If you are settling an estate in The Bronx, the cost of probate breaks down into two main pieces: the court filing fee, which is set by statute and graduated according to the value of the estate (SCPA §2402), and the attorney’s fee, which for an uncontested matter typically runs in the range of $3,000 to $10,000. The court does
When a loved one passes away in The Bronx, the right way to settle their estate depends almost entirely on its size and the kinds of assets involved. A small estate affidavit — formally called voluntary administration under SCPA Article 13 — is a streamlined, low-cost procedure available when the decedent’s personal property is modest and there is little or
Preliminary Letters Testamentary are a grant of interim authority issued by the Bronx County Surrogate’s Court under SCPA §1412 that allow the executor named in a will to begin managing an estate before the full probate proceeding is complete. If you are named as executor in a Bronx decedent’s will and you need to act quickly — to secure a
In Bronx County, a straightforward, uncontested probate typically takes about 3 to 6 months from the day you file the petition until the executor receives Letters Testamentary and can begin administering the estate. That estimate assumes the original will is available, the death certificate is in hand, and all the decedent’s distributees (the people who would inherit if there were
When someone dies without a will in The Bronx, their estate does not go to the government, and there is no automatic chaos. Instead, New York’s intestacy statute steps in and writes a “default will” for the deceased. The estate is distributed to surviving relatives in a fixed order set by law, and the Bronx County Surrogate’s Court appoints a
The short answer is no — New York law does not legally require you to hire an attorney to probate a will in The Bronx. An executor named in a will may, in principle, file the probate petition and represent the estate on their own. But in practice, the answer is almost always yes, you should retain a lawyer. Probate