“Small” can mean a lot of different things to people. One man’s small estate might be YUGE to someone else. But Iowa does describe what is a small estate for an Iowa decedent, so it doesn’t really matter what you think “small” means.
IF the deceased person’s remaining assets:
- Do not consist of real estate (e.g., no house, no land, etc.); AND
- All of the other property (that doesn’t have a beneficiary) totals less than $50,000.00
then you may not need to go through the probate process and you can access their property by way of an affidavit.
For example, let’s say mom had a checking account with $4,200, a CD worth $25,000, IRA valued at $60,000, and a vehicle worth $5,000. No house/land. And let’s assume that the IRA had a beneficiary listed.
In this example, the vehicle could be transferred by an affidavit supplied to the county treasurer’s office and an “affidavit for distribution of property” via Iowa Code 633.356 could be used to move the checking and CD to the beneficiaries/heirs.
This is a common situation for many families and we can assist in putting the proper documents together for you to get those transfers completed. You can also read a little more here. Most situations can be handled on a flat fee basis.
However, there are other issues to be aware of, even for small estates. For example, you may have issues with Medicaid recovery (another blog post later) and/or income tax issues.
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