Collection by affidavit

Where the statute uses it: Minn. Stat. § 524.3-1201

What it means

The smallest route through chapter 524, and the one that needs no order of probate. Once the waiting period has run — thirty days after the death, or, for a safe deposit box, thirty days after the box inventory is filed — a person indebted to the decedent, a person holding the decedent’s tangible personal property or an instrument evidencing a debt, obligation, stock or chose in action, or a safe deposit company controlling access to the decedent’s box must pay or deliver to a person claiming to be the successor of the decedent — or to a state or county agency with a claim authorized by § 256B.15 — on presentation of a certified death record and an affidavit. The affidavit swears to five things. The first is the size of the estate.

the value of the entire probate estate, determined as of the date of death, wherever located, including specifically any contents of a safe deposit box, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $75,000

That figure is set by the Legislature in flat dollars. Section 524.3-1201 contains no adjustment clause, and the full text of chapter 524 contains no cost-of-living or index provision at all — the number moves when the Legislature moves it and not otherwise, which is why it is worth reading the section rather than a slide.

The clock is not always thirty days from the death. Clause (2) states the waiting period two ways: 30 days since the death of the decedent, or — “in the event the property to be delivered is the contents of a safe deposit box” — 30 days since the filing of an inventory of the contents of the box pursuant to section 55.10, paragraph (h). For the class the statute names last, the period runs from the inventory and not from the death.

The affidavit also reaches titles. A transfer agent must change registered ownership of a security on presentation of it, and a motor vehicle registrar must issue a new certificate of title. What it does not reach is real estate.

Where the word shows up

At the head of § 524.3-102, which opens “Except as provided in section 524.3-1201,” and which is narrower than the shorthand people use for it. Section 524.3-102 does not say a will proves nothing without an order of probate. It says a will is not effective to prove the transfer of any property, to nominate an executor, or to exercise a power of appointment unless it is declared valid by an order of informal probate by the registrar, or by an adjudication of probate by the court in a formal proceeding or in proceedings to determine descent — and the same sentence lets an unprobated will in as evidence of a devise on two stated conditions. The affidavit route sits outside all of it.

It also carries two limits worth knowing before anyone counts on it. The claiming successor must disburse the proceeds to any person with a superior claim under § 524.2-403 or § 524.3-805. And the holder of a safe deposit box need not open it if it has received notice of a written or oral objection from any person, or has reason to believe there would be one. One objection, from anyone at all, and the holder is free to leave the box shut.