Updated

Updated · The News Journal · Jun 28

Delaware Raises Small-Estate Will Limit to $50,000, Easing Probate for Low-Asset Families

Updated

Updated · The News Journal · Jun 28

Delaware Raises Small-Estate Will Limit to $50,000, Easing Probate for Low-Asset Families

Q: The new $50,000 probate shortcut seems simple, but could owning your home force your family into court anyway?

Yes. In Delaware, the new $50,000 small-estate shortcut generally does not apply if the deceased owned real estate that is part of the probate estate. The law signed by Gov. Matt Meyer raises the threshold for simplified estate administration from $30,000 to $50,000, which helps families transfer modest probate assets without full formal probate. But the shortcut is limited to estates that meet specific conditions, including that there is no solely owned real estate in the estate. That means a home can still force the family into probate court if the deceased owned it alone, or owned a share as a tenant in common. In those cases, the house is a probate asset, and the estate usually cannot use Delaware’s simplified small-estate process, even if the rest of the estate is modest. A home does not necessarily create that problem if it passes outside probate. If the property was owned jointly with right of survivorship, or by a married couple as tenancy by the entirety, it typically transfers automatically to the surviving owner and is not counted toward the probate estate for this purpose. Assets in a trust or with beneficiary-style transfers also generally bypass probate. So the key issue is not just the estate’s dollar value, but how the home was titled. Delaware’s new law makes small-estate transfers easier, but it does not eliminate probate for families dealing with a house that remains in the decedent’s probate estate.

1 articles · Updated · The News Journal · Jun 28

House Bill 333, signed by Governor Matt Meyer on June 10, lets Delaware families distribute estates worth $50,000 or less without opening formal probate, up from the previous $30,000 cap.
The $20,000 increase is meant to cut time and legal costs for low-asset households, as officials said the old threshold often forced families to navigate court procedures over little more than a car and some cash.
Ciro Poppiti III, New Castle County's register of wills, called the measure part of a broader effort to speed probate, while bill sponsor Eric Morrison said it updates a limit that had been unchanged since 2005.
The bill passed Dover without a single 'no' vote and brings Delaware in line with neighboring Maryland and Pennsylvania, which already use the same $50,000 small-estate threshold.