Updated August 3, 2026. Quick answer: an affidavit is a sworn statement you present yourself, usually with no judge involved. Summary administration is a real but shortened court proceeding. The affidavit is faster and cheaper; the court route reaches more — in particular it is far more likely to be able to transfer a house.
The two instruments
| Affidavit | Summary administration | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A sworn statement by the successor | A petition to a court for a shortened proceeding |
| Who approves it | Often nobody — the holder accepts it | A judge or probate officer enters an order |
| Speed | Days, once the waiting period runs | Weeks to months |
| Cost | Usually a notary fee, sometimes nothing | Court filing fees, often counsel |
| Real estate | Frequently excluded | Much more likely to reach it |
| Creditor protection | None — you remain exposed | A court order gives the transfer standing |
Across the 35 states we verified, 23 use an affidavit, 6 use a court petition, and 6 run both tracks in parallel with different thresholds and different waiting periods for each.
Where both exist, how to choose
- Is there real estate? This decides it more often than anything else. If the affidavit route excludes real property in your state and there is a house, the affidavit cannot do the job.
- Does anyone disagree? An affidavit assumes agreement and offers no way to resolve a dispute. A court order does.
- Are there meaningful debts? A court proceeding gives a defensible process for handling creditors. An affidavit leaves the person who signed exposed.
- Will an institution accept it? Banks and transfer agents vary. A brokerage that will not accept an affidavit will accept a court order.
The names are not reliable — the mechanism is
States use these labels loosely. Some call a court petition an affidavit because it is sworn; some call a filed sworn statement an administration because it is docketed. One state runs two tracks with the same name and different thresholds; another’s route is a civil-law succession that resembles neither.
So the useful questions are mechanical, not nominal: does a judge have to approve it, and can it move a house? Those two answers tell you what you are actually dealing with, whatever it is called.
Related: the five steps · limits and instruments by state.
General information drawn from state statutes and official court materials, not legal advice. Probate and small-estate procedure is STATE law and differs in every state; thresholds, waiting periods and forms change, and every figure here is sourced and dated. Using the wrong instrument, or using one before its waiting period has run, can make a transfer ineffective and can expose the person who signs the affidavit to personal liability. We are not a law firm and we sell no forms.
District of Columbia: the affidavit route caps the entire probate estate at $40,000, requires a 60-day wait, and cannot reach real property — and one statutory requirement is suspended by emergency legislation until 27 August 2026. The DC small-estate affidavit, quoted from D.C. Code § 20-361.