Choose your country
Each site is written for its own country’s law, forms and prices.
General information · not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.
Pages taken from the planner, by email: who to phone first, and a blank records sheet.
Every quotation on this page is the official body’s own words, as they stood on the day we read them. The date is beside each one.
The Probate Division shall have jurisdiction of:
the probate of wills;
the settlement of estates;
Vermont · general information · checked October 24, 2026 · 4 V.S.A. §35
To be effective, a will must be allowed in the Probate Division of the Superior Court, or by appeal in the Civil Division of the Superior Court or the Supreme Court.
Vermont · general information · checked October 24, 2026 · 14 V.S.A. §101
A person named executor in a will who has knowledge thereof shall file a death certificate and petition to open the decedent’s estate in the Probate Division of the Superior Court where venue lies with reasonable promptness.
A petition to open an estate need not be filed when no assets require probate administration.
Vermont · general information · checked October 24, 2026 · 14 V.S.A. §104
Petition to Open Decedent's Estate (700-00001)
File your completed forms with the Probate Division of the Superior Court in the county in which the decedent lived at the time of their death.
You do not have to have a lawyer to open an estate.
You must file an inventory with the court within 30 days of your appointment.
Vermont · general information · checked October 24, 2026 · Vermont Judiciary, Estates and Wills
within four months after the date of the first publication of notice to creditors if notice is given in compliance with the Rules of Probate Procedure;
within one year after the decedent’s death if notice to creditors has not been published or otherwise given as provided by the Rules of Probate Procedure.
Vermont · general information · checked October 24, 2026 · 14 V.S.A. §1203(a)
Within thirty (30) days of your appointment as fiduciary, you must publish a Notice to Creditors once in a newspaper generally circulating in the community in which the decedent was a resident.
Vermont · general information · checked October 24, 2026 · Vermont Judiciary, Estates and Wills
Estates of $10,000.00 or less $50.00
Estates of more than $10,000.00 to not more than $50,000.00 $110.00
Estates of more than $50,000.00 to not more than $150,000.00 $265.00
Estates of more than $10,000,000.00 $3,250.00
Vermont · general information · checked October 24, 2026 · 32 V.S.A. §1434(a)
If a person has the custody of a will, within 30 days after learning of the death of the testator, the custodian shall deliver the will to the Probate Division of the Superior Court where venue lies or to the executor named in the will.
A person who intentionally refuses or fails to deliver a will after being ordered to do so by the court in a proceeding brought for the purpose of compelling delivery may be subject to proceedings for civil contempt under 12 V.S.A. § 122.
Vermont · general information · checked October 24, 2026 · 14 V.S.A. §§103, 106
A will may be deposited for safekeeping in the Probate Division of the Superior Court for the district in which the testator resides on payment to the court of the applicable fee required by 32 V.S.A. § 1434(a)(18).
During the life of the testator, that will shall be delivered only to the testator or in accordance with the testator’s order in writing duly acknowledged or otherwise proved to the satisfaction of the court
Vermont · general information · checked October 24, 2026 · 14 V.S.A. §2
The court can reveal the existence of the will after someone has died to anyone who provides a certified copy of their death certificate.
If the requestor is a person named as executor in the will, they may retrieve the will from the court.
Vermont · general information · checked October 24, 2026 · Vermont Judiciary, Estates and Wills
Filing of a will for safekeeping $30.00
Vermont · general information · checked October 24, 2026 · 32 V.S.A. §1434(a)(18)
A couple. A parent. An adult child and a parent, doing it together. One sitting starts it; keep it current, and tell someone where it is.
