North Dakota

North Dakota estates are heard in the District Court of the county where the deceased lived.
North Dakota has adopted the Uniform Probate Code, so the routes are the familiar ones:
informal probate on the paperwork through the registrar, formal probate before a judge
where something is disputed, and unsupervised administration by default.

Mineral interests dominate

More than in almost any other state, a North Dakota estate is likely to turn on mineral,
royalty and working interests. The Bakken has made interests that were worthless for decades
extremely valuable, and a great many are held by families who:

• inherited them informally and never probated the earlier estate,
• own fractional interests spread across several counties, and
• have royalties sitting in suspense with an operator because nobody can prove title.

Establishing what the deceased actually held is often the single largest task in the
administration, and it frequently requires a title search and a landman as well as an
appraiser. Do not assume the family knows. Do not assume the absence of a cheque means the absence
of an interest.

No state death tax

North Dakota levies neither an estate nor an inheritance tax. Only the federal return can arise.

Smaller estates

Where the estate qualifies, an affidavit collects personal property with no court involvement.
Ask before opening a case.

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. Publish promptly — the creditor clock
protects the estate.

North Dakota is one of only two states in the country — the other is Colorado — that accepts a
will executed in three different ways. The testator must be 18 or older and of sound mind, and
the will must be in writing and signed by the testator. Then any one of these will do:

Witnessed

Signed by two witnesses who sign within a reasonable time after witnessing the signing or the
testator's acknowledgement of it.

Notarised — no witnesses needed

The testator signs in the presence of a notary public, and no witnesses are required at all.
Very few states allow this. If you can reach a notary but not two disinterested witnesses — which
in rural North Dakota is a realistic problem — this produces a fully valid will.

Holographic

Valid whether or not witnessed if the signature and all material provisions are in the
testator's handwriting. The rest may be printed. No date is required, though you should write
one.

Say what happens to the minerals

This is the North Dakota drafting point that matters most. If you hold mineral or royalty
interests, deal with them expressly. Splitting them equally between four children turns one
interest into four fractional ones, and repeating that over two generations produces interests too
small to administer and too numerous to trace — which is exactly how royalties end up in suspense.

Consider leaving minerals to one person, or into a trust or an entity that holds them whole, and
equalising with other assets.

Also

• Name an alternate personal representative and waive bond.
• A surviving spouse has an elective share whatever the will says.
• Review after a marriage, divorce, birth or a move to North Dakota.

Yes. A North Dakota personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for
services performed. North Dakota 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.

Mineral work is the argument for more

A percentage of the inventory value tells you very little about a North Dakota estate. An estate
holding a farm and a bank account may take four months. An estate whose minerals had to be traced
across five counties, whose earlier generation was never probated, and whose royalties had to be
released from suspense may take three years and involve a landman, a title opinion and
correspondence with several operators.

Those are not the same job, and reasonable compensation should reflect the second. Keep a log,
and be ready to explain the mineral work specifically — it is the part beneficiaries most often
fail to appreciate, precisely because it is invisible until the cheques start arriving.

Unsupervised means unreviewed, not approved

Nobody examines the fee as it is taken. An interested person may petition the District Court
afterwards, and the burden of justifying it 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 it before
qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead.

Tax

Compensation is taxable income; an inheritance is not. With no North Dakota death tax for a fee
to be deducted against, a family representative who is also a beneficiary often gains nothing by
taking one.

A North Dakota 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.
• Mineral title work: county record searches, a landman's time, title opinions, and the
  correspondence needed to release royalties held in suspense. This is the distinctive North
  Dakota expense, it can be substantial, and it is entirely legitimate — it is frequently what
  recovers the estate's largest asset.
• Appraisals of farmland, mineral and royalty interests, grain in storage, livestock, machinery,
  vehicles and collections.
• On a farm, the genuine costs of carrying the operation through to harvest where that serves
  the estate — seed, fertiliser, fuel, custom work, drying and storage.
• Carrying costs on estate property until sale: insurance, property tax, utilities, security,
  maintenance and snow removal.
• Winterising a property so an empty house survives a North Dakota winter.
• Cleaning, clearing, storing, moving and shipping contents.
• Travel on estate business at a reasonable rate, including trips to several county recorders.
• 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.

North Dakota's informal probate makes an ordinary estate manageable for a family member. Minerals
change the calculation, and they are involved more often than families expect.

Consider a professional when

• The estate holds mineral, royalty or working interests. This is the North Dakota case and it
  is not a marginal one. Interests are frequently fractional, scattered across counties, inherited
  through estates that were never probated, and generating royalties an operator is holding in
  suspense. Untangling that needs a landman and a title opinion, and the sums involved are
  often far larger than the visible estate.
• An earlier generation's estate was never administered, so title has to be established through
  two or three deaths at once.
• The estate includes a working farm with land to divide between farming and non-farming
  children and a crop in the ground.
• There is conflict among the beneficiaries, which is more likely where minerals have made an
  ordinary estate unexpectedly valuable.
• A beneficiary is a minor or incapacitated, so a trust runs for years.
• The named representative lives out of state — very common where children have left — and
  cannot visit county recorders or walk the ground.

What it costs

Corporate fiduciaries charge a negotiated percentage with a minimum annual fee. A landman is
usually engaged separately, by the day or the project, and for a mineral estate that is normally
the better-targeted spend. Attorneys bill hourly. Ask for all of it in writing.

Middle ground

Appoint a family member, waive bond, and let them retain a North Dakota attorney at the estate's
expense, adding a landman where minerals are involved rather than a full corporate fiduciary.

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