North Dakota Probate and Intestate Succession: What Happens Without a Will (2026)

North Dakota has no separate probate court. The District Court in each judicial district handles all probate matters, and North Dakota is a genuine Uniform Probate Code state that offers a fast, hearing-free informal track for most uncontested estates.

Information last verified on 2026-07-16. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

How Probate Works in North Dakota

North Dakota does not have a separate, freestanding probate court. Instead, the District Court in each of North Dakota's judicial districts has exclusive jurisdiction over probate, testacy, and estate administration matters, and filings go through the Clerk of District Court in the county where the decedent lived. North Dakota is one of a smaller group of states that adopted the Uniform Probate Code in full; North Dakota Century Code Title 30.1 is the Uniform Probate Code as enacted in North Dakota, and the state uses the classic three-track UPC structure.

The first track, Informal Probate and Appointment Proceedings under N.D.C.C. Chapter 30.1-14, is the lightest-weight option and the one most North Dakota estates use. It requires no court hearing or appearance if the will is not disputed and everyone with equal or higher priority to serve agrees on who the personal representative should be; it is generally available within three years of the date of death. The second track, Formal Testacy and Appointment Proceedings under N.D.C.C. Chapter 30.1-15, is a court-litigated process used when there is a will dispute or another complication requiring a judge to make a determination. The third track, Supervised Administration under N.D.C.C. Chapter 30.1-16, keeps the court actively involved throughout the case by petition, and is reserved for higher-risk or contested estates. The filing fee for informal probate is $160, with a fee waiver available for financial hardship.

Intestate Succession in North Dakota: Who Inherits Without a Will

North Dakota's intestate succession statute, N.D.C.C. 30.1-04-02, gives the surviving spouse a share that depends heavily on which other relatives also survive. If there are no surviving descendants and no surviving parents of the decedent, the spouse takes the entire intestate estate. If there are no surviving descendants but a parent of the decedent survives, the spouse takes the first $300,000 of the estate plus three-fourths of any balance, with the surviving parent or parents taking the remainder.

Where descendants do survive, the outcome turns on whether they are shared with the surviving spouse. If every one of the decedent's surviving descendants is also a descendant of the surviving spouse, and the spouse has no descendants of their own from outside the marriage, the spouse takes the entire intestate estate. If every one of the decedent's surviving descendants is also the spouse's, but the spouse additionally has descendants from outside the marriage, the spouse instead takes the first $225,000 plus one-half of the balance, with the decedent's descendants taking the remainder. If one or more of the decedent's surviving descendants is not also a descendant of the surviving spouse, such as a child from a prior relationship, the spouse takes the first $150,000 plus one-half of the balance, and the decedent's descendants take the remainder.

If no spouse survives, or as to whatever does not pass to a spouse, the estate passes to the decedent's descendants by representation. If none survive, it passes to the decedent's parents equally, or to the surviving parent if only one survives. If no parent survives, it passes to the decedent's siblings and the issue of any deceased sibling by representation, continuing to more remote kindred under N.D.C.C. 30.1-04-03 if none of the above survive.

One way to make sure your property goes to the people you actually choose, rather than following North Dakota's intestate succession order, is to have a valid will in place. recordinglaw.com's free North Dakota Last Will and Testament Generator can help you create one, with no account required.

Small Estate and Simplified Probate in North Dakota

North Dakota's small estate procedure is called Collection of Personal Property by Affidavit, and it lets an interested party collect a decedent's personal property, real property is not covered by this mechanism, without going through full probate. As of 2025, the threshold is $100,000. House Bill 1224, passed by North Dakota's 69th Legislative Assembly and signed by the Governor on March 21, 2025, amended N.D.C.C. 30.1-23-01 to raise this threshold from its prior level of $50,000. Some older sources still cite the $50,000 figure; the current, in-force threshold is $100,000. The affidavit is available 30 days after the date of death, and it requires the person collecting the property to state that the entire estate's value, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed the statutory cap.

For estates that exceed the small estate threshold but remain uncontested, North Dakota's informal probate track, described above, is itself a comparatively fast and lightweight process by national standards, since it typically requires no court hearing at all.

Does North Dakota Have an Estate or Inheritance Tax?

North Dakota has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. North Dakota's estate tax was effectively eliminated for deaths occurring after January 1, 2005, when the tax had been tied to a federal state death tax credit that Congress repealed under the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. The only estate tax that can apply to a North Dakota decedent today is the federal estate tax, and it reaches only the largest estates. For deaths in 2026, the federal basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 per person, confirmed on IRS.gov, following the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.

Do You Need a Probate Attorney?

Because North Dakota's informal probate track is specifically designed to work without extensive court involvement, many straightforward, uncontested North Dakota estates are genuinely navigable without hiring a probate attorney. An attorney becomes more valuable once a will is likely to be contested, once the estate includes a business interest, once the family is blended in a way that creates gaps intestate succession does not cover well, or once the estate is large enough to raise a real federal estate tax question. For a fuller look at how probate works generally and how North Dakota compares with other states, see Probate by State.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about probate and intestate succession in North Dakota as of the verification date above. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. It is not a substitute for advice from a probate attorney licensed in North Dakota, particularly for a contested estate, a business interest, a blended family, or an estate large enough to raise federal estate tax questions. Figures, thresholds, and program details change; verify current details directly with the North Dakota Courts or the relevant statute before relying on any figure here.

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Last updated: 2026-07-16. Figures and statutes cited reflect their in-force version as of 2026-07-16.

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