South Dakota route screening
South Dakota allows collection of a decedent's personal property by affidavit under SDCL § 29A-3-1201 when "the value of the entire estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000", thirty days have elapsed since death, no application or petition for appointment of a personal representative is pending or has been granted, and the decedent has not incurred any indebtedness to the Department of Social Services for medical assistance for nursing-home or other medical institutional care. A separate route, SDCL § 29A-3-1203, lets a successor perfect title to the decedent's real property by an affidavit filed with the register of deeds sixty days after death, where the decedent's interest in all South Dakota real property does not exceed $50,000.
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: S.D. Codified Laws § 29A-3-1201 — Source: SL 1994, ch 232 , § 3-1201; SL 1995, ch 167 , § 136; SL 1997, ch 172 , § 1; SL 2002, ch 100 , § 26; SL 2003, ch 157 , § 1.
Verbatim threshold text from that source:
(1) The value of the entire estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000; (2) Thirty days have elapsed since the death of the decedent
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.
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.
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 South Dakota is handled by the Circuit Court. The Unified Judicial System publishes statewide self-help resources and a form/file search. The $75 probate filing fee is fixed statewide by SDCL § 16-2-29(1) (current through SL 2026, ch 92); the § 29A-3-1201 personal-property affidavit and the § 29A-3-1203 real-property affidavit are private/register-of-deeds instruments, not court probate filings.
If the state publishes no statewide form, that is a finding—not a missing link. Contact the Circuit 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.
The South Dakota small-estate provisions sit in Title 29A. They could not be read on the date below: sdlegislature.gov serves a JavaScript application rather than statutory text, and the API paths tried returned the same shell as the browser route. The Unified Judicial System information page for probate returned HTTP 404, and its form search is likewise script-driven.
Affidavit ceilings are among the most frequently amended figures in any probate code. Montana’s was last changed in 2023; Delaware’s section carries amendments through 85 Del. Laws; Illinois’ has a further amendment pending. A South Dakota figure taken from an undated secondary summary could easily be several revisions old.
Publishing it anyway would make this page look more complete while making it less trustworthy, so the ceiling is left unstated and the reason recorded.
The clerk of courts in the county where the decedent was domiciled can confirm the current threshold and whether the estate’s assets fall inside it.
The access record, so it can be re-tested rather than taken on trust: the sdlegislature.gov statute and chapter routes each returned HTTP 200 carrying the identical 5,982-byte application shell, and two documented API paths under the same host returned that same shell rather than JSON. On the Unified Judicial System site, the forms index returned HTTP 404, the probate information page returned HTTP 404, and the form search responded but renders its results from script. Every one of those is a live, healthy host declining to serve the text.
Two things follow that are worth stating plainly. First, a 200 response is not evidence that a document was retrieved — four of the six attempts above succeeded at the HTTP level and returned no law. Second, the shape of this blank is different from Hawaii’s: Hawaii refused the request outright with 403, while South Dakota answers every request and simply never sends the statute. Recorded as a bare absence, the two would look the same.
What can be said about South Dakota without the text is only structural, and it is the same point the compensation note makes: adoption of the Uniform Probate Code predicts the section numbering, not the dollar figure. Montana and North Dakota both carry the uniform small-estate architecture and still differ from one another on scope, on value basis and on the number itself. A South Dakota ceiling inferred from either neighbour would be a guess wearing a citation.
Authority that would settle this: S.D. Codified Laws tit. 29A (small estates). The access attempt described above was made on 2026-09-17. Nothing is quoted from it, because nothing could be read from it; a figure restated from a secondary summary would look like a sourced answer without being one.
South Dakota eligibility map
The South Dakota 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 South Dakota answer | Carry into the case |
|---|---|---|
| What route is being screened? | Collection of personal property by affidavit (SDCL § 29A-3-1201) | 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? | $100,000 | Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut. |
| What is the time or deadline record? | 30 days after death; South Dakota 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 (§ 29A-3-801(a)); an actual-notice period of four months from appointment or 60 days from mailing of written notice, whichever is later (§ 29A-3-801(b)); and an outer bar of three years after death (§ 29A-3-803(a)(3)). 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? | $75 is the recorded statewide amount. | Ask the Circuit Court about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings. |
| What does compensation use? | SDCL § 29A-3-719 entitles personal representatives (and their attorneys, accountants, appraisers, and agents) to "reasonable compensation for services", determined on statutory factors including the time and labor involved, the novelty and difficulty of the questions, the fee customarily charged locally, and the nature and value of the estate's assets. There is no percentage schedule. 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 | $100,000 |
| Property scope | personal probate property only |
| Value basis | net of enforceable liens and encumbrances |
| Waiting period | 30 days after death |
| Required extra facts | None listed in the registry |
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 South Dakota descriptions adjacent to this page\'s main question; they are not a substitute for the source quotations or the receiving court\'s instructions.
SDCL § 16-2-29(1) directs that the clerk of courts "shall charge and collect the following fees: (1) For the probate of an estate, seventy-five dollars". This is a clean statewide statutory probate filing fee of $75. The § 29A-3-1201 affidavit route requires no court filing.
$75 is the recorded statewide amount.
SDCL § 29A-3-719 entitles personal representatives (and their attorneys, accountants, appraisers, and agents) to "reasonable compensation for services", determined on statutory factors including the time and labor involved, the novelty and difficulty of the questions, the fee customarily charged locally, and the nature and value of the estate's assets. There is no percentage schedule.
SDCL § 29A-3-719 entitles personal representatives (and their attorneys, accountants, appraisers, and agents) to "reasonable compensation for services", determined on statutory factors including the time and labor involved, the novelty and difficulty of the questions, the fee customarily charged locally, and the nature and value of the estate's assets. There is no percentage schedule. The relevant base is the estate accounting.
South Dakota 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 (§ 29A-3-801(a)); an actual-notice period of four months from appointment or 60 days from mailing of written notice, whichever is later (§ 29A-3-801(b)); and an outer bar of three years after death (§ 29A-3-803(a)(3)). Publishing a single figure would mislead.
Court-material note: Probate in South Dakota is handled by the Circuit Court. The Unified Judicial System publishes statewide self-help resources and a form/file search. The $75 probate filing fee is fixed statewide by SDCL § 16-2-29(1) (current through SL 2026, ch 92); the § 29A-3-1201 personal-property affidavit and the § 29A-3-1203 real-property affidavit are private/register-of-deeds instruments, not court probate filings.
Arithmetic illustration
The recorded South Dakota 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 South Dakota 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 South Dakota counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.
| Illustrative counted amount | Comparison to the South Dakota ceiling | What it does not decide |
|---|---|---|
| $75,000 | Below $100,000 | Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties |
| $125,000 | Above $100,000 | Whether another statutory route or court process applies |
Next evidence to collect
Official material
Probate in South Dakota is handled by the Circuit Court. The Unified Judicial System publishes statewide self-help resources and a form/file search. The $75 probate filing fee is fixed statewide by SDCL § 16-2-29(1) (current through SL 2026, ch 92); the § 29A-3-1201 personal-property affidavit and the § 29A-3-1203 real-property affidavit are private/register-of-deeds instruments, not court probate filings.
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: (1) The value of the entire estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000; (2) Thirty days have elapsed since the death of the decedent
What this means: Section body served by the South Dakota Legislature's official statutes API (JSON), which returns the codified section text in its 'Html' field because sdlegislature.gov renders statute pages client-side.