Washington’s successor affidavit step by step: who signs, the 40-day and 10-day clocks, and the copy owed to DSHS
Only a successor may sign. RCW 11.62.005 gives the word four meanings: whoever takes the property under the will or by intestacy; a surviving spouse or domestic partner collecting their own half of community property; the Department of Social and Health Services, up to what it paid out under RCW 43.20B.080; and the state, where property escheats. A creditor is never a successor for this purpose. The signer must either be entitled to everything claimed personally or hold written authority from every other successor with an interest in it (RCW 11.62.010(2)(i)).
Two clocks run before the affidavit can be used. Nobody has to pay or deliver anything until 40 days after the death (subsection (1)). Separately, the signer must first give every other successor written notice, in person or by mail, that names the claim and describes the property, and then let at least 10 days pass from that service or mailing (subsection (2)(h)). The section does not tie the notice to the 40 days, so on this site’s reading a notice served or mailed by day 30 lets the affidavit be used on day 40.
Besides those points and the value test below, the affidavit gives the signer’s name and address and swears that the decedent lived in Washington at death, that no application or petition to appoint a personal representative is pending or has been granted in any jurisdiction, and that every debt, funeral and burial costs included, has been paid or provided for; it then describes the property and the part claimed as subject to probate (subsection (2)(a)-(g)).
The $100,000 test counts the whole probate estate wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, but leaves out the surviving spouse’s or domestic partner’s community property interest (subsection (2)(c)). Solely owned real property therefore counts toward the ceiling even though the affidavit cannot transfer it. Whether an account is community or separate property turns on when and how it was acquired and on any agreement between the spouses, so the screen above asks for the survivor’s interest as a figure instead of assuming one.
One copy goes to the state. Subsection (5) requires a copy of the affidavit, showing the decedent’s Social Security number, to be mailed to DSHS’s Office of Financial Recovery. The section sets no separate deadline for that mailing.
What the holder must do. With proof of death and an affidavit making those statements, anyone who owes the decedent money or holds the decedent’s personal property that is subject to probate, community property held with the survivor included, must pay or deliver what is claimed. Personal property here reaches debts, stock and other intangibles as well as belongings (RCW 11.62.005(1)). A transfer agent must re-register a security in the successor’s name, and an agency that issues certificates of ownership or registration for personal property must issue a new one (subsection (3)). No release from a Washington state or local taxing authority may be demanded first (subsection (4)).
RCW 11.62.020 settles the aftermath. A holder who pays on the affidavit is discharged as though it had dealt with a personal representative, unless it actually knew a required statement was false, and it need not look into the truth of the statements, how the property is used, or whether estate tax was paid. A holder who refuses can be made to deliver in a court proceeding brought by or for those entitled to the property. Faced with two affidavits for the same property, it may honor the first received with proof of death or pay the property into court. The successor who collects stays answerable for it to a later personal representative or anyone with a better right.
Source: RCW 11.62.010, with the definitions in RCW 11.62.005 and the holder rules in RCW 11.62.020, read from the enacting state’s own official publication on 2026-10-22. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.