Guide
Every estate in America goes through one of three doors. The difference between them is months of time and thousands of dollars — and which door fits is mostly arithmetic.
For estates under a state-set limit, the law lets a family collect property with a sworn paper — no judge, no case number, sometimes no court at all. You wait out a short statutory pause (none in some states, up to 60 days in others), sign the affidavit — accepting personal responsibility for paying debts in the legal order and for the truth of what you sign — and present it to whoever holds the property. Limits run from $15,000 (Rhode Island) to $275,000 (Oregon, counting real estate). Roughly half of all estates, counted correctly, fit through this door.
Too big for the affidavit, too simple for the full process? Most states built a middle door: Florida's summary administration, Pennsylvania's small-estate petition, Ohio's release from administration, California's petition for a primary home, Texas's muniment of title for estates with a will. A court is involved, but the file is thin, the hearings are few or none, and the end product is a judge's order — the paper every bank and title company accepts without argument. The trap is that the middle door has a different name in every state, which is why families miss it and lawyers don't always mention it.
The full process exists for real reasons: estates that cannot pay their debts (someone must referee the creditors), estates with disputes, estates with a house no shortcut can move, estates well over every limit. A court appoints a representative, creditors get a formal window to claim, and distribution happens under supervision. It is slower and it costs — commonly 3–7% of a gross estate all-in, or flat fees from $1,500 at the very low end to $10,000 in published ranges. When it is needed, it is needed; the mistake is entering it by default when door one or two was open.
The checker on this site exists because the three doors are decided by facts most families already know — the state, the date of death, what was owned and how it was titled, whether debts are covered — and because no chart prints all three doors for one family on one page. Run your facts; the verdict names your door and its reason.
Every rule in this guide bends by state — the limit, the wait, the form, the house. Run your facts through the free checker and read your verdict with its citations.