How Probate Works in Nevada

Anyone holding the will must deliver it to the district court clerk (or the named personal representative) within 30 days after learning of the death. A petition for probate and letters is filed in district court, the clerk sets a hearing, and notice goes to heirs and devisees. After letters issue, the personal representative publishes and mails notice to creditors, files an inventory and appraisement within 120 days (the court may extend this), pays claims, and then files a final account and petition for distribution.

Set aside without administration: if the estate does not exceed $150,000, the court may set it aside to the surviving spouse, minor children or others (petition no sooner than 30 days after death). Summary administration: available if the gross estate, after encumbrances, does not exceed $500,000; it shortens the creditor claim period to 60 days.

Creditors must file claims within 90 days after the first published notice. A creditor who is mailed notice has 30 days after the mailing or 90 days after first publication, whichever is later. In summary administration the 90 days is shortened to 60. Late claims are generally barred, unless the creditor had no notice and files before the final account.

A person cannot serve as executor if under the age of majority, convicted of a felony (unless the court decides otherwise), or found by the court unfit because of a conflict of interest, drunkenness, improvidence, lack of integrity or understanding, or another compelling reason. A bank not authorized to do business in Nevada must serve with a Nevada-authorized bank as co-executor. Bond is up to the court: it may require or waive bond whatever the will says, and letters may issue without bond when the will says no bond is required.

If the decedent left no Nevada real estate, a person entitled to the property may collect it by affidavit 40 days after death, without court letters. Limit: gross value of up to $25,000 for most claimants, or up to $150,000 if the claimant is the surviving spouse. Armed Forces pay owed to the decedent and registered motor vehicles are not counted toward the limit. The affidavit cannot be used for real estate.

Probate petitions are filed in the district court in the county where the case is heard. The Nevada Self-Help Center says a will, or anything that might be a will, should be submitted to the court when the person who wrote it dies, and the judge decides whether it is valid. Copies of filed documents are available from the clerk's office where they were filed.