If you are settling a loved one’s estate on Long Island, the short answer is this: probate in the Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court involves a court filing fee that is graduated by the value of the estate under SCPA §2402, plus separate costs for certified documents, and attorney’s fees that typically run $3,000 to $10,000 for an uncontested probate. New
If you are settling a loved one’s estate on Long Island, the central question is usually this: do you qualify for the simplified small estate affidavit (voluntary administration under SCPA Article 13), or must you go through full probate in the Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court? The short answer is that the small estate affidavit is a streamlined, lower-cost path reserved
If you have been named executor in a Long Island will but the full probate process is moving slowly — or a relative is threatening to contest — Preliminary Letters Testamentary give you interim legal authority to begin administering the estate before the Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court issues a final decree. Authorized by SCPA §1412, these temporary letters let the
Most uncontested estates clear probate in Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court in roughly three to six months, measured from the date the petition is filed to the day the executor receives Letters Testamentary. That window assumes the original will is available, the death certificate is in hand, and every distributee (the people who would inherit if there were no will) signs
When someone dies without a will in Long Island, they are said to have died “intestate,” and New York’s intestacy laws — not the deceased’s personal wishes — determine who inherits the estate. Instead of a court validating a will and appointing an executor, the Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court (or the Nassau County Surrogate’s Court, depending on residence) opens an
Technically, New York does not require you to hire a lawyer to probate a will in Long Island — but in practice, almost everyone does, and for good reason. If the estate holds real property, names more than one distributee, faces a possible will contest, or involves an estate tax filing, attempting probate alone in the Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court