Editorial

Editorial process and review schedule

What we publish

Estate Affidavit Guide publishes state-specific informational operational guides for two instruments: the small estate affidavit (used to collect a decedent's bank accounts, vehicles, and other personal property without full probate, capped by a statutory dollar ceiling) and the affidavit of heirship (used to establish heirship, most often for real property title, with no statutory dollar cap). Every state guide states the statutory cap or requirement, the citation to the governing probate code section, the official form where the state publishes one, any statutory waiting period after death, and documented friction points when presenting the affidavit to a bank, DMV, or title company.

Sourcing standards

Every operational claim cites the state's own probate code section, a state court self-help page, or a recognized industry aggregator — never a secondhand summary.
Citations point directly to the statute text or source URL, not to an intermediate blog post.
Where a state publishes an official fill-in form, we link to it. We never host or "improve" the form.
Where a state does not publish a fill-in form, we say so plainly and describe the statutory requirements a compliant affidavit must meet, sourced to the statute itself.

The governing statute behind each state we cover:

Author and how we verify accuracy

Author: James Whitfield, researcher. The author is not an attorney and does not advise on individual situations. The author is solely responsible for content.

Unlike some sites, we don't put an attorney's name on this content to imply a legal sign-off — because we've built something we think is actually more verifiable than that: every operational claim on this site links directly to the state's own published probate code or official form, not a summary or a paraphrase you have to take on faith. You can check any claim yourself against the primary source in a click. It's also how we stay inside our own editorial rules: we explain and cite what the state has already published; we never draft affidavit language or tell a reader whether their specific estate qualifies — so there's no legal-judgment layer in this content for a reviewer to bless in the first place.

Annual update cadence

Each state page is reviewed annually, immediately after any legislative session that could change a statutory dollar cap or filing requirement. Statutory cap figures and waiting-period lengths are re-verified against the current probate code text. State agency and form URL citations are re-checked for validity.

In addition to the annual refresh, pages are reviewed quarterly for citation rot, broken statute links, and reader-reported corrections.

Correction policy

If you find content on this site that does not match what your state's probate code publishes, please email support@estateaffidavitguide.com with the page URL, the disputed claim, and the statute citation that supports your correction. Confirmed corrections are made within five business days, and the page's last-reviewed date is updated to reflect it.

What we will not do

Draft, host, or distribute affidavit instrument text.
Customize a kit based on a buyer's family situation.
Tell a reader whether their estate qualifies — we cite the statutory threshold; the reader compares their own facts.
Give advice over phone, chat, or email about an individual situation.
Sell email addresses or share buyer data with attorneys, preparers, or referral services.
Publish a state's product until we've confirmed the state actually provides a statutory small estate or heirship affidavit mechanism, cited to the probate code itself.

Conflicts of interest

Estate Affidavit Guide accepts no advertising, no affiliate revenue, no referral fees, and no sponsorships. Our only revenue is direct sale of state kits and the professional subscription tier described on our for organizations page. We do not pay for placement on attorney directories or aggregators. We do not pay for backlinks.