Illinois counts motor vehicles outside its $150,000 affidavit ceiling
755 ILCS 5/25-1(a-5) lets the small estate affidavit transfer personal property where no letters of office are outstanding and none are contemplated or pending "in this State or in any other jurisdiction," and where the personal estate passing by intestacy or under a will is limited to two things.
The first is the money limit: "excluding motor vehicles registered with the Secretary of State, tangible and intangible personal property not exceeding $150,000." The second is the exclusion itself — registered motor vehicles, listed as their own category (B) rather than counted toward the ceiling.
That exclusion does real work. An Illinois estate holding $140,000 of financial accounts plus two registered cars is still inside the route, because the cars never enter the $150,000 computation. The statute goes further: where the affidavit "is being used solely for a title transaction with the Secretary of State for the transfer of the decedent’s motor vehicles, it may be used to transfer those motor vehicles in accordance with subsection (b) of Section 3-114 of Illinois Vehicle Code without consideration of the value of the decedent’s personal estate."
Illinois also reaches out-of-state affiants. The sworn form requires the affiant to acknowledge that, if an out-of-state resident, they "submit myself to the jurisdiction of Illinois courts for all matters related to the preparation and use of this affidavit," and to name an Illinois agent for service of process. Using the affidavit from another state is therefore a jurisdictional act, not just a paperwork one.
Source: 755 ILCS 5/25-1, read from the enacting state’s own official publication 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.