Louisiana route screening
A small succession is generally $200,000 or less in gross value at death for a decedent domiciled in Louisiana ($125,000 for an ancillary succession of a non-domiciliary); a succession whose death occurred at least 20 years before the affidavit may qualify regardless of value. Judicial opening may be unnecessary for listed intestate cases and limited testate cases. Louisiana immovables may be described in an intestate affidavit, while the testate no-opening route requires no Louisiana immovable property and waiver of probate of the testament.
Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.
Threshold evidence and currency
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: La. C.C.P. art. 3421 — Acts 2026, No. 293, §1..
Verbatim threshold text from that source:
Art. 3421. Small successions defined A small succession, within the meaning of this Title, is any of the following: (1) The succession of a person who died domiciled in Louisiana and who died leaving property with a gross value of two hundred thousand dollars or less valued as of the date of death. (2) The ancillary succession of a person who died domiciled outside of Louisiana and who died leaving property in Louisiana with a gross value of one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars or less valued as of the date of death. (3) The succession of a person whose date of death occurred at least twenty years prior to the execution of a small succession affidavit and who died leaving property in Louisiana of any value. Amended by Acts 1976, No. 187, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 1977; Acts 1979, No. 71, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 1980; Acts 1980, No. 582, §1; Acts 2009, No. 81, §1, eff.
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 screen counts the probate estate within the statute’s stated scope, not merely cash accounts. Solely owned real property can therefore affect the amount test. That does not necessarily mean the same simplified procedure transfers the house; counting scope and transfer authority are separate questions.
The reviewed value basis is gross for this route. The tool does not subtract a mortgage or other lien from the amount test unless the cited rule says to do so.
No waiting-period number is published because it has not been verified to the same primary-source standard as the threshold.
Louisiana also states an alternate route after more than 20 years. It is evaluated separately from the amount route rather than requiring both conditions at once.
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.
No statewide small-succession affidavit or statewide probate opening-fee total was located on the Louisiana Supreme Court site; parish clerks provide filing requirements and advance-cost deposits.
Louisiana terminology is succession, succession representative, testament, independent administration, and judgment of possession—not a forced common-law executor/probate model.
If the state publishes no statewide form, that is a finding—not a missing link. Contact 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.
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.
Louisiana eligibility map
The Louisiana 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.
| Question | Recorded Louisiana answer | Carry into the case |
|---|---|---|
| What route is being screened? | Small succession affidavit | Confirm that the will, prior appointment, family facts, and asset titles fit this route. |
| What property and basis count? | probate property within the rule's stated scope; gross value for this route. | Keep real property, liens, beneficiary transfers, and survivorship transfers classified separately. |
| What is the amount screen? | $200,000 | Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut. |
| What is the time or deadline record? | No waiting-period number verified; Louisiana uses ordinary prescription plus succession claim-presentation and suspension rules rather than a single common-law probate nonclaim period. Articles 3241, 3242, and 3245 do not establish one publication/appointment/outer deadline that can be reduced to days. | 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 District Court about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings. |
| What does compensation use? | Absent a testamentary provision or agreement with the surviving spouse and all competent heirs or legatees, an administrator or executor receives 2.5% of the amount of the inventory. The court may increase it on a proper showing that the usual commission is inadequate. A judicial small succession separately caps its succession representative at 5% of gross assets. The relevant base is the estate accounting. | Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate. |
Eligibility 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.
| Input | Registry record |
|---|---|
| Threshold | $200,000 |
| Property scope | probate property within the rule's stated scope |
| Value basis | gross value for this route |
| Waiting period | No waiting-period number verified |
| Required extra facts | None listed in the registry |
| Alternate time route | More than 20 years after death |
Case-file context
A route answer is easier to use when the facts that can change it stay in the same record. These are the reviewed Louisiana descriptions adjacent to this page\'s main question; they are not a substitute for the source quotations or the receiving court\'s instructions.
For a judicial small succession, court costs are one-half of those in a comparable non-small succession. District-court clerk fees may be lower than statutory ceilings and depend on initialization, pages, exhibits, indexing, issuance, service, and parish-specific authority, so confirm the advance deposit with the parish clerk.
No single statewide amount is published here; confirm the receiving court's current schedule.
Absent a testamentary provision or agreement with the surviving spouse and all competent heirs or legatees, an administrator or executor receives 2.5% of the amount of the inventory. The court may increase it on a proper showing that the usual commission is inadequate. A judicial small succession separately caps its succession representative at 5% of gross assets.
Absent a testamentary provision or agreement with the surviving spouse and all competent heirs or legatees, an administrator or executor receives 2.5% of the amount of the inventory. The court may increase it on a proper showing that the usual commission is inadequate. A judicial small succession separately caps its succession representative at 5% of gross assets. The relevant base is the estate accounting.
Louisiana uses ordinary prescription plus succession claim-presentation and suspension rules rather than a single common-law probate nonclaim period. Articles 3241, 3242, and 3245 do not establish one publication/appointment/outer deadline that can be reduced to days.
Court-material note: No statewide small-succession affidavit or statewide probate opening-fee total was located on the Louisiana Supreme Court site; parish clerks provide filing requirements and advance-cost deposits. Louisiana terminology is succession, succession representative, testament, independent administration, and judgment of possession—not a forced common-law executor/probate model.
Arithmetic illustration
The recorded Louisiana ceiling is $200,000, and it is tested against probate property within the rule's stated scope, on a basis this site records as gross value for this route. Counted that way, $150,000 sits below the Louisiana figure and $250,000 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 Louisiana counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.
| Illustrative counted amount | Comparison to the Louisiana ceiling | What it does not decide |
|---|---|---|
| $150,000 | Below $200,000 | Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties |
| $250,000 | Above $200,000 | Whether another statutory route or court process applies |
Next evidence to collect
Official material
No statewide small-succession affidavit or statewide probate opening-fee total was located on the Louisiana Supreme Court site; parish clerks provide filing requirements and advance-cost deposits.
Louisiana terminology is succession, succession representative, testament, independent administration, and judgment of possession—not a forced common-law executor/probate model.
Source trail
Each legal input links to the government source reviewed for this page. Source text can change; confirm the current rule before acting.
Reviewed source note: Art. 3421. Small successions defined A small succession, within the meaning of this Title, is any of the following: (1) The succession of a person who died domiciled in Louisiana and who died leaving property with a gross value of two hundred thousand dollars or less valued as of the date of death. (2) The ancillary succession of a person who died domiciled outside of Louisiana and who died leaving property in Louisiana with a gross value of one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars or less valued as of the date of death. (3) The succession of a person whose date of death occurred at least twenty years prior to the execution of a small succession affidavit and who died leaving property in Louisiana of any value. Amended by Acts 1976, No. 187, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 1977; Acts 1979, No. 71, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 1980; Acts 1980, No. 582, §1; Acts 2009, No. 81, §1, eff.
What this means: Acts 2026, No. 293 raised the art. 3421(1) ceiling for a decedent domiciled in Louisiana from $125,000 to $200,000. Re-verified against the live text on 2026-08-11: the ancillary ceiling in (2) remains $125,000 and the twenty-year route in (3) is unchanged. The prior assertion matched clause (2)'s unchanged figure, so the text check passed while the published number had gone stale; it is now pinned to clause (1) by its domiciliary wording.