How Probate Works in Louisiana

A succession is opened in the district court. A will is probated (a self-proving notarial testament needs no further proof; others are proved by testimony), ex parte unless someone objects. If administration is needed, the court confirms the executor or appoints an administrator, who posts security if required and receives letters. The court may order an inventory, taken by a notary in each parish where the person left property. Debts are paid only with court authorization. Accounts, including the final account, are served on heirs and residuary legatees and may be approved ('homologated') 10 days after service unless opposed. The heirs and legatees are then sent into possession.

Heirs can be 'sent into possession' without a formal administration. With no will, all heirs may file an ex parte petition if all are competent, accept the succession, and the succession is relatively free of debt (only administration expenses, mortgages not in arrears, and small debts). With a probated will, all general and universal legatees may petition to be sent into possession if each accepts and no creditor has demanded administration. Small successions may also use the affidavit procedure, or a court proceeding at half the usual court costs.

Creditors submit written claims to the succession representative, who must accept or reject each claim within 30 days; no answer within 30 days counts as a rejection. A creditor may sue to enforce a claim only after it is rejected. Louisiana's succession articles do not set a single claims deadline running from a published notice, as many other states do.

A person cannot serve as executor or administrator if under 18, interdicted or proved mentally incompetent, a convicted felon, proved unfit because of bad moral character, or a corporation not authorized to serve in Louisiana. A nonresident may serve only after appointing a Louisiana resident agent for service of process and filing that appointment in the succession. An executor named in the will does not have to post security unless the will requires it (or in limited cases); an administrator generally must post security of one-fourth more than the value of the succession property, which the court may reduce.

A 'small succession' is the estate of a Louisiana resident whose property had a gross value of $200,000 or less at death (for a non-resident, Louisiana property of $125,000 or less), or of a person who died at least 20 years before the affidavit, regardless of value. No court proceeding is needed if the person died without a will; if there was a will and no Louisiana real estate, the spouse and all heirs and legatees must agree to waive probate. At least two people (including the surviving spouse, if any, and one or more heirs) sign a sworn affidavit listing the heirs, the property (real estate described well enough to transfer), its value, and each heir's share. Heirs who do not sign must be unlocatable or have received 30 days' mailed notice without objecting. Banks and others may pay or deliver property on the affidavit. Real estate is allowed: the affidavit must be recorded in the conveyance records of the parish where the property is located. No waiting period is set.

Louisiana uses "successions" instead of probate. A succession is opened in the district court of the parish where the deceased was domiciled at death (for a non-resident, a parish where the deceased's immovable property, or if none, movable property, is located). Each parish clerk of court serves as clerk of the district court and as parish recorder of conveyances, mortgages and other acts.