Do I have to go through probate in District of Columbia?

In District of Columbia, estates worth $80,000 or less may qualify for a simplified small-estate procedure (personal property only). Estates above that generally require probate through the D.C. Superior Court (Probate Division).

How long do creditors have to make a claim in District of Columbia?

The creditor claim period in District of Columbia is generally 6 months. What starts that clock varies, so confirm which date applies before relying on it.

How long does probate take in District of Columbia?

A typical District of Columbia estate takes 9–18 months. Complications — a contested will, an unsold house, a late-surfacing creditor — extend it.

Does District of Columbia have an estate or inheritance tax?

District of Columbia has a state estate tax.

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Settling an estate in District of Columbia

An executor in District of Columbia has to work through the D.C. Superior Court (Probate Division) and a long list of tasks that have nothing to do with the court. This page sets out what District of Columbia law actually requires at each step, with the section it comes from and the date we last read it.

Probate court: D.C. Superior Court (Probate Division)
Small-estate shortcut: Estates of $80,000 or less may qualify for a simplified small-estate procedure (personal property only — it will not transfer real estate).
Creditor claim period: 6 months
Typical timeline: 9–18 months
State death tax: a state estate tax

Immediate

Obtain certified death certificates

The District rewrote this law in 2018, so older references are dead: D.C. Code § 7-220 was repealed and the rule now sits at § 7-231.25. A certified copy of a death record goes to the informant, the decedent’s spouse or domestic partner, child, parent, sibling, grandparent or grandchild, next of kin as specified by probate or other law, the individual with rights to control final disposition, the legal guardian immediately prior to death, or a legal representative. A funeral director from the establishment named on the record may obtain one for thirty days after filing. Anyone else may obtain a copy by demonstrating that it is needed for determining or protecting an individual or property right. One choice belongs to the family: cause and manner of death are shown unless the spouse, child, parent, next of kin or the person in charge of disposition asks for that information to be omitted. Two practical notes. The funeral director usually orders the first batch as part of their service, so ask them how many they have already requested before you order more — families routinely pay twice. And order more than you think: banks, insurers and transfer agents often keep the copy you give them rather than returning it. Confirm the current fee on the state’s own page at the moment you order, because fees change without notice.

D.C. Code § 7-231.25·last read 2026-08-25

Locate the will (or confirm there is none)

The will is filed with the Register of Wills at the Superior Court’s Probate Division — one office for the whole District, with no county layer to work out. Before you spend long searching, know what the document is and is not worth on its own: under D.C. Code § 20-302 a will is ineffective to transfer any property or even to nominate a personal representative unless it is admitted to Probate. The same section adds that nobody may exercise the powers or assume the duties of a personal representative unless the Court has appointed them. So holding the original in a drawer changes nothing, and being named in it changes nothing — the authority begins at appointment, not at death. If you believe someone else is holding the will, that is a reason to open a proceeding rather than to keep negotiating — and the District puts a clock and a penalty on the person holding it. Under D.C. Code § 18-111 anyone in possession of a will who wilfully neglects, for ninety days after the death becomes known to them, to deliver it to the Probate Court, to the Register of Wills, or to an executor named in it, may be fined up to $500. Ninety days is generous next to most states, so do not assume a holder is already in breach; but the duty is theirs, it starts when they learn of the death rather than when you ask, and it is not discharged by handing it to you. § 18-112 is the serious one: anyone who, during the life or after the death of the person who made it, and for a fraudulent purpose, takes and carries away, destroys, mutilates or secretes a will may be imprisoned for up to five years. One quirk worth knowing before you object to it: § 18-110 expressly lets whoever holds the will open and read it, after the death, in the presence of near relatives who can conveniently be given notice, and deliver it to the Court immediately afterwards. The District is the only place that writes that scene into the statute, so a family reading of the will is not an irregularity here.

D.C. Code §§ 18-110, 18-111, 18-112, 20-302·last read 2026-09-14

Short-term

Claim the family allowances you are entitled to

The District is the most generous in our footprint and it covers domestic partners throughout, not only spouses. Three separate entitlements. Homestead Allowance (§ 19-101.02): $30,000 to the surviving spouse or domestic partner, or divided among surviving minor and dependent children if there is neither — and it is exempt from and has priority over all claims against the estate. Exempt property (§ 19-101.03): a further $20,000, over and above any loan secured on the items, in household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances and personal effects. Family Allowance (§ 19-101.04): on top of both, a reasonable sum in money for maintenance during administration — there is no fixed figure, the court decides what is reasonable — payable to the spouse or partner for their use and that of the minor and dependent children, and split where a child lives elsewhere. It too has priority over all claims except the homestead allowance. Section 19-101.04(b) says the family allowance is not chargeable against any benefit or share passing to the spouse, partner or children, so in the District these come on top of the inheritance rather than out of it. That much is not distinctive — Virginia’s § 64.2-309(C) puts its family allowance “in addition to any benefit or share” in almost the same words. What does set the District apart is who and how much. The allowance reaches “children who were in fact being supported by the decedent” as well as minor children the decedent was obliged to support, which can take in an adult dependent child. And the section fixes no ceiling, where Virginia caps the family allowance lump sum at $30,000.

D.C. Code §§ 19-101.02, 19-101.03, 19-101.04·last read 2026-08-19

Notify beneficiaries and keep them informed

The District gives you only twenty days, and the obligation is to publish as well as to notify. Under D.C. Code § 20-704 the personal representative must, within 20 days after appointment, publish a notice of the appointment in a legal periodical or a newspaper of general circulation in the District (or another publication the Court directs), and give notice to interested persons, to creditors, and to unknown heirs. Publication is how the District reaches the people you cannot name, which is why it is mandatory rather than optional. Twenty days runs from appointment, not from the death, so the clock only starts once the Court has acted — but it is short, and arranging publication takes a few days itself. Getting this wrong rarely costs money directly — it stalls the case. An estate that cannot show notice was properly given can be held open, and the appointment itself can be reopened, so keep proof of what you sent, to whom, and on what date.

D.C. Code § 20-704·last read 2026-08-18

Determine if probate is required

The District raised this limit in 2025 and most guidance has not caught up. Under D.C. Code § 20-351 an estate may be administered as a small estate where the property subject to administration in the District is worth $80,000 or less. The figure was $40,000 from 2001 until D.C. Law 25-302 raised it, effective 21 March 2025, and before that $15,000 — so anything you read quoting $40,000 is describing the old rule. A small estate is opened through the Register of Wills and usually finishes far faster than standard administration. If you are over $80,000, ask about abbreviated probate rather than assuming the full supervised route: most larger District estates go that way.

D.C. Code § 20-351·last read 2026-08-19

Legal Process

File a petition with the probate court

District probate runs through the Superior Court’s Probate Division and the office you deal with is the Register of Wills — one court, one register, no county layer. § 20-301 gives you three routes, and which one you are on decides how much work this is. Abbreviated Probate (§ 20-311) is the ordinary route: it is begun by an interested person’s petition and may be conducted without the prior notice that formal probate requires. Formal Probate (§ 20-321) is begun by an interested person or a creditor, is conducted only after notice, and is where a will whose due execution cannot be presumed, or a genuine dispute, ends up. Small estates is a separate subchapter again. Ask for the abbreviated proceeding by name if your situation is straightforward. Two more points: if nobody petitions within a reasonable time, the Register may petition for formal probate with the Court’s approval, so doing nothing does not keep the estate closed. And under § 20-105 all of the property passes Directly to the Personal Representative, who holds legal title for administration — it does not vest in the heirs at death the way it does in many states, which is why nothing can be transferred until someone is appointed.

D.C. Code §§ 20-105, 20-301, 20-311, 20-321·last read 2026-08-18

Inventory all assets and debts

Every personal representative prepares an inventory, and there is a firm deadline on it: § 20-711 requires a verified inventory within three months of appointment. It must list each item of property, describe it in reasonable detail, give its fair market value on the date of death, and state the type and amount of any encumbrance on it — so a mortgaged house is listed at its value and its mortgage, not netted down to equity. Real property and tangible personal property both go in. What differs by track is what happens next rather than whether you do it: in supervised administration the inventory is filed with the court and copies go to interested persons, while an unsupervised administration runs under § 20-713.01. Establish which track you are on, but do not read the distinction as a reason the three months does not apply to you.

D.C. Code §§ 20-711, 20-713.01·last read 2026-08-19

Publish notice to creditors

Publish within 20 days of your appointment. Under § 20-704 the notice goes in a legal periodical or a newspaper of general circulation in the District, once a week for two successive weeks, and it has to do three things: announce your appointment and address, say whether the administration is supervised or unsupervised, and call on creditors to present their claims. Then § 20-903: a claim is barred against the estate, against you, and against the heirs and legatees unless it is presented within six months of the first publication. That is one of the longer windows in the region. Maryland prints the same six months but runs it from the DATE OF DEATH, and § 8-103(a) lets a mailed notice cut it to two, so in practice the District gives a creditor considerably more room. Virginia is not a comparison at all: it sets no creditor window, and the twelve months in § 64.2-529 protects the personal representative personally rather than giving the creditor a deadline. Do not distribute in month four expecting to be finished; the estate cannot safely close until that six months has run. A creditor presents by delivering or mailing a written, verified statement to you with a copy to the Register, or the other way round (§ 20-905), and a claim sent to only one of the two is still treated as presented — so do not dismiss one that reached the Register but not you.

D.C. Code §§ 20-704, 20-903, 20-905·last read 2026-08-19

Administration

Identify and close digital accounts

The District came to this late and the date matters: D.C. Code § 21-2501 provides that chapter 25 “may be cited as the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act of 2020”, enacted by D.C. Law 23-189 and effective 16 March 2021. Anything written about District digital accounts before then predates the Act entirely and may tell you fiduciaries have no rights at all. The provision to keep in your pocket is § 21-2516: a custodian must comply with a proper request to disclose digital assets or terminate an account no later than sixty days after receiving the required information, and if it does not, you may apply to the Superior Court for an order directing compliance. So a platform that simply goes quiet is not the end of the road — there is a deadline and a named court. One more point, and in your actual order of work it belongs first: check for an online tool before you check the will. Under D.C. Code § 21-2504 the opening question is not what the will says. Some providers offer a tool that lets the user name who may receive their account — Google’s Inactive Account Manager, Facebook’s Legacy Contact and the like. If the user actually used it, that direction overrides a contrary direction in a will, trust or power of attorney. That holds so long as the tool let them change or delete it at any time. Only where there is no online-tool direction does the will, trust or power of attorney govern, and only where there is neither does the provider’s terms-of-service agreement decide. So look at the accounts before you look at the paperwork — it is quick, it is free, and it can settle the question outright.

D.C. Code §§ 21-2501, 21-2504, 21-2516·last read 2026-08-19

Financial Settlement

Pay valid debts and expenses

The District caps two things that no one expects to be capped. Under D.C. Code § 20-906 the order is. (1) Court costs, publication costs and bond premiums. (2) Funeral expenses, not exceeding $5,000. (3) Fiduciary and attorney’s fees, not exceeding $1,000. (4) The homestead and family allowances. (5) Exempt property. (6) Last-illness medical and hospital expenses. (7) Rent in arrears for which an attachment could be levied. (8) Judgments and decrees of D.C. courts. (9) All other just claims. So a $12,000 funeral is a priority claim only up to $5,000 — the rest drops to class 9 with the credit cards. The order binds where assets are insufficient, and there is no preference within a class. Paying a lower-ranked debt before a higher-ranked one can leave you personally liable for the difference. So where the estate may not cover everything, stop before paying anything beyond the funeral and administration costs, and take advice.

D.C. Code § 20-906·last read 2026-08-27

File required tax returns

The District has its own estate tax with a threshold far below the federal one, and the figure moves every year. Here is the rule rather than the rumour. D.C. Code § 47-3701 sets the zero bracket amount — the point below which no District estate tax is due — at $4 million for anyone dying after 31 December 2020, increased every year from 1 January 2022 by a cost-of-living adjustment. So the statute fixes the base and the indexing; the Office of Tax and Revenue publishes the resulting figure for each year, and for deaths on or after 1 January 2026 and on or before 31 December 2026 the Office of Tax and Revenue puts that figure at $4,988,400. The year that governs is the year the person died, not the year you are filing. The same section also provides that no estate tax return is required if the gross estate does not exceed the applicable zero bracket amount. Confirm the exact figure for the year of death with the Office of Tax and Revenue before relying on it — the District has changed this threshold by legislation more than once, so older guidance can be badly wrong in either direction. One more thing explains the arithmetic: under § 47-3701(6) the Internal Revenue Code means the Code as in effect for federal estate tax purposes on 1 January 2001, so the District works from the old federal rules rather than anything current. The District also has its own fiduciary income tax return for estate income, separate from the estate tax, and that is a different filing with a different test.

D.C. Code § 47-3701(6), (14)·last read 2026-09-09

Distribution

Distribute assets to heirs

The District recognises domestic partners alongside spouses throughout, which most states do not — check the partnership registry before assuming there is no surviving partner. Under D.C. Code § 19-302 the share is: the entire estate if no descendant and no parent survives. Three quarters if no descendant but a parent survives. Two thirds if all the deceased’s descendants are also the partner’s and the partner has no others. And one half where the partner has descendants of their own. A surviving parent reduces the share even with no children. One disqualification to check before paying anyone. Under D.C. Code § 19-320 a person convicted of felonious homicide of another — by murder or manslaughter — takes no estate or interest of any kind from that person, whether by inheritance, distribution, devise or bequest, or by a remainder, reversion or executory devise depending on the death. What they would have taken passes as if they had died before the deceased. The section also reaches insurance policies procured by the convicted person and protects bona fide purchasers. The District has no desertion, abandonment or adultery bar on a spouse, and no bar on an absent parent, so apart from that homicide rule the shares above stand as the family legally is. The District puts this in § 16-312(a), and its stepparent exception is wider than most. A final decree establishes the relationship of natural parent and natural child “for all purposes, including mutual rights of inheritance and succession”, and cuts off all rights and duties between the adoptee and the natural parents, their issue and collateral relatives. Then the exception: “except that when one of the natural parents is the spouse of the adopter, the rights and relations as between adoptee, that natural parent and the adoptee’s parents, and collateral relatives, including mutual rights of inheritance and succession, are in no wise altered”. A stepparent adoption here therefore preserves not only the birth parent but that parent’s own parents and collateral relatives, and it does so in both directions. Subsection (b) adds that an interlocutory decree has the same legal effect while it is in force, and that revoking one leaves everybody as though it had been null and void ab initio.

D.C. Code §§ 16-312, 19-302, 19-320·last read 2026-09-09

Close Estate

File a final accounting and close the estate

An unsupervised administration in the District closes with a Certificate of Completion, and § 20-735 says the personal representative shall file one unless the Court orders otherwise for good cause. It is not an optional shortcut you have to request by name — it is how the estate closes. It may be filed at any time, but never before the time for creditors to present claims has expired. The part worth planning for: you must first send an account to every interested person, with notice that they have sixty days to object and that their claims against you are barred if they do not. So there is still an accounting — it goes to the beneficiaries rather than being audited by the Court. The certificate then states that the claims period has expired. That the account and notice went out. That everyone either consented in writing or raised no written objection in those sixty days. That distribution was made in accordance with that account. That all known unbarred creditor claims are satisfied or settled, and if any remains undischarged, what arrangements were made. And that you have paid the administration expenses and fully administered the estate. It must also list the name and address of everyone sent the account, with a certificate of service showing they received the certificate too. Any of them may object within the sixty days by writing to you or to the Court.

D.C. Code § 20-735·last read 2026-08-19

Work through this as a checklist

The free District of Columbia checklist tracks where you are across every step, keeps your documents in one place, and tells you what is due next. No payment, no card.

Open the free District of Columbia checklist

EstateMate is not a law firm and this is not legal advice. Every note above cites the section it came from and the date it was last read, so you can check it yourself. Statutes change, and the right answer can turn on facts specific to your family — when something looks close to the line, talk to a District of Columbia probate attorney.