New Jersey estate administration
Small-estate limit: $20,000
This guide explains probate in New Jersey: New Jersey's county Surrogates handle uncontested probate and intestate affidavits; contested probate matters proceed in the Superior Court, Chancery Division, Probate Part.
Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.
For an intestate estate, a surviving spouse/civil-union partner/domestic partner may use the affidavit when total real and personal assets do not exceed $50,000. If none survives, one heir may proceed for all heirs at $20,000 or less with the other heirs’ written consent. The enacted text states no waiting period.
Affidavit for assets without administration (intestate estate)Simplified route
For an intestate estate, a surviving spouse/civil-union partner/domestic partner may use the affidavit when total real and personal assets do not exceed $50,000. If none survives, one heir may proceed for all heirs at $20,000 or less with the other heirs’ written consent. The enacted text states no waiting period.
Eligibility and caveatsCourt cost
County-specific and filing-detail-dependent. Obtain the current probate/administration fee directly from the Surrogate in the county of venue; no statewide total is asserted.
Filing-cost detailExecutor compensation
N.J.S.A. 3B:18-14 permits 5% of the first $200,000 of corpus received, 3.5% of the excess through $1 million, and 2% above $1 million. Each additional fiduciary receives 1% subject to the statutory cap, and a court may reduce materially excessive commissions. The separate income commission under 3B:18-13 remains UNKNOWN because no current official machine-fetchable text was obtained.
Compensation detailCreditor deadline
Verified: written sworn claims are to be presented within nine months from death. This is a death-trigger presentation/protection rule, not a publication or appointment deadline, and the act protects distributions made before late presentation rather than stating a simple extinction rule. No separate publication-trigger, actual-notice-trigger, or appointment-trigger deadline was verified.
P.L.2004, c.132, §84; N.J.S.A. 3B:22-4 (New Jersey Legislature; reviewed August 9, 2026)
Timeline and creditor detailsThese are the New Jersey provisions read end to end on the enacting state’s own site, rather than summarised from a secondary source. The middle column is what reading each one actually established for New Jersey — not a restatement of the topic — and the last column records the date the wording was read, so a later amendment can be spotted by comparing dates.
| Citation | What reading it established | Read on |
|---|---|---|
| N.J.S. 3B:18-14 | New Jersey is one of the few states that prints the commission rates — representative pay note | 2026-09-17 |
| N.J.S. 3B:22-4 | New Jersey runs nine months from death, not from a published notice — creditor deadline note | 2026-09-17 |
| N.J.S. 22A:2-30 | The New Jersey surrogate charges by the page, and the schedule is statutory — court and filing cost note | 2026-09-17 |
New Jersey decision map
Use this map before opening a form or entering a number. It keeps the New Jersey amount test, time gate, court cost, and creditor record separate so one easy figure does not stand in for the whole administration.
| Question | Recorded New Jersey answer | Carry into the case |
|---|---|---|
| What route is being screened? | Affidavit for assets without administration (intestate estate) | 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? | $20,000 | Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut. |
| What is the time or deadline record? | No waiting-period number verified; Verified: written sworn claims are to be presented within nine months from death. This is a death-trigger presentation/protection rule, not a publication or appointment deadline, and the act protects distributions made before late presentation rather than stating a simple extinction rule. No separate publication-trigger, actual-notice-trigger, or appointment-trigger deadline was verified. | 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 Surrogate's Court / Superior Court Chancery Division, Probate Part about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings. |
| What does compensation use? | N.J.S.A. 3B:18-14 permits 5% of the first $200,000 of corpus received, 3.5% of the excess through $1 million, and 2% above $1 million. Each additional fiduciary receives 1% subject to the statutory cap, and a court may reduce materially excessive commissions. The separate income commission under 3B:18-13 remains UNKNOWN because no current official machine-fetchable text was obtained. The relevant base is gross probate property. | Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate. |
Arithmetic illustration
The recorded New Jersey ceiling is $20,000, 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, $15,000 sits below the New Jersey figure and $25,000 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 New Jersey counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.
| Illustrative counted amount | Comparison to the New Jersey ceiling | What it does not decide |
|---|---|---|
| $15,000 | Below $20,000 | Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties |
| $25,000 | Above $20,000 | Whether another statutory route or court process applies |
Next evidence to collect
Official material
No machine-fetchable statewide Surrogate directory or statewide small-estate form was found. NJ Courts returned HTTP 403 on every tested path, so the dossier supplies an HTTP-200 official county Surrogate entry point and instructs the user to select the county of venue.
Probate is filed with the Surrogate of the county where the decedent lived, and each Surrogate sets its own filing charges, so the statewide directory is the starting point rather than a single county page.
Source trail
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.
The statutes on this page state the rule. These are the documents the court itself publishes. Every link is probed before release, and any link that stops resolving fails the build rather than staying on the page.
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: Where the total value of the real and personal assets of the estate of an intestate will not exceed $50,000, the surviving spouse, partner in a civil union, or domestic partner upon the execution of an affidavit before the Surrogate of the county where the intestate resided at his death, or, if then nonresident in this State, where any of the assets are located, or before the Superior Court, shall be entitled absolutely to all the real and personal assets without administration, and the assets of the estate up to $10,000 shall be free from all debts of the intestate.
Reviewed source note: Commissions on all corpus received by the fiduciary may be taken as follows: 5% on the first $200,000 of all corpus received by the fiduciary; 3.5% on the excess over $200,000 up to $1,000,000; 2% on the excess over $1,000,000; and 1% of all corpus for each additional fiduciary provided that no one fiduciary shall be entitled to any greater commission than that which would be allowed if there were but one fiduciary involved.
Reviewed source note: Creditors of the decedent shall present their claims to the personal representative of the decedent's estate in writing and under oath, specifying the amount claimed and the particulars of the claim, within nine months from the date of the decedent's death.