Publication
Newspaper pricing is commercial rather than a statewide fee.
New Jersey court costs
New Jersey probate filing cost: not published
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.
not published is not published as a current figure, because the statute states its amounts apply before adjustment by another authority. Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.
What the statute charges
New Jersey does not fix this amount in a single statewide schedule, so this site reports it as unknown rather than publishing an estimate that no source supports.
New Jersey publishes no component breakdown for this cost.
The controlling amount is set below the statute, so this site reports it as unknown rather than estimating it. The linked source explains where the figure comes from.
Costs no statute prices
These are the costs executors most often meet after the filing fee. None of them has a statewide statutory amount, so this site does not estimate them.
Bond
Premiums depend on the bond amount, the estate, and the applicant.
Copies and local charges
Certified copies, recording, inventory, accounting, and county surcharges are billed separately.
Professional fees
Attorney, accountant, and appraiser fees are negotiated or court-reviewed.
State-specific limits
- N.J.S.A. 3B:18-13 income commission is UNKNOWN.
- Current county Surrogate filing total is variable/UNKNOWN.
- No machine-fetchable statewide Surrogate directory or statewide form was available; NJ Courts blocks automated access.
- No separate creditor actual-notice, publication, or appointment deadline was verified.
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.
How to verify the amount for this case
Name the proceeding before asking for a total. A small-estate affidavit, an application for letters, formal administration, a later inventory or account, and a certified copy can each carry a different charge. Asking only “what does probate cost?” invites an answer for the wrong filing.
- Identify the county where the proceeding will be filed.
- Identify the exact route or petition you expect to use.
- State the value basis the schedule uses; it is not always the gross estate value.
- Ask the clerk to separate the opening fee, mandatory surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings.
- Record the schedule date or rule cited.
- Record whether payment is due at filing.
New Jersey does not provide one operative statewide total for this page. The exact answer must come from the receiving Surrogate's Court / Superior Court Chancery Division, Probate Part and its current local schedule; this site will not turn a base charge into a made-up statewide estimate.
Keep that clerk quote with the estate record and compare it with the itemised statutory lines above. For the broader budget, use the probate cost-line guide; court filing is only one category.
The New Jersey surrogate charges by the page, and the schedule is statutory
N.J.S. 22A:2-30 fixes the surrogate’s fees and directs that they "shall be for the use of the county in which the fees are collected." Probate of a will of not more than two pages is $100.00, with $5.00 for each additional page.
That fee is not just for stamping the will. The statute enumerates what it covers: "all services in preparation and execution of complaint, filing proof of death, deposition of one witness, qualification of executor, filing power of attorney, surrogate’s certificate, judgment for probate, letters testamentary, plain copy of will, binding, recording, microfilming or photostating, comparing, docketing, report to the Division of Taxation in the Department of the Treasury, report and transmission to the Clerk of the Superior Court."
Variants are priced separately. Probate of a will of not more than two pages without letters is $50.00 plus $5.00 per additional page, covering the same services "except letters, surrogate’s certificate and qualification of executor." Probate of each codicil not exceeding one page is $25.00, with $5.00 where the codicil requires an additional witness, and $25.00 to reopen probate proceedings for qualification of an executor or to take proof of an extra witness.
Witnesses and copies have their own lines: one witness in the probate proceedings carries no charge, each additional witness is $5.00, a plain extra copy of the will is $3.00 per page, and a certified extra copy is $5.00 per page plus $5.00 for the certificate. Where there are no assets, a will filed but not probated costs $10.00 for the first two pages and $5.00 for each additional page, plus $5.00 for the cover letter stating no assets and $5.00 for the death certificate.
Source: N.J.S. 22A:2-30, 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.
New Jersey filing-cost map
Separate the New Jersey filing charge from the estate budget
The New Jersey filing record prices a proceeding, not every cost of settling an estate. This map connects the published amount or schedule to its value basis and identifies the local items that still need a clerk or court schedule.
| 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. |
Filing record
What the New Jersey cost record can answer
New Jersey has no single statewide schedule in the accepted record.
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. This page therefore names the local confirmation path instead of turning a base charge into a statewide estimate.
Case-file context
Keep the New Jersey 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 New Jersey descriptions adjacent to this page\'s main question; they are not a substitute for the source quotations or the receiving court\'s instructions.
Route context
New Jersey's county Surrogates handle uncontested probate and intestate affidavits; contested probate matters proceed in the Superior Court, Chancery Division, Probate Part.
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.
Compensation context
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.
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.
Deadline context
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.
- N.J.S.A. 3B:18-13 income commission is UNKNOWN.
- Current county Surrogate filing total is variable/UNKNOWN.
- No machine-fetchable statewide Surrogate directory or statewide form was available; NJ Courts blocks automated access.
- No separate creditor actual-notice, publication, or appointment deadline was verified.
Court-material note: 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. New Jersey Courts serves its deeper probate and Surrogate pages only to interactive browsers, so this site links the self-help centre and leaves the reader to navigate from there rather than publishing a link it cannot prove reachable. The New Jersey Legislature's Chapter Laws page (https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/chapter-laws) is the official enacted-law entry point, not a court self-help or forms directory, so it is described here rather than listed as a court resource; the court-owned material is the NJ Courts self-help centre linked above.
Arithmetic illustration
See the New Jersey amount screen without mistaking it for a result
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
Name the proceeding and ask for mandatory surcharges, copies, publication, and later filings separately.
- Record the date of death, the county, and the exact proceeding or affidavit being considered.
- Classify each asset by title, beneficiary, trust, real-property status, and the value basis shown above.
- Open the official court material below and keep its form or schedule with the estate record.
- Do not distribute property until the route, creditor position, and required approvals are resolved.
Official material
- New Jersey Courts self-help centreNew Jersey Courts
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
Records used by this New Jersey map
- P.L.2015, c.232; N.J.S.A. 3B:10-3 and 3B:10-4P.L.2015, c.232; reviewed August 9, 2026
- P.L.2000, c.29; N.J.S.A. 3B:18-14P.L.2000, c.29; reviewed August 9, 2026
- P.L.2004, c.132, §84; N.J.S.A. 3B:22-4P.L.2004, c.132; reviewed August 9, 2026