Oregon Probate Bond
Short answer: most Oregon estates never reach the bond question at all. If the estate holds $75,000 or less in personal property and $200,000 or less in real property, an heir or devisee can usually skip probate entirely with a simple estate affidavit under ORS 114.510 — no court-appointed personal representative, no bond. Above that ceiling, the estate goes through full probate, and ORS 113.105 puts the bond decision in the hands of the circuit court judge (or, in six rural counties, a county court judge): no fixed multiplier, just liquidity, anticipated income, and probable debts weighed against four separate ways to waive it. This page walks through both paths.
Affidavit or full probate — five outcomes, one dollar line
Most Oregon probate guides jump straight to how the bond is calculated. That skips the more important question: whether a bond — or probate itself — is even required. ORS 114.510’s affidavit ceiling and ORS 113.105’s bond rule are two different statutes answering two different questions, and the affidavit route makes the bond question disappear rather than reducing it.
Oregon estate administration: five paths, five outcomes
ORS 114.510 controls the top two rows; ORS 113.105 controls the bottom three
| Path | Dollar ceiling | Bond required? | Statute | Who administers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple estate affidavit — general route | ≤$75,000 personal property + ≤$200,000 real property/manufactured homes | None — no probate case is opened | ORS 114.510(1)(a) | Affiant (qualifying heir, devisee, or creditor) — no court appointment |
| Simple estate affidavit — testate/specific-devise route | Same $75k/$200k ceilings, but only on property specifically devised outside a funded living trust | None | ORS 114.510(1)(b) | Affiant named in the will |
| Full probate — bond waived | No ceiling; any estate size | None — will waiver, sole heir/devisee, or no-known-assets petition | ORS 113.105(2) | Court-appointed personal representative |
| Full probate — bond required | No ceiling | Yes — amount set by the court from liquidity, income, and debts/taxes | ORS 113.105(1) | Court-appointed personal representative |
| Full probate — bond reduced via restricted account | No ceiling | Reduced or waived if estate funds are frozen at a bank pending court order | ORS 113.105(5) | Court-appointed personal representative |
The $75,000/$200,000 affidavit ceilings are valued as of the date of death (or within 45 days of filing, if filed more than a year after death) without any reduction for debts or liens. Property specifically devised into a living trust the decedent settled before death falls outside both ceilings under ORS 114.510(1)(b)(C).
Oregon doesn’t split “executor” from “administrator”
Search for “Oregon executor bond” or “Oregon administrator bond” and you’ll find guides that treat those as two different bond products. They’re not, at least not under Oregon law. ORS 113.105 and the rest of ORS chapter 113 use a single term — personal representative — whether the decedent left a will naming that person (what other states call testate, executor-appointed) or died without one and the court appointed someone (intestate, administrator-appointed elsewhere). Same statute, same court form, same bond rule. The distinction that actually changes your bonding outcome in Oregon isn’t which of those two categories you fall into — it’s which of ORS 113.105(2)’s four waiver conditions applies, covered next.
How the court sets your bond — and four ways to avoid it
Once an estate is too large for the affidavit, ORS 113.105 governs everything from here. There’s no percentage-of-estate formula written into the statute — the court has real discretion, bounded by three factors and four separate exits.
Factor A
Nature, liquidity, and apparent value of the estate’s assets
Factor B
Anticipated income during administration
Factor C
Probable indebtedness and taxes owed by the estate
The four waiver conditions under ORS 113.105(2)
The will says no bond is required
The court can still order one for good cause despite the will.
The personal representative is the sole heir or devisee
Same good-cause override applies.
The PR is a qualifying government office
State Treasurer, Dept. of Veterans’ Affairs, Director of Human Services, Director of the Oregon Health Authority, or a person approved under ORS 113.085 or 113.086.
The petition states no known assets
Temporary — ORS 113.105(3) requires a motion to set or waive bond within 30 days once assets are later discovered.
The restricted-account alternative most guides skip
ORS 113.105(5) gives the court a fifth lever that isn’t framed as a waiver at all: it can waive or reduce the bond to the extent the personal representative provides written confirmation from a bank or credit union that estate property is held subject to withdrawal only on court order, or to the extent the court itself restricts the sale, encumbrance, or other disposition of estate property without prior approval. In practice, this lets a PR who doesn’t qualify for any of the four waivers above still shrink the bond — or avoid it — by agreeing to freeze the money instead of insuring it.
Official Oregon Requirements
"Except as provided in subsections (2) to (5) of this section, the personal representative may not act, and letters may not be issued to the personal representative, until the personal representative provides a bond to the clerk of the court in an amount set by the court. The bond must be for the security and benefit of all interested persons and must be conditioned upon the personal representative faithfully performing the duties of the position."Oregon State Legislature • ORS 113.105(1)(a)
Six counties file probate somewhere different
Everywhere else in Oregon, probate runs through the circuit court. In Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Sherman, and Wheeler counties, ORS 111.075 vests probate jurisdiction in the county court instead — a transfer set up under ORS 111.055 that moved probate authority the opposite direction from every other Oregon county. Either way the bond rule is identical: ORS 113.105 doesn’t distinguish between the two court types, so the same three-factor test, the same four waivers, and the same restricted-account alternative apply whether you’re filing in Multnomah or Malheur County. What changes is where you file and which local clerk processes the bond.
A county court can transfer a proceeding to the circuit court for that county at any time under ORS 111.115 — and must do so if the county judge is a party to, or directly interested in, the estate.
If it’s a conservatorship, a different formula applies
A personal representative administers a decedent’s estate. A conservator manages the financial affairs of a living protected person — typically a minor or an incapacitated adult — under ORS chapter 125’s protective-proceedings framework. Unlike ORS 113.105’s discretionary three-factor test, ORS 125.410 gives conservator bonds an actual formula:
Aggregate capital value of estate property under the conservator’s control
+ one year’s estimated income
− value of securities/money locked under a court-order-only withdrawal arrangement
− value of real property the conservator lacks power to sell without separate court authorization
The court may waive a conservator’s bond for good cause under ORS 125.410(2)(a), and can increase or reduce it at any time under ORS 125.410(6). A trust company acting as fiduciary, a county public guardian and conservator, the Oregon Public Guardian and Conservator, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs acting in that role are exempt from this bond requirement entirely. One estate can require both bonds at once — if an heir in your probate case is a minor, that heir’s share may need its own ORS 125.410 conservator bond even though you’re already bonded (or bond-waived) as personal representative under ORS 113.105.
What an Oregon probate bond costs if one is required
Premium is a percentage of the bond amount the court sets — not a percentage of the whole estate. Oregon carriers price fiduciary bonds the same way carriers price them nationally: roughly 0.5% to 1.5% of the bond amount per year, based mostly on the personal representative’s personal credit, with most first-time PRs landing toward the lower end.
Worked example
A personal representative administers a $400,000 estate with modest anticipated income and light debt. The court sets the bond at $400,000 under ORS 113.105(1)(b). At a 0.5%–1.5% annual rate, expect a premium of $2,000 to $6,000 per year. If the same PR instead places the liquid estate funds in a bank account restricted to court-order withdrawal under ORS 113.105(5), the court may cut that bond — and the premium — substantially, since only the unrestricted, at-risk portion of the estate needs to be covered.
For the underwriting mechanics behind that percentage, see what determines your surety bond cost and our probate bond cost breakdown by state. Want the math run on your own estate figure? Try the probate bond calculator.
Have your court order or an estate value in hand? We’ll confirm whether you’re even bonded, then write the exact figure.
Start my Oregon probate bond quoteRelated probate and court bonds
Oregon personal representatives and conservators often need more than one of these:
See how Oregon’s dollar-ceiling affidavit approach compares to every other state’s multiplier, sworn-estimate, or status-based rule in our probate bond cost by state guide. Washington runs a related but structurally different test — bond turns on nonintervention-powers status under RCW 11.68.011, not a dollar ceiling — while Oregon’s ORS 114.510 affidavit removes the bond question by removing probate itself for qualifying estates.
What Oregon personal representatives ask about the probate bond
What's the exact dollar threshold for Oregon's small estate affidavit, and does it change if there's a will?
It depends on how the property passes. ORS 114.510(1)(a) sets the default rule — testate or intestate — at no more than $75,000 of fair market value in personal property (excluding manufactured homes) and no more than $200,000 in real property and manufactured homes combined. If the decedent died testate and specifically devised property to individual devisees, ORS 114.510(1)(b) applies those same two ceilings only to the specifically-devised property — the balance of the estate poured into a living trust the decedent settled before death falls outside both caps entirely, so a testate estate with a funded trust can be far larger than $275,000 total and still let the specifically-devised portion go through the affidavit. Fair market value is set as of the date of death, or, if you're filing more than a year after death, as of any date within 45 days of filing — and neither figure is reduced for mortgages, liens, or other debts.
Is a "personal representative" the same thing as an executor in Oregon?
Functionally yes, but Oregon's probate code doesn't use "executor" or "administrator" as legal terms at all. ORS 113.105 and the rest of ORS chapter 113 refer to a single role — "personal representative" — regardless of whether the estate is testate (there's a will naming someone) or intestate (the court appoints someone). Other states bond an "executor bond" and an "administrator bond" as if they were different products with different underwriting; in Oregon they're the same bond, the same statute, and the same court form. The distinction that actually matters for bonding purposes isn't testate vs. intestate — it's whether one of ORS 113.105(2)'s four waiver conditions applies.
Can I avoid an Oregon probate bond without qualifying for the small-estate affidavit?
Yes, four separate ways under ORS 113.105(2), and they stack independently of the affidavit ceiling. Bond isn't required if: the will states no bond is required (a judge can still order one for good cause despite the will); the personal representative is the estate's sole heir or devisee (same good-cause override applies); the personal representative is the State Treasurer, the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the Director of Human Services, the Director of the Oregon Health Authority, or a person approved under ORS 113.085 or 113.086; or the appointment petition states that no assets of the estate are known to the petitioner. That last one is temporary — if assets later turn up, ORS 113.105(3) requires filing a motion to set or waive bond within 30 days of the inventory that first shows them.
My case is in Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Sherman, or Wheeler County — does that change anything?
It changes which courthouse you're in, not the bond rules. ORS 111.075 vests probate jurisdiction in the county court, not the circuit court, in those six counties — everywhere else in Oregon's 36 counties, probate runs through the circuit court under ORS 111.055. The bond statute itself, ORS 113.105, doesn't distinguish between the two court types; the same waiver conditions, the same three-factor amount test, and the same restricted-account alternative apply either way. The practical difference is procedural — filing deadlines, local forms, and whether the same judge also handles other county business — not financial.
I told the court there were no estate assets and skipped bond — now assets turned up. What happens?
You have 30 days to act. ORS 113.105(2)(d) lets a personal representative skip bond at appointment by stating in the petition that no assets are known — a genuinely useful option for an estate that looks empty at the outset, like one where the only apparent property is jointly held and passes outside probate. But ORS 113.105(3) requires that once assets do surface — a forgotten account, a delayed inheritance into the estate, a life insurance payout naming the estate — the personal representative must file a motion to set or waive bond within 30 days after filing the inventory or supplemental inventory that first shows them. Miss that window and you're technically acting without the bond authority the court expects, which is the kind of gap that surfaces at final accounting.
How is an Oregon conservator's bond calculated differently from a personal representative's bond?
A personal representative bond under ORS 113.105 is discretionary in amount — the court weighs asset liquidity, anticipated income, and probable debts and taxes, with no fixed multiplier. A conservator's bond under ORS 125.410 uses an actual formula: the aggregate capital value of the protected person's property under the conservator's control, plus one year's estimated income, minus the value of any securities or money already locked behind a court-order-only withdrawal arrangement, minus the value of any real property the conservator lacks power to sell without separate court authorization. The two roles are also legally distinct — a conservator manages a living protected person's estate (typically a minor or an incapacitated adult) under ORS chapter 125's protective-proceedings framework, while a personal representative administers a decedent's estate under ORS chapter 113. Both bonds can show up on the same file if a minor heir needs a conservator for their share of an estate you're also administering as PR.
All content is researched from official state and federal sources (.gov) and verified before publication. BuySuretyBonds.com works with Treasury-certified, A-minimum rated surety carriers serving all 50 states.
General information, not legal, tax, or underwriting advice. Oregon probate bond, small estate affidavit, and conservator bond requirements are set by ORS chapters 111, 113, 114, and 125 — including ORS 113.105, ORS 114.510, and ORS 125.410 — and by the circuit or county court handling each matter, and they change over time. Confirm the current requirement with your court, and request a quote for your specific bond amount.
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