Estate Settlement Cost
Menu

Montana route screening

Montana small-estate limit: $100,000

Montana allows collection of a decedent's personal property by affidavit under MCA § 72-3-1101 when "the value of the probate estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000", 30 days have elapsed since death, and no application or petition for appointment of a personal representative is pending or has been granted. (Unclaimed property of $5,000 or less may be refunded by the Department of Revenue regardless of estate value.)

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: Mont. Code Ann. § 72-3-1101 — Montana Code Annotated 2025.

Verbatim threshold text from that source:

(a) the value of the probate estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000, except as provided in subsection (2); (b) 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

Montana 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 locallyMCA § 25-1-201(1)(m) sets a probate-specific fee: on the filing of an application for informal, formal, or supervised probate or for the appointment of a personal representative, the clerk of district court collects $70 from the applicant, "which includes the fee for filing a will for probate". This probate-specific subsection governs over the general civil-commencement fee in § 25-1-201(1)(a), so the opening fee for a probate proceeding is $70. The § 72-3-1101 affidavit route requires no court filing.
Scheduled executor compensationMore information needed2 asset entries have no value entered.MCA § 72-3-631(1) entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for services." Contrary to a common assumption, Montana's Uniform Probate Code enactment does NOT set a statutory percentage schedule (the harvested § 72-3-631 text states only a reasonable-compensation standard). A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead.

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 Montana 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 Montana 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.

Probate in Montana is handled by the District Court. The Judicial Branch publishes statewide self-help resources and forms. The $70 probate fee is fixed statewide by MCA § 25-1-201(1)(m); the § 72-3-1101 affidavit is a private demand instrument, not a court filing.

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.

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.

Montana’s $100,000 ceiling has a carve-out that ignores the size of the estate

The main rule is familiar: under MCA § 72-3-1101(1), thirty days after death a successor may collect personal property on affidavit where “the value of the probate estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000,” no appointment is pending or granted in any jurisdiction, and the successor is entitled to the property.

The exception is the part worth knowing. Subsection (1)(a) qualifies the ceiling with the words “except as provided in subsection (2),” and subsection (2) provides that the Department of Revenue may refund unclaimed property to a successor of the decedent under Title 70, chapter 9, part 8, where the value of the unclaimed property is $5,000 or less — “regardless of the value of the estate.”

That matters because unclaimed property is exactly what turns up late. A Montana estate far above $100,000, already administered and closed, can still have a forgotten deposit or uncashed cheque recovered through the Department of Revenue without reopening anything, so long as the unclaimed item itself is $5,000 or less. The ceiling screens the affidavit route; it does not screen that refund.

The section has been amended repeatedly — most recently by Ch. 453, Laws 2023 — so a figure quoted from an older secondary summary of Montana law is worth re-checking against the current code rather than assumed.

Source: MCA § 72-3-1101, 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.

Montana eligibility map

What the Montana simplified route still requires

The Montana 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 Montana answerCarry into the case
What route is being screened?Collection of personal property by affidavit (MCA § 72-3-1101)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; Montana runs multiple independently-triggered claim deadlines that cannot honestly collapse into one number: a four-month bar from first publication of the notice to creditors (§ 72-3-801(1)); an actual-notice period of four months from published notice or 30 days from mailing, whichever is later (§ 72-3-801(2)); and an outer nonclaim bar of one year after death (§ 72-3-803(1)(a)). 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?$70 is the recorded statewide amount.Ask the District Court about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings.
What does compensation use?MCA § 72-3-631(1) entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for services." Contrary to a common assumption, Montana's Uniform Probate Code enactment does NOT set a statutory percentage schedule (the harvested § 72-3-631 text states only a reasonable-compensation standard). A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead. The relevant base is the estate accounting.Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate.

Eligibility inputs

The Montana 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 Montana 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 Montana 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

MCA § 25-1-201(1)(m) sets a probate-specific fee: on the filing of an application for informal, formal, or supervised probate or for the appointment of a personal representative, the clerk of district court collects $70 from the applicant, "which includes the fee for filing a will for probate". This probate-specific subsection governs over the general civil-commencement fee in § 25-1-201(1)(a), so the opening fee for a probate proceeding is $70. The § 72-3-1101 affidavit route requires no court filing.

$70 is the recorded statewide amount.

Compensation context

MCA § 72-3-631(1) entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for services." Contrary to a common assumption, Montana's Uniform Probate Code enactment does NOT set a statutory percentage schedule (the harvested § 72-3-631 text states only a reasonable-compensation standard). A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead.

MCA § 72-3-631(1) entitles a personal representative to "reasonable compensation for services." Contrary to a common assumption, Montana's Uniform Probate Code enactment does NOT set a statutory percentage schedule (the harvested § 72-3-631 text states only a reasonable-compensation standard). A will may fix compensation, but the personal representative may renounce that provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead. The relevant base is the estate accounting.

Deadline context

Montana runs multiple independently-triggered claim deadlines that cannot honestly collapse into one number: a four-month bar from first publication of the notice to creditors (§ 72-3-801(1)); an actual-notice period of four months from published notice or 30 days from mailing, whichever is later (§ 72-3-801(2)); and an outer nonclaim bar of one year after death (§ 72-3-803(1)(a)). Publishing a single figure would mislead.

Court-material note: Probate in Montana is handled by the District Court. The Judicial Branch publishes statewide self-help resources and forms. The $70 probate fee is fixed statewide by MCA § 25-1-201(1)(m); the § 72-3-1101 affidavit is a private demand instrument, not a court filing.

Arithmetic illustration

See the Montana amount screen without mistaking it for a result

The recorded Montana 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 Montana 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 Montana counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.

Illustrative counted amountComparison to the Montana 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

Probate in Montana is handled by the District Court. The Judicial Branch publishes statewide self-help resources and forms. The $70 probate fee is fixed statewide by MCA § 25-1-201(1)(m); the § 72-3-1101 affidavit is a private demand instrument, not a court filing.

Source trail

Records used by this Montana 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 Montana