Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: In New York, new York inverts the usual default for a named executor: under SCPA § 710, no bond is required of an executor unless the will itself requires one, unless a testamentary trust under § 806 requires one, or unless the court orders one under § 710 itself; separately, SCPA § 801 exempts any fiduciary from bond when the estate qualifies as a small estate.
Does New York require an executor to post a bond?
New York inverts the usual default for a named executor: under SCPA § 710, no bond is required of an executor unless the will itself requires one, unless a testamentary trust under § 806 requires one, or unless the court orders one under § 710 itself; separately, SCPA § 801 exempts any fiduciary from bond when the estate qualifies as a small estate.
“No bond shall be required of an executor unless required by the will or by 806 or by this section.”
Source: N.Y. Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act §§ 708, 710, 801
Can the will waive it in New York?
Yes. The statutory baseline for an executor is already no-bond; the will’s role is inverted from most states; it is the instrument that can impose a bond requirement that would not otherwise exist, rather than one that waives an existing default.
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Can the heirs or beneficiaries waive it in New York?
Sometimes. SCPA § 801 grants an automatic no-bond exemption below the small-estate dollar threshold regardless of heir action. Secondary sources describe a distinct SCPA § 805 mechanism letting all distributees consent in writing to dispense with an intestate administrator’s bond, but that specific section was not independently fetched and quoted this session.
If a bond is required, how much?
When a bond is required, New York sizes it at 100% of the estimated value of the personal estate plus expected annual income, per its own bond-amount statute.
“Not Less Than: i. Value of all personal property receivable by the fiduciary. ii. Estimated gross rents…for 18 months. iii. Probable recovery in any cause of action”
Source: N.Y. SCPA § 801(1)
What makes New York different
New York is the outlier in this set for actually flipping the default: rather than bond being required and then waived, an executor named in a will starts with no bond obligation at all, and only the will’s own express language (or a testamentary trust) turns bond on. Intestate administrators are treated differently and lean toward bond being required absent an exemption.
A note on sourcing: The executor default (SCPA § 710) and the small-estate exemption (SCPA § 801) were fetched directly from the official nysenate.gov consolidated-laws site this session. The distributee-consent detail for administrators under SCPA § 805 is drawn from secondary legal-blog/court-PDF summaries found via a general web search, not from a directly fetched and quoted section this session, so it is flagged as lower-confidence.
| Bond-requirement source | N.Y. Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act §§ 708, 710, 801 |
| New York courts (general reference) | New York judicial branch |
| New York Secretary of State / legislature | New York state government |
| New York legislature (additional reference) | New York legislature |
| Confidence | Medium |
Every statute quoted on this page was read directly from the state’s own legislature/code site this session, or, where that site blocked automated access, from a reputable legal-citation mirror quoting the same official text with its official citation (disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; a probate court has final discretion over bond in every state; confirm your own case with the court or a local attorney before relying on the default described here.
Related: how long creditors have to file a claim against an estate in New York.