Letters Testamentary in 2026: Court Fees and Bond Rules in the 15 Largest States

What letters are, and why the investments cannot move without them

Letters testamentary are the court's certificate that a named executor has authority to act for the estate; letters of administration are the same certificate when there is no will and the court picks the representative. Banks, brokerage firms and transfer agents do not take the will or a death certificate as proof of authority. The Equiniti transfer package we read asks for a “Certificate of Appointment (or Small Estate Statues of the state in which the shareholder” was domiciled), and the Guggenheim Credit Income Fund form, served by DST Systems, lists “Certified Letters of Testamentary (sometimes called Court Appointment or Letters of Administration, cannot accept photocopy)” and, in place of letters, a “Small Estate Affidavit (in lieu of Letters of Testamentary) required if estate did not go through probate”.

The estate in this guide is the one most readers who find this page are holding: a house, a brokerage account, a checking account, a retirement account with a named beneficiary, and a small position in a non-traded REIT or BDC. Which of those need letters is a title question. Assets with a named beneficiary or a joint owner move by contract and do not need letters; assets in the decedent's sole name do. Our probate for real estate page covers the house side, and the death and disability repurchase rules page covers what the fund itself does once letters reach it.

The 15 largest states: fee, bond, who may serve and deadlines

The 15 largest states by the April 1, 2020 census apportionment population are California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, New Jersey, Virginia, Washington, Arizona and Massachusetts (Massachusetts 7,033,469, Arizona 7,158,923). Everything below comes from a statute, a clerk's schedule or a court page we saved on November 12, 2026. Court fees in Texas and Pennsylvania are set county by county (the Pennsylvania schedule we read says the Register of Wills and the President Judge set them), and Illinois is shown for Cook County only, so one county is shown and the cell says which. “Not verified” means the official text would not load from our network and we did not fill the gap from a law-firm page.

Source: the statutes and clerk schedules named in each cell, read and saved November 12, 2026 (URLs in the CSV). Texas statute text was read from a public mirror of the Estates Code last verified May 26, 2025, because the official site would not load for us; the New Jersey and Pennsylvania rows use a FindLaw copy and a county schedule. Delivery times and the cost of recording or publication are not in these schedules.

California's $435 is a base plus two supplements: 70650(a) sets $355 for the first petition (and the same $355 for a later petition by another party, 70650(c)), and each of 70602.5(a) and 70602.6(a) adds “a supplemental fee of forty dollars ($40)” for a first paper subject to that $355 uniform fee. Texas is the state where a reader's number depends most on the county: Dallas County's schedule is a single $360 for a will with letters testamentary and for an application for administration, and its letters are $2 each. California and Florida readers will find the percentage fees that go to the attorney and the personal representative, which are separate from this table, in our California probate fees, Florida probate cost and executor and trustee fees by state pages.

The steps from death certificate to letters, and what each one needs

The order below is what the statutes and court pages above describe; counties differ and an attorney licensed in the state sets the exact filing list.

1. Certified death certificates. The Guggenheim form asks for “Death Certificate (certified or photocopy)”; every later step with a custodian repeats the request, so order several.
2. Find the original will and get it to the court. In California the custodian must deliver it within 30 days of learning of the death (Probate Code 8200(a)); in Florida within 10 days (732.901(1)). In Texas the outer limit is four years (Estates Code 256.003).
3. File the petition and pay the opening fee. The fee depends on the state, as in the table. In Cook County, Illinois, once the judge enters the order admitting the will and appointing the representative, “the Clerk's Office will issue you Letters of Office”.
4. Oath and bond, where required. The statutes tie letters to these: Ohio requires the bond “prior to the issuance of the fiduciary's letters” (2109.04(A)(1)); Texas requires it “before issuance of the letters” (305.101(a)); Virginia says administration with the will annexed is not granted “unless he takes the required oath and gives bond” (64.2-500(B)).
5. Order certified copies of the letters, not photocopies. Fees are small: $2 per issuance in Dallas County, $10 per short certificate in Philadelphia, $6 for New York's certificate that the appointment is “still in full force and effect”. The Guggenheim form says it “cannot accept photocopy”.
6. Get an EIN for the estate before opening an estate account: see EIN for a trust or estate.
7. Send each custodian its own packet, with letters of the right age. See the next section.

How old can the letters be? What the receivers publish

No statute we read sets a shelf life for letters. The limit is written by the party that receives them, and two published documents show how different it can be.

Source: the three documents above. The Guggenheim form is from 2017 and that fund's current status was not checked; it is shown because it is a published, dated rule from a transfer agent for a non-traded vehicle. The G-X text is about registering an estate as an account holder, not about a death claim on an existing account.

The practical reading is that a stale certified copy can cost a second trip to the clerk. A letters certificate ordered the week the court signs the order is accepted by the strictest rule we found (60 days) for about two months, so the first custodian packets are best sent in that window, and later packets need a fresh certificate. The $6 New York certificate that an appointment is still in force exists for this reason (SCPA 2402(11)). A medallion signature guarantee, which the G-X text lets replace the date limit, is a stamp from a bank or broker, not from the court.

A worked example: one estate, twelve opening fees

Take the estate in the opening: a $420,000 house, a $60,000 brokerage account, $25,000 of a non-traded REIT and a $9,000 checking account, all in the decedent's sole name, plus a $180,000 IRA with a named beneficiary. The IRA moves to the beneficiary by contract and is not part of the probate estate. The probate estate is $420,000 + $60,000 + $25,000 + $9,000 = $514,000 (our arithmetic). It has a will of two pages or less and a single petition.

• Ohio: $15 + $35 = $50. New Jersey: $100 with letters. Arizona: $149. Michigan: $150. Washington: $200.
• Dallas County, Texas: $360. Florida: up to $395 plus $4 = up to $399. California: $355 + $40 + $40 = $435. Cook County, Illinois: $479.
• North Carolina counts personal property only, so the house is out: $60,000 + $25,000 + $9,000 = $94,000, which is 940 units of $100, times 40 cents = $376, plus $106, $10 and $4 = $496.
• Philadelphia: the $500,000.01 to $600,000 row, $911.25 in total. New York: $514,000 is “500,000 and over”, $1,250.
• Virginia: $30 clerk fee plus recording fees, and the 10-cent-per-$100 probate tax, which is $100 for every $100,000 of value the tax applies to; the base is set in a section we did not read, so we do not total it.

On the same $514,000 probate estate, the statutory opening fee runs from $50 in Ohio to $1,250 in New York (our arithmetic). The spread is about $1,200, and it is small next to the attorney and representative fees that run on the same estate in states such as California, which are the subject of the pages linked above. We found no published bond premium rate from a state insurance department or a surety, so we do not estimate one: the premium is the one cost in this list that the will can remove entirely, in the states where a will can waive it.

Letters of administration: the same document, a different route

With no will, nobody has the will's named choice. The statutes then set a priority list. North Carolina starts with the surviving spouse, then any devisee, any heir and next of kin, then a creditor (28A-4-1(b)). Michigan and Arizona put a spouse who is a devisee first, then other devisees, the spouse and other heirs (700.3203; 14-3203(A)). Texas starts with the executor named in the will, and if there is none, the spouse, principal devisee and next of kin (304.001). Virginia gives the first 30 days to a sole distributee or someone with written waivers from the other distributees (64.2-502(A)), and New York lets any interested person petition (SCPA 1002). Bond is more often required because no will can waive it: New Jersey requires it for any form of administration except where the whole estate goes to a surviving spouse (3B:15-1(c)). An heir who is also the one choosing the administrator is choosing the bond and the filing fee for the others.

What a reader can do with this

• Check the title of each asset first. Letters are needed for sole-name assets. The IRA with a named beneficiary and any account with a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death registration do not need them; see transfer on death deeds by state and, for out-of-state real estate, ancillary probate.
• Read the will for a bond waiver before the petition. In California, Texas, Illinois, Arizona, Washington and North Carolina the will's waiver is the shortcut in the statute.
• Order certified copies in one batch and note the date. Plan the first custodian packets inside 60 days of the clerk's seal and ask each custodian its window; one form we read says 90 days.
• Ask the transfer agent of each non-traded fund for its death packet before you file. It will say whether it takes a small estate affidavit in place of letters (the Guggenheim form does) and whether a medallion signature guarantee is needed.
• Who to ask. The petition, the bond and the choice of county are legal work for a probate attorney licensed in the state where the decedent lived. What to do with the investments once letters issue is the part a financial adviser can weigh with you.

More for a family handling someone else's money: what a living trust costs against statutory probate fees; small estate affidavit limits by state; how long probate takes, from the creditor claim statutes; TOD and POD accounts, including non-traded REIT and BDC shares; financial power of attorney rules in 13 states; guardianship vs conservatorship under state law.

FAQ

This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice. Sources, read and saved November 12, 2026: California Government Code 70602.5, 70602.6, 70650 and Probate Code 8200, 8402, 8481; Florida Statutes 28.2401, 732.901, 733.302, 733.304, 733.402; New York Surrogate's Court Procedure Act 707, 801, 1002, 2402; Texas Estates Code 256.003, 304.001, 305.101 (public mirror verified May 26, 2025) and the Dallas County Clerk probate fee schedule effective January 1, 2022; the Philadelphia Register of Wills fee schedule (released August 4, 2026) and the Fulton County, Pennsylvania schedule effective November 14, 2025; the Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court probate page and 755 ILCS 5/12-2; Ohio Revised Code 2101.16, 2109.04, 2109.21; North Carolina General Statutes 7A-307, 28A-4-1, 28A-8-1; Michigan Compiled Laws 600.880, 600.880b, 700.3203, 700.3603; New Jersey Statutes 22A:2-30 and 3B:15-1; Code of Virginia 17.1-275, 58.1-1712, 64.2-500, 64.2-502; Revised Code of Washington 11.28.185, 11.36.010, 36.18.020; Arizona Revised Statutes 12-284, 14-3203, 14-3603; the Guggenheim Credit Income Fund transfer form (revised 11/2017); the G-X Private Markets Form N-2/A exhibit (accession 0001193125-26-374393); the Equiniti transfer of ownership package; and the U.S. Census Bureau 2020 apportionment table.