Idaho Legal Aid Services provides essential resources to help Idaho residents understand and navigate wills, holographic wills, and small estate probate processes.
Wills & Small Estate Resources
A will is a legal document directing the disposition of one's property (estate) after death. The person whose property is distributed in the will is called the testator of the will. A will has no effect before the death of the testator. At any time before death, the testator may still give away or sell her property. The testator may also amend or revoke her will or put in effect an entirely new will at any time before her death, as long as she is mentally competent to do so.
Un testamento es un documento legal dirigiendo la disposición de la propiedad (sucesión) de uno después de fallecer. La persona cuyo propiedad se está distribuyendo en el testamento se llama el testador del testamento. Un testamento no tiene ninguna vigencia antes de la muerte del testador. En cualquier momento antes de la muerte, el testador aun puede regalar o vender su propiedad. El testador también puede enmendar o revocar y poner en vigencia un testamento completamente nuevo a cualquier momento antes de su muerte siempre y cuando que está mentalmente competente para hacerlo...
Attached to this page is a Word.doc version of the Affidavit for Collection of Personal Property that may be edited and filled in electronically before filing.
The attached form is available for free to seniors and low income Idaho residents collecting personal property of decedents who lived in Idaho and had no plans to go and make their primary residence somewhere else at the time of their deaths. It could be used by non-Idaho residents or to collect property of people who did not die in Idaho or live in Idaho when they died, but only in certain circumstances that might or might not apply in your case. In such a case, you should probably consult with an attorney before completing and using an Affidavit Collecting Property.
An Affidavit Collecting Property is only appropriate if the fair market value of the decedent’s entire estate (wherever the property might be)—after all liens and debts on the property are deducted—is no more than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000).
The information you will need to complete the Affidavit Collecting Personal Property includes:
A copy of the decedent’s death certificate to attach to the affidavit. This will provide most of the information you will need to generate this affidavit.
The name of the county where the affidavit will be signed.
The name of any person who will sign the affidavit. (These must be people entitled to receive the property under a will or Idaho’s intestacy statutes.)
Names of those entitled to receive the personal property of the decedent and the proportion or amount of the property they are to receive.
Summary administration is a simplified and expedited method, under Idaho law, for distributing a decedent’s estate.
Summary administration for a survivng spouse is available under Idaho Code § 15-3-1205. Once it establishes that the decedent and surviving spouse were married at the time of the decedent’s death and that no other heir or inheritor under a will is entitled to estate property, the court may make a decree distributing the property to the surviving spouse. Idaho Code § 15-3-1205(b). No closing statement, further order, or court supervision is necessary.
You may use the attached template to create your own petition for summary administration of an estate.
Forms are available for free to low income individuals seeking to change ownership of property after a death. We currently have forms for An Affidavit Collecting Property and a Petition for Summary Administration of an Estate.
These forms can be accessed here.
