Quick answer: if the gross probate estate is at or under $100,000 and 45 days have passed, the small estate affidavit likely covers the personal property. If real estate titled solely in the decedent's name is involved, expect either administration or a title affidavit for that piece specifically. Check your own numbers with the Indiana small estate checker.
The question that actually matters: is there a house?
Indiana's small estate affidavit is deliberately narrow — it reaches personal property only, at any value, and never real estate, at any value either. A house titled solely in the decedent's name never factors into the $100,000 calculation, and it can't be transferred by the affidavit. That means an estate with a modest bank account and a paid-off home — which many families would call "small" — still needs a separate path to clear the real estate's title.
Two very different routes for the house
Depending on the situation, the house moves either through an opened estate (unsupervised or supervised administration), with a personal representative's deed, or through an IC 29-1-7-23 title affidavit recorded with the county recorder as prima facie evidence of the passage of title — a lighter option when full administration isn't otherwise needed.
Unsupervised administration isn't just for small estates
What skips probate before the threshold question even matters
Regardless of a will, a dispute, or the estate's value, certain assets never enter probate: property jointly held with survivorship rights, payable-on-death or transfer-on-death accounts and deeds, life insurance and retirement accounts with a living named beneficiary, and anything already titled in a trust.
The decision, in order
- Is there real estate titled solely in the decedent's name? If yes — administration or an IC 29-1-7-23 title affidavit is needed for that piece regardless of personal property value.
- No real estate complication: is the gross probate estate at or under $100,000, and has 45 days passed? If yes — the small estate affidavit.
- Above the limit — unsupervised administration if heirs cooperate and the estate is solvent, otherwise supervised administration.
A local probate attorney can review your estate — many offer a free consultation.
Whichever tier applies, filing happens at the court of the decedent's home county — Marion, Allen, Lake, Hamilton, and the rest of Indiana's 92 counties follow the same statutory thresholds and the same flat $177 filing fee.