subject to probate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000); (2) Thirty (30) days have elapsed since the death of the decedent
1. Where and when
Private by design: entries stay in this browser.
2. What they left

Ownership determines whether an asset usually enters probate. Choose “Not sure” when title or beneficiary status has not been confirmed.

Asset 1

Asset 2

Your working estimate

Idaho estate snapshot

Route check

More information is needed

Counted probate estate: not yet counted

A valid date of death is required before any waiting period can be tested.

Gross probate propertyNot yet counted
Court chargeSet locallyIdaho Code § 31-3201A(1) sets the district-court civil filing fee at $175 generally, "except for those cases to be assigned to the magistrate division of the district court for which the fee shall be one hundred twenty dollars ($120)". Probate is heard in the magistrate division, so the base magistrate fee is $120. But § 31-3201A charges that fee "in addition to" the charges imposed by § 1-2003 (+$26 for a decedent's-estate civil case), § 31-3201 (+$10 administrative surcharge) and § 73-213 (+$10), making the true opening cost at least $166. Because those three additional charges are imposed by separate statutes not yet registered here as verified sources, the opening fee is published as variable rather than as an unsupported fixed number. The § 15-3-1201 affidavit route is presented directly to the debtor/holder and requires no court filing or fee.
Scheduled executor compensationMore information needed2 asset entries have no value entered.Idaho Code § 15-3-719 entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for his services." There is no statutory percentage schedule. A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead, and may also renounce any part of the fee.

This route check is general information, not legal advice. It does not test every eligibility condition, creditor issue, will provision, local fee, or asset-title fact.

What the Idaho amount screen counts

The headline limit is not a count of everything the person owned. It is a test of the property and deductions named by this procedure. Classify title and beneficiary status first; property that transfers by a valid survivorship right, beneficiary designation, or funded trust follows its own transfer path.

This reviewed route is limited to personal probate property. A house or other real property is not transferred through this screen, even when the personal-property total is below $100,000. Open the deed and the receiving court’s real-property instructions before assuming the simplified procedure resolves the whole estate.

The reviewed value basis subtracts enforceable liens and encumbrances. Enter the asset value and the lien separately. An unsecured bill is not a lien against an asset unless this state separately requires it as an input.

Timing and facts the threshold cannot answer

The reviewed route requires 30 days after death before the affidavit or petition can be used. That is a minimum timing condition, not a promise that the institution or court completes the transfer on that day.

What does not qualify for this route

  • An estate above $100,000 does not qualify for this value-based route, unless the separately described alternate route applies.
  • Real property is outside this route’s scope; the affidavit or statement does not transfer a house or other real estate.
  • Filing before 30 days have elapsed from death fails the reviewed timing condition.
  • A pending or completed personal-representative appointment, a will condition, creditor issue, or family-rights condition can disqualify the route even when the amount appears within the reviewed rule.

Move from the screen to the official Idaho path

Assemble the death date, will status, asset titles, beneficiary confirmations, values, enforceable liens, family facts, and any prior court filing before signing anything. Then use the court publisher’s current artifact for the selected route.

Idaho probate is administered in the Magistrate Division of the District Court. Idaho publishes statewide self-help resources through the Idaho Court Self-Help Center; forms and the operative filing fee for a magistrate-division civil case are set statewide by Idaho Code § 31-3201A. The § 15-3-1201 affidavit is a private demand instrument, not a court filing, so no statewide affidavit form is required to be filed with the court.

If the state publishes no statewide form, that is a finding—not a missing link. Contact the Magistrate Division of the District Court or clerk in the proper county for its packet and current filing instructions rather than borrowing an unofficial form from another county.

Questions to resolve before relying on “likely qualifies”

  • Confirm deed, account title, beneficiary, and trust ownership from the actual records.
  • Confirm whether a will, prior appointment, creditor issue, or family allowance changes the route.
  • Confirm the official form, fee, copy count, and filing method with the receiving court or institution.
Use this as a starting point.

This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Probate law varies by state and county and changes over time. Verify the current rule with the court or a licensed attorney in the relevant state.

Idaho measures fair market value, and names the state as a successor for Medicaid recovery

Idaho Code § 15-3-1201 sets the affidavit ceiling at $100,000, measured as “the fair market value of the entire estate of the decedent which is subject to probate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances.” Fair market value is stated in the statute rather than left to the affiant’s judgement, and the base is the whole probate estate rather than personal property only.

Idaho also blocks the affidavit in one more circumstance than most uniform states. The successor must swear that no application or petition “for the appointment of a personal representative or for summary administration” is pending or has been granted in any jurisdiction. Because Idaho has a separate summary administration route, a pending summary petition closes the affidavit door that an appointment petition would close elsewhere. The affidavit may also be used by a successor entitled “as a trust pursuant to a will of the decedent.”

The provision that surprises families is subsection (c). For the recovery of medical assistance, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare “shall be deemed a successor to the estate,” provided that before the affidavit is presented the department gives notice by regular mail to persons it knows of. A Medicaid claim is therefore not a creditor question sitting outside the affidavit process in Idaho; the department stands inside it as a successor.

Source: Idaho Code § 15-3-1201, read from the enacting state’s own published code on 2026-09-17. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.

Idaho eligibility map

What the Idaho simplified route still requires

The Idaho threshold is one screen, not a complete legal conclusion. This map pairs the recorded ceiling with the property scope, deductions, date, and court artifact that have to be checked before relying on a likely-qualifies result.

QuestionRecorded Idaho answerCarry into the case
What route is being screened?Collection of personal property by affidavit (Idaho Code § 15-3-1201)Confirm that the will, prior appointment, family facts, and asset titles fit this route.
What property and basis count?personal probate property only; net of enforceable liens and encumbrances.Keep real property, liens, beneficiary transfers, and survivorship transfers classified separately.
What is the amount screen?$100,000Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut.
What is the time or deadline record?30 days after death; Idaho runs multiple independently-triggered claim deadlines that cannot honestly collapse into one number: a four-month bar running from first publication of the notice to creditors (§ 15-3-801(a)); a separate actual-notice period for a creditor given written notice by mail, running to the later of four months after publication or sixty (60) days after the mailing/delivery of the notice (§ 15-3-801(b)); and an outer nonclaim bar of three years after death (§ 15-3-803(a)(1)). Publishing a single figure would mislead.Keep the event that starts each clock with the date; do not combine separate periods into one number.
What does the cost record establish?No single statewide amount is published here; confirm the receiving court's current schedule.Ask the Magistrate Division of the District Court about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings.
What does compensation use?Idaho Code § 15-3-719 entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for his services." There is no statutory percentage schedule. A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead, and may also renounce any part of the fee. The relevant base is the estate accounting.Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate.

Eligibility inputs

The Idaho screen is made of these inputs

A threshold is useful only when the amount is measured the way the source describes. Keep this table with the asset worksheet so an empty or misclassified field cannot look like a confirmed qualification.

InputRegistry record
Threshold$100,000
Property scopepersonal probate property only
Value basisnet of enforceable liens and encumbrances
Waiting period30 days after death
Required extra factsNone listed in the registry

Case-file context

Keep the Idaho answer with its neighboring conditions

A route answer is easier to use when the facts that can change it stay in the same record. These are the reviewed Idaho descriptions adjacent to this page\'s main question; they are not a substitute for the source quotations or the receiving court\'s instructions.

Cost context

Idaho Code § 31-3201A(1) sets the district-court civil filing fee at $175 generally, "except for those cases to be assigned to the magistrate division of the district court for which the fee shall be one hundred twenty dollars ($120)". Probate is heard in the magistrate division, so the base magistrate fee is $120. But § 31-3201A charges that fee "in addition to" the charges imposed by § 1-2003 (+$26 for a decedent's-estate civil case), § 31-3201 (+$10 administrative surcharge) and § 73-213 (+$10), making the true opening cost at least $166. Because those three additional charges are imposed by separate statutes not yet registered here as verified sources, the opening fee is published as variable rather than as an unsupported fixed number. The § 15-3-1201 affidavit route is presented directly to the debtor/holder and requires no court filing or fee.

No single statewide amount is published here; confirm the receiving court's current schedule.

Compensation context

Idaho Code § 15-3-719 entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for his services." There is no statutory percentage schedule. A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead, and may also renounce any part of the fee.

Idaho Code § 15-3-719 entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for his services." There is no statutory percentage schedule. A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead, and may also renounce any part of the fee. The relevant base is the estate accounting.

Deadline context

Idaho runs multiple independently-triggered claim deadlines that cannot honestly collapse into one number: a four-month bar running from first publication of the notice to creditors (§ 15-3-801(a)); a separate actual-notice period for a creditor given written notice by mail, running to the later of four months after publication or sixty (60) days after the mailing/delivery of the notice (§ 15-3-801(b)); and an outer nonclaim bar of three years after death (§ 15-3-803(a)(1)). Publishing a single figure would mislead.

Court-material note: Idaho probate is administered in the Magistrate Division of the District Court. Idaho publishes statewide self-help resources through the Idaho Court Self-Help Center; forms and the operative filing fee for a magistrate-division civil case are set statewide by Idaho Code § 31-3201A. The § 15-3-1201 affidavit is a private demand instrument, not a court filing, so no statewide affidavit form is required to be filed with the court.

Arithmetic illustration

See the Idaho amount screen without mistaking it for a result

The recorded Idaho ceiling is $100,000, and it is tested against personal probate property only, on a basis this site records as net of enforceable liens and encumbrances. Counted that way, $75,000 sits below the Idaho figure and $125,000 sits above it. Both are comparisons to a published number rather than legal outcomes: two estates holding the same total can land on opposite sides of this line, because what Idaho counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.

Illustrative counted amountComparison to the Idaho ceilingWhat it does not decide
$75,000Below $100,000Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties
$125,000Above $100,000Whether another statutory route or court process applies

Next evidence to collect

Use the calculator for arithmetic, then verify title, timing, and the receiving court's form.

  1. Record the date of death, the county, and the exact proceeding or affidavit being considered.
  2. Classify each asset by title, beneficiary, trust, real-property status, and the value basis shown above.
  3. Open the official court material below and keep its form or schedule with the estate record.
  4. Do not distribute property until the route, creditor position, and required approvals are resolved.

Official material

Idaho probate is administered in the Magistrate Division of the District Court. Idaho publishes statewide self-help resources through the Idaho Court Self-Help Center; forms and the operative filing fee for a magistrate-division civil case are set statewide by Idaho Code § 31-3201A. The § 15-3-1201 affidavit is a private demand instrument, not a court filing, so no statewide affidavit form is required to be filed with the court.

Source trail

Records used by this Idaho map

Controlling source

Each legal input links to the government source reviewed for this page. Source text can change; confirm the current rule before acting.

Continue in Idaho