Utah route screening
After 30 days, a successor may use an affidavit when the entire estate subject to administration, wherever located and less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000. No personal-representative application may be pending or granted. The affidavit collects personal property; real property still counts in the threshold and is not transferred by this affidavit.
Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.
Threshold evidence and currency
Currency: The $375 filing-fee version is superseded January 1, 2027 and must be re-reviewed then.
Controlling citation: Utah Code § 75-3-1201 — Effective 5/7/2025.
Verbatim threshold text from that source:
(1) Thirty days after the death of a decedent, any person indebted to the decedent or having possession of tangible personal property, including an instrument evidencing a debt, obligation, stock, or chose in action, belonging to the decedent shall pay the indebtedness or deliver the tangible personal property, or instrument evidencing a debt, obligation, stock, or chose in action to a person claiming to be the successor of the decedent, upon being presented with an affidavit made by or on behalf of the successor stating that: (a) the value of the entire estate subject to administration, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000; (b) 30 days have elapsed since the death of the decedent; (c) no application or petition for the appointment of a personal representative is pending or has been granted in any jurisdiction; and (d) the claiming successor is entitled
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 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.
The Utah Judiciary publishes a statewide probate self-help section with a dedicated Small estates page and a downloadable motor-vehicle small-estate affidavit form (both linked above). The general Utah Code § 75-3-1201 collection-by-affidavit route is driven by statutory content rather than a single universal blank, so the successor's own sworn affidavit meets the statute; the District Court clerk in the county of residence confirms local filing requirements.
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.
Utah eligibility map
The Utah 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 Utah answer | Carry into the case |
|---|---|---|
| What route is being screened? | Collection of personal property by 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; 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; Utah has separate bars: three months from first publication, the later of 90 days from published notice or 60 days from actual notice for a notified creditor, and an outer one-year-from-death bar for predeath claims. A single days value would collapse different triggers. | Keep the event that starts each clock with the date; do not combine separate periods into one number. |
| What does the cost record establish? | $375 is the recorded statewide amount. | Ask the District Court about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings. |
| What does compensation use? | A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation. If an interested person objects, the court evaluates the quality, quantity, and value of services and the circumstances. A will provision may be renounced before qualification; the statute states no percentage schedule or separate extraordinary-services rate. 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 | probate property within the rule's stated scope |
| 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 Utah descriptions adjacent to this page\'s main question; they are not a substitute for the source quotations or the receiving court\'s instructions.
A probate petition that invokes District Court jurisdiction and is not governed by another fee subsection uses the $375 general civil-petition fee. The cited version is effective May 6, 2026 and expressly superseded January 1, 2027.
$375 is the recorded statewide amount.
A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation. If an interested person objects, the court evaluates the quality, quantity, and value of services and the circumstances. A will provision may be renounced before qualification; the statute states no percentage schedule or separate extraordinary-services rate.
A personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation. If an interested person objects, the court evaluates the quality, quantity, and value of services and the circumstances. A will provision may be renounced before qualification; the statute states no percentage schedule or separate extraordinary-services rate. The relevant base is the estate accounting.
Utah has separate bars: three months from first publication, the later of 90 days from published notice or 60 days from actual notice for a notified creditor, and an outer one-year-from-death bar for predeath claims. A single days value would collapse different triggers.
Court-material note: The Utah Judiciary publishes a statewide probate self-help section with a dedicated Small estates page and a downloadable motor-vehicle small-estate affidavit form (both linked above). The general Utah Code § 75-3-1201 collection-by-affidavit route is driven by statutory content rather than a single universal blank, so the successor's own sworn affidavit meets the statute; the District Court clerk in the county of residence confirms local filing requirements.
Arithmetic illustration
The recorded Utah ceiling is $100,000, and it is tested against probate property within the rule's stated scope, on a basis this site records as net of enforceable liens and encumbrances. Counted that way, $75,000 sits below the Utah 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 Utah counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.
| Illustrative counted amount | Comparison to the Utah 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
The Utah Judiciary publishes a statewide probate self-help section with a dedicated Small estates page and a downloadable motor-vehicle small-estate affidavit form (both linked above). The general Utah Code § 75-3-1201 collection-by-affidavit route is driven by statutory content rather than a single universal blank, so the successor's own sworn affidavit meets the statute; the District Court clerk in the county of residence confirms local filing requirements.
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) Thirty days after the death of a decedent, any person indebted to the decedent or having possession of tangible personal property, including an instrument evidencing a debt, obligation, stock, or chose in action, belonging to the decedent shall pay the indebtedness or deliver the tangible personal property, or instrument evidencing a debt, obligation, stock, or chose in action to a person claiming to be the successor of the decedent, upon being presented with an affidavit made by or on behalf of the successor stating that: (a) the value of the entire estate subject to administration, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000; (b) 30 days have elapsed since the death of the decedent; (c) no application or petition for the appointment of a personal representative is pending or has been granted in any jurisdiction; and (d) the claiming successor is entitled
What this means: Source bound to the Utah Legislature's official versioned PDF (le.utah.gov xcode PDF export) rather than the HTML page, which now serves a client-side JavaScript shell that no longer returns statute text to a machine fetch; the PDF returns the codified section body verbatim.