Small Estate Probate Bond: When Summary Administration Actually Needs One
Short answer: most small estates need no bond at all. California's affidavit (Prob. Code § 13100, up to $239,700), Illinois's (755 ILCS 5/25-1, up to $150,000), and Texas's (Est. Code Ch. 205, up to $75,000) all skip court appointment entirely. But a handful of states still run “small estate” cases through a limited fiduciary appointment — and where there's an appointment, there's a bond. Tennessee requires one by statute. This page is the matrix that tells you which category your state falls into, before you assume either answer.
The state-by-state threshold and bond matrix
Almost every article about small-estate probate covers one state's dollar threshold. None of them show you that the threshold and the bond requirement are two separate questions that don't track each other. Here are fourteen states side by side — seven pure affidavit states, four court-supervised states with no appointed fiduciary, and three where a bond genuinely attaches. For every other jurisdiction, see the full 51-state list of which states don't require probate bonds.
Small-estate / summary-administration threshold and bond requirement by state
Sorted by mechanism — affidavit states first, then court-supervised no-fiduciary states, then states where a bond applies
| State | Threshold | Mechanism & statute | Bond required? |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | $239,700 (Prob. Code §890 CPI adjustment of the $166,250 base, eff. 4/1/2026; $208,850 applied 4/1/2025–3/31/2026) | Affidavit — Prob. Code § 13100 | No bond |
| Texas | $75,000 (raised from $50,000) | Affidavit — Est. Code § 205.001 | No bond |
| Illinois | $150,000 (vehicles excluded, eff. 8/15/2025) | Affidavit — 755 ILCS 5/25-1 | No bond |
| New York | $50,000 (excludes joint/POD assets) | Voluntary Administration — SCPA § 1301 | No bond — SCPA § 1304(2) |
| Washington | $100,000 | Small Estate Affidavit — RCW § 11.62.010 | No bond (no probate opened) |
| Pennsylvania | $50,000 (real estate excluded) | Petition for Settlement — 20 Pa.C.S. § 3102 | No bond provision in statute |
| Virginia | $75,000 (raised from $50,000, eff. 7/1/2025) | Small Estate Act Affidavit — Va. Code § 64.2-601 | No bond (no PR qualifies) |
| Florida | $150,000 (homestead excluded; doubled from $75,000 eff. 7/1/2026 by CS/HB 1337) | Summary Administration — F.S. § 735.201 | No bond (no PR appointed) |
| Ohio | $35,000 general / $100,000 surviving spouse | Release from Administration — R.C. § 2113.03 | No bond (no PR appointed) |
| North Carolina | $20,000 / $30,000 surviving spouse | Collection by Affidavit — G.S. § 28A-25-1 | No bond by default |
| Michigan | ≈$53,000 (2026, $50,000 base adjusted) | Petition for Assignment — MCL § 700.3982 | No bond |
| Wisconsin | $50,000 | Summary Settlement — Wis. Stat. § 867.01 | Discretionary — court may order one |
| Missouri | $40,000 | Small Estate Affidavit — RSMo § 473.097 | Presumed required, court may waive |
| Tennessee | $50,000 | Limited Letters — T.C.A. §§ 30-4-102, -103 | Required (corporate surety) unless sole heirs |
Thresholds shown are current as of August 2026 and adjust periodically — California's under Prob. Code §890 CPI review, Michigan's under MCL §700.1210. Confirm the operative figure for your decedent's date of death before relying on it.
Notice what doesn't predict the bond column: estate size. Tennessee's $50,000 cap is identical to Wisconsin's and matches New York's and Pennsylvania's thresholds almost exactly, yet only Tennessee presumes a bond. What predicts it is the next section.
Three categories, not one rule
A bond secures a fiduciary's handling of property they've been given legal authority over. Every state in the matrix above falls into exactly one of three mechanisms, and the mechanism — not the estate's size — is what decides whether a bond exists at all.
Small-estate bond exposure by mechanism
Same underlying idea — transfer a small estate quickly — three different legal structures
Affidavit States
$0 bond
California, Texas, Illinois, New York, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Virginia: no court appointment, no letters, no fiduciary — so nothing for a bond to secure.
- No hearing required in most counties
- Threshold set by statute, adjusted periodically
Court-Supervised, No Fiduciary
$0 bond
Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan: a judge signs off on distribution, but no executor or administrator is ever appointed to hold estate property.
- Still a probate-court filing
- Faster than full administration, but not an affidavit
Bond Still Applies
$100–$50K+
Tennessee requires a corporate surety bond for limited letters unless petitioners are the sole heirs; Missouri and Wisconsin leave it to judicial discretion.
- A fiduciary is actually appointed here
- Bond sized to the property administered, not the case type
Categorization based on the statutes cited in the state matrix above; verify your county's local practice, since some courts add procedural requirements beyond the state statute.
California's $239,700 affidavit — and why no bond applies
Probate Code § 13100 lets a successor collect a decedent's personal property — bank accounts, vehicles, tangible items, debts owed to the decedent — by sworn affidavit once at least 40 days have passed since death, with no petition, no letters, and no judge signing anything. The statute's own text sets a base figure of $166,250, but Probate Code § 890 requires the Judicial Council to adjust it for inflation periodically; the operative figure for deaths on or after April 1, 2026 is $239,700 per Judicial Council Form DE-300 — up from $208,850, which applied to deaths between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026. Real property is excluded entirely; a separate, more limited affidavit under § 13200 handles real estate up to a much lower cap.
Because no one is appointed to anything, there is no fiduciary role for a bond to attach to. A bank or brokerage relying on the affidavit can request its own indemnification from the affiant, but that is a private risk-transfer arrangement the holder imposes — not a court-ordered probate bond.
Official California Requirements
"if the gross value of the decedent's real and personal property in this state does not exceed one hundred sixty-six thousand two hundred fifty dollars ($166,250) [as periodically adjusted under Section 890]..."California Legislative Information — Probate Code • Cal. Prob. Code § 13100
Illinois just raised its threshold to $150,000
Under 755 ILCS 5/25-1, an Illinois small-estate affidavit lets an heir or representative collect a decedent's personal property without letters of office when the estate's value stays under the statutory cap. Public Act 104-0346, effective August 15, 2025, raised that cap from $100,000 to $150,000 for deaths on or after the effective date, and — separately — removed motor vehicles from the calculation entirely, so a decedent's car no longer counts against the limit no matter its value. Estates where death occurred before August 15, 2025 are still measured against the old $100,000 cap.
As with California, no court appoints anyone under § 25-1, so no probate bond is ordered. Illinois estates that exceed the cap, or that include real estate, generally require independent or supervised administration instead — where a bond is the default unless the will waives it.
Texas's $75,000 affidavit still needs a judge's signature
Texas Estates Code § 205.001 authorizes a small-estate affidavit once 30 days have passed since death, no petition for a personal representative is pending, and the estate's assets — excluding homestead and other exempt property — don't exceed $75,000, a figure raised from $50,000 in recent years. Unlike California's and Illinois's versions, Texas requires the county probate judge to review and approve the affidavit before it takes legal effect — a hybrid step that makes it look more court-involved than a pure affidavit state, but it still stops short of appointing an executor or administrator.
Because § 205.001 never creates letters testamentary or letters of administration, there is no fiduciary bond requirement anywhere in the chapter. The judge's role is limited to confirming the affidavit is complete and the heirs identified are correct — not appointing anyone to hold or manage estate assets going forward.
Four more no-bond states — and why New York calls its version something else entirely
California, Illinois, and Texas aren't the only affidavit-model states. New York, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Virginia run the same underlying logic — collect property without appointing a fiduciary — through statutes with their own quirks worth knowing before you assume the CA/IL/TX pattern applies everywhere.
New York — it's not called an “affidavit”
SCPA § 1301 caps eligibility at $50,000 of personal property (real estate excluded, and jointly held or payable-on-death assets don't count against the cap). The Surrogate's Court appoints a “voluntary administrator” — a formal-sounding title that still doesn't create letters of administration. SCPA § 1304(2) states directly that the voluntary administrator need not give a bond, so the “voluntary” label signals a lighter process, not a fiduciary appointment requiring one.
Washington — the highest affidavit cap on this page
RCW § 11.62.010 sets the threshold at $100,000 of total probate assets, well above every other affidavit state in this matrix — nearly double Illinois's $150,000 only because Illinois excludes vehicles while Washington counts everything. No probate is opened and no personal representative is appointed, so the bond question never arises. The affidavit can be signed 40 days after death.
Pennsylvania — a court petition that still isn't administration
20 Pa.C.S. § 3102 works differently on paper: it's a petition filed in the orphans' court, not a self-executing affidavit, and the $50,000 cap applies to personal property only (real estate is excluded from the calculation). The statute directs the court to distribute property to the parties entitled to it — it contains no bond-filing requirement, because the abbreviated petition process doesn't grant letters the way regular administration does.
Virginia — the affidavit says no one is qualifying
Va. Code § 64.2-601 caps eligibility at $75,000 of personal probate estate (raised from $50,000 by 2025 c. 148, effective July 1, 2025) and requires the affidavit to state, as one of its conditions, that no application for appointment of a personal representative is pending or has been granted in any jurisdiction — the bond question is foreclosed by the affidavit's own required language, since a bond only attaches once someone qualifies as a fiduciary under Virginia law.
The states where “small estate” still means a bond
Tennessee's Small Estate Probate Act (T.C.A. §§ 30-4-101 through -105) caps eligibility at $50,000 of probate property, the same ceiling as Wisconsin's summary settlement statute — but Tennessee's procedure issues limited letters of administration, a genuine, if narrow, fiduciary appointment. Because a fiduciary is appointed, T.C.A. § 30-4-103 requires the petitioner to post a bond “payable to the clerk of the court for the benefit of those entitled” with a corporate surety, sized to the value of the property being administered — the only exemption is when the petitioners are the decedent's sole heirs (intestate) or sole beneficiaries (testate).
Tennessee — bond required
Corporate surety bond required for limited letters of administration under a small estate, unless petitioners are the sole heirs or sole beneficiaries. The court automatically discharges the bond and surety on the first anniversary of the limited letters, once required tax filings are complete.
Missouri & Wisconsin — discretionary
Missouri's RSMo § 473.097 presumes a bond “not less than the value of the personal property” but lets the court dispense with it if it finds one unnecessary. Wisconsin's Wis. Stat. § 867.01(3)(c) runs the opposite default — no bond ordered unless the court decides one is needed to protect an aggrieved party.
If your estate qualifies for a small-estate or summary process in any of these three states, don't assume the “small” label means no bond — ask specifically whether your county's process appoints anyone, and if so, whether you fall inside the sole-heir exemption.
What a small estate bond actually costs
When a bond does apply — Tennessee's limited letters, or a discretionary order in Missouri or Wisconsin — the premium runs 0.5%–3% of the bond's penal sum annually, priced off the applicant's credit. The detail that surprises most people: nearly every carrier applies a minimum premium, commonly around $100/year, regardless of how small the underlying estate is. A $22,000 estate and a $48,000 estate — both well under Tennessee's $50,000 cap — can land at the same minimum-premium price, because the bond's penal sum at that range doesn't clear the carrier's floor. For the full underwriting breakdown and a broader range of estate values, see our probate bond cost by state guide or run your numbers through the probate bond cost estimator.
From “is a bond required?” to bond in hand
Confirm the mechanism, not just the dollar amount
Look up whether your state uses a true affidavit (no appointment), a court-supervised no-fiduciary process, or a limited-letters appointment — the matrix above covers fourteen states, and your county clerk or probate court can confirm which applies locally.
Check what’s actually counted toward the threshold
Vehicles, homestead property, and set-aside amounts are excluded in several states (Illinois vehicles, Florida homestead) — recalculate before assuming you’re over the cap.
If a bond is required, get the exact penal sum
A court order under Tennessee’s limited-letters process, or a discretionary Missouri/Wisconsin order, states the bond amount directly — that’s the figure we quote from.
Apply with the fiduciary’s details
A quick credit review of the person named in the limited letters. Most small-estate bonds are approved same-day given the low penal sums involved.
File the executed bond with the clerk
We issue the bond payable to the clerk of court on the accepted local form so the limited letters can be finalized.
Have a limited-letters order with a bond amount on it? We can quote it directly.
Start my small estate bond quoteIf your estate turns out not to be “small”
Over the threshold, includes real estate a state's affidavit doesn't cover, or involves a contested estate? These cover the next step up:
Small estate bond questions: thresholds, waivers, and the bank-bond mix-up
My estate is under my state’s small-estate threshold — do I definitely skip the bond?
In a true affidavit state, usually yes — California (Prob. Code § 13100, up to $239,700), Illinois (755 ILCS 5/25-1, up to $150,000), and Texas (Est. Code § 205.001, up to $75,000) all let an heir collect assets by sworn affidavit with no court-appointed fiduciary and no bond. But "small estate" isn’t one national rule. A handful of states — Tennessee is the clearest example — issue "limited letters of administration" for small estates, and because that’s still a fiduciary appointment, T.C.A. § 30-4-103 requires a corporate surety bond sized to the property being administered, waived only when the petitioners are the decedent’s sole heirs or beneficiaries. Confirm which mechanism your state actually uses before assuming the dollar threshold alone answers the bond question.
Why do some states need no bond even when a judge is involved?
Because a bond protects a fiduciary’s handling of property they’ve been given legal authority over — and several "summary administration" states never grant that authority to anyone. Florida’s summary administration (F.S. § 735.201, up to $150,000 as of the July 1, 2026 increase) and Ohio’s release from administration (R.C. § 2113.03, $35,000 general / $100,000 surviving-spouse) both let a judge order direct distribution to heirs without appointing an executor or administrator. No appointed fiduciary means nothing for a bond to secure, even though the case still runs through probate court. That’s the distinction that matters more than the dollar figure: bond requirements track whether someone is appointed to hold and manage property, not how small the estate is.
What does a small estate bond cost if my state does require one?
Premiums are typically 0.5%–3% of the bond’s penal sum annually, but nearly every surety carrier applies a minimum premium — commonly around $100/year — regardless of how small the underlying estate is. So a Tennessee limited-administration bond on a $22,000 estate and one on a $48,000 estate (near the $50,000 statutory cap) can land at a similar minimum premium, because the carrier’s floor, not the penal sum, sets the price at the low end. Credit history and any prior claims affect where you land above that floor; see our full breakdown on probate bond pricing for the underwriting factors that move the percentage.
My state’s affidavit process technically requires no court bond — so why is a bank asking me for one?
Because the statute binds the court, not the bank. Financial institutions, transfer agents, and title companies that release funds or securities based on a small-estate affidavit sometimes ask the affiant to also provide a private indemnity bond, protecting the institution if the affidavit turns out to be false or another heir later disputes the distribution. That bond isn’t required by Probate Code § 13100, 755 ILCS 5/25-1, or Estates Code Chapter 205 — it’s a risk-management condition the holder of the asset is entitled to impose before releasing it, and it’s a different (usually smaller) bond than a full fiduciary bond.
If my estate is just over the small-estate threshold, do I need a full probate bond instead?
Usually, yes, and usually a larger one. Falling even a few dollars above your state’s affidavit or summary-administration cap typically routes the estate into regular probate, where a court-appointed executor or administrator can be bonded for the full estate value rather than the small-estate cap. Before assuming you’re over the line, check what’s actually counted — Illinois now excludes vehicles from its $150,000 figure, and Florida excludes homestead property from its own $150,000 summary-administration cap (doubled from $75,000 by CS/HB 1337, effective July 1, 2026). Estates that look "over" on paper sometimes still qualify once exempt property is subtracted out.
Does a will’s bond waiver matter in a small-estate or summary proceeding?
Less than in full probate, because most small-estate mechanisms don’t route through the will’s bond clause at all — an affidavit procedure bypasses appointment (and therefore the waiver question) entirely. Where a bond does attach, like Tennessee’s limited letters, the exemption runs off who the petitioners are (sole heirs or beneficiaries), not what the will says about bond. If your estate is large enough that a waiver clause is actually relevant, you’re likely outside small-estate territory — see our full waiver guide for how that override analysis works in ordinary probate.
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. Small-estate and summary-administration thresholds and bond requirements are set by each state's statutes — including Cal. Prob. Code §§ 13100, 890; 755 ILCS 5/25-1; Tex. Est. Code § 205.001; N.Y. SCPA §§ 1301, 1304; Wash. Rev. Code § 11.62.010; 20 Pa.C.S. § 3102; Va. Code § 64.2-601; Fla. Stat. § 735.201; Ohio Rev. Code § 2113.03; N.C. Gen. Stat. § 28A-25-1; Mich. Comp. Laws § 700.3982; Wis. Stat. § 867.01; Mo. Rev. Stat. § 473.097; and Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-4-102, -103 — and they change over time, including periodic inflation adjustments. Confirm the operative threshold and bond requirement with the probate court or clerk handling your matter, and request a quote for your specific bond amount.
Know your state's mechanism before you assume the answer
If your state actually requires a bond for your small estate — Tennessee, or a discretionary Missouri or Wisconsin order — tell us your state and the court-set (or estimated) amount. We quote it same-day, on the form your clerk accepts, no matter how small the penal sum.
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