Montana

Montana estates are heard in the District Court of the county where the deceased lived.
Montana has adopted the Uniform Probate Code, so the routes are familiar: informal probate
decided by the clerk of court acting as registrar, formal probate before a judge where
something is disputed, and unsupervised administration by default once appointed.

An uncontested Montana estate handled informally involves very little court contact.

Smaller estates

Where the estate qualifies, a small estate affidavit collects personal property with no court
involvement, a set period after death. Montana also allows a summary administration where the
estate does not exceed the surviving spouse's or children's statutory allowances. Ask before
opening a case — a good many Montana estates never need one.

No state death tax

Montana levies neither an estate nor an inheritance tax. Only the federal return can arise, and
for nearly all estates it does not.

What is likely to be in the estate

Montana estates are disproportionately made up of things that need specialist handling: ranch
and agricultural land, water rights, grazing leases on state and federal land, mineral and coal
interests, and timber. None of these transfers the way a bank account does, and several are
easy to overlook entirely. Establish what the deceased actually held before valuing anything.

What still has to happen

Notice to creditors, an inventory to the interested persons, payment of debts and the final income
tax returns, then distribution and a closing statement. Creditor claims are barred after the
statutory period — publish promptly, because that clock protects the estate.

A Montana will must be in writing, signed by the testator (or by another in the testator's
conscious presence and at their direction), and signed by at least two witnesses. The testator
must be 18 or older and of sound mind.

Holographic wills are valid

Montana follows the Uniform Probate Code standard: a will is valid whether or not witnessed if
the signature and the material portions are in the testator's handwriting. The rest can be
printed, so a pre-printed form with the gifts filled in by hand can qualify.

Montana does not require the holographic will to be dated. Date it anyway — an undated handwritten
will is precisely the document that starts an argument about which version came last, and Montana
gives you no help resolving it.

The ranch is the hard part

For a great many Montana families, the will is really a decision about land. One child ranches
and the others do not. The land is worth a great deal on paper and generates comparatively little
income. Dividing it equally can make the operation unviable; leaving it to the one who ranches
can feel unfair to the rest.

There is no drafting trick that removes the problem, but there are structures that manage it: a
buy-sell agreement funded by life insurance, an entity with different classes of interest, a lease
back to the ranching child, or cash and non-ranch assets used to equalise. Decide it in your
lifetime and tell everyone. Leaving it to the personal representative is how ranches get sold.

Also

• Name an alternate personal representative and waive bond.
• Montana permits a transfer on death deed for real estate.
• Say expressly what happens to water rights and grazing leases — they may not follow the land
  automatically.
• A surviving spouse has an elective share whatever the will says.

Yes. A Montana personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services
performed. Montana prescribes no percentage.

What "reasonable" turns on

The size and nature of the estate, the time actually required, the complexity and difficulty of
the work, the skill and any special expertise it demanded, the responsibility assumed, and the
results achieved.

Ranch estates are the exception worth arguing

A Montana estate that is mostly land can look enormous on the inventory while demanding little
work — or it can demand an extraordinary amount, if the representative has spent a year running
cattle, negotiating grazing leases, tracing water rights and dealing with a family split three
ways over whether to sell.

A percentage of the inventory value tells you nothing useful about which of those happened.
Reasonable compensation in Montana should follow the work, and the representative who has kept
a log of it is the one who gets paid for it.

Unsupervised means unreviewed, not approved

Under Montana's default unsupervised administration nobody examines the fee as it is taken. Any
interested person may petition the District Court afterwards, and the burden of justifying the
amount sits with the representative. Agree it in writing with the beneficiaries first.

If the will fixes the figure

A will provision governs. Under the UPC framework the representative may also renounce the will's
provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead.

Tax

Compensation is taxable income; an inheritance is not. With no Montana estate or inheritance
tax for a fee to be deducted against, a family representative who is also a beneficiary usually
gains nothing by taking one — although where they have genuinely run a ranch for a year on the
estate's behalf, that reasoning does not apply. Ask an accountant.

A Montana personal representative is reimbursed from the estate for the reasonable expenses of
administration, separately from compensation for their time.

Normally claimable

• Funeral, burial or cremation, the headstone, and a reasonable reception.
• District Court filing fees, certified letters, certified death certificates, and publication of
  the notice to creditors.
• Attorney's fees, and accountant's fees for the final Form 1040 and any Form 1041.
• Appraisals of ranch and farm land, water rights, grazing leases, mineral, coal and
  royalty interests, timber, livestock, machinery, vehicles, firearms and collections. Water
  rights and grazing leases both need specialist handling and are the assets most often missed.
• Running the ranch while the estate is administered where that serves the estate: feed, hay,
  fuel, veterinary care, branding, fencing, and hired labour. Selling a herd into a bad market
  because nobody wanted to spend on feed is a loss, not a saving.
• Carrying costs on estate property until sale: insurance, property tax, utilities, security,
  maintenance and snow removal.
• Wildfire mitigation and defensible-space clearing, and winterising an empty property.
• Cleaning, clearing, storing, moving and shipping contents, including a cabin.
• Travel on estate business at a reasonable rate. Montana distances are extreme and this is a
  serious line item, not a rounding error.
• Bond premiums where bond was not waived.

Normally not claimable

• The representative's lost wages, meals near home, or personal spending.
• Costs run up for one beneficiary's convenience rather than the estate's.
• Improvements beyond preparing a property for sale as it stands.
• Anything without a receipt.

The rule that decides it

Open an estate bank account and run everything through it, and keep a dated log of every trip.

Montana's informal probate makes most estates manageable for a family member. Where the estate is
land, the calculation changes.

Consider a professional when

• The estate holds a working ranch or farm and the family is not agreed on what happens to it.
  This is the Montana case. The personal representative is usually one of the siblings, and asking
  one child to decide the fate of the family ranch while their brothers and sisters watch is
  asking for a dispute. An independent fiduciary, or a professional farm and ranch manager
  alongside a family representative, removes that.
• There are water rights, grazing leases on state or federal land, or mineral and coal
  interests. Montana water law is its own discipline, federal grazing permits do not transfer
  like ordinary property, and an unrecorded or unexercised right can be lost.
• The deceased was a non-resident who owned Montana land — common with recreational and
  conservation property — so ancillary administration is needed here.
• There is a conservation easement on the land, which constrains what the estate can do with
  it and affects its value.
• There is conflict among the beneficiaries, or a will contest looks likely.
• A beneficiary is a minor or incapacitated, so a trust runs for years.

What it costs

Corporate fiduciaries charge a negotiated percentage with a minimum annual fee. A farm and ranch
management company charges a percentage of income and is often the better-targeted arrangement.
Attorneys bill hourly. Ask for all of it in writing.

Middle ground

Appoint a family member, waive bond, and let them retain a Montana attorney plus — where there is
land — a ranch manager and a water rights specialist, all at the estate's expense.

A named representative who does not want the job can decline before appointment.