Utah

Utah estates are heard in the District Court of the county where the deceased lived, under the
Utah Uniform Probate Code. The structure will look familiar to anyone who has dealt with an estate
in Colorado, Arizona or Minnesota.

Informal or formal

• Informal probate is decided by the registrar on the application alone, without a
  hearing. It is the normal route where the will is clear and nobody objects, and an informal
  probate is conclusive as to everyone unless and until it is superseded by a formal testacy
  order.
• Formal probate goes before a judge, and is used where the will is unclear or missing, an
  heir cannot be located, or someone objects.

Administration is then usually unsupervised — the personal representative acts without
returning to court at each step.

You may not need probate at all

Where the estate's total value is $100,000 or less and at least 30 days have passed since
the death, a small estate affidavit collects personal property — bank accounts, vehicles,
wages — with no court involvement. Confirm the current threshold before assuming.

No state death tax

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

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 Utah 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

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

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

Make an attested will self-proving

Attach a self-proving affidavit signed before a notary, so no witness need be located afterwards.

Practical points

• Name an alternate personal representative and ask for unsupervised administration without
  bond.
• Utah permits a transfer on death deed for real estate, which passes a property outside
  probate. For a family whose main asset is the house, that plus a small estate affidavit can
  avoid probate entirely.
• A surviving spouse has an elective share whatever the will says.
• Consider whether the will should say something about compensation — Utah has a useful
  mechanism for approving it, described in the compensation topic, but it works better where the
  will has set expectations.
• Review after a marriage, divorce, birth or a move to Utah.

Yes, and Utah provides a mechanism for settling it that most states do not.

The standard

Under Utah Code § 75-3-718 the personal representative and the attorney are each entitled to
reasonable compensation for their services. There is no statutory percentage.

The unopposed-petition rule

This is the part worth knowing. If the representative files a petition seeking approval of
their compensation and no interested person objects, then the compensation sought is
reasonable compensation. The court does not second-guess it.

Where someone does object, the court determines what is reasonable by reference to the
quality, quantity and value of the services rendered to the estate, and the circumstances in
which they were rendered.

That structure rewards being open. A representative who puts the figure in front of everyone and
invites objection converts an argument they might lose later into a settled question now. It is a
far better position than taking a fee quietly in an unsupervised administration and defending it
two years on.

Records still matter

"Quality, quantity and value" is not a formula. Contemporaneous time records are what make a
petition unobjectionable in the first place.

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 Utah estate or inheritance tax
for a fee to be deducted against, a family representative who is also a beneficiary often gains
nothing by taking one. Ask an accountant.

A Utah 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 real property, ranch land, water rights, vehicles, firearms and collections.
  Water rights need specialist valuation in Utah and are easy to overlook entirely.
• Carrying costs on estate property until sale: insurance, property tax, utilities, security,
  maintenance, landscaping and snow removal.
• Wildfire mitigation and defensible-space clearing on canyon or foothills property, and
  winterising a cabin at altitude. Both are preservation costs rather than improvements.
• Homeowners' association assessments, which continue regardless.
• Cleaning, clearing, storing, moving and shipping contents, including a mountain property.
• Travel on estate business at a reasonable rate — Utah distances make mileage a real line item.
• 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. If you intend to use Utah's
unopposed petition route to fix your compensation, the ledger and the time log are what make
that petition credible enough for nobody to object to it.

Utah's informal probate and generous small estate affidavit mean many estates need little help
and some need no probate at all. The case for a professional executor is correspondingly narrow.

Consider a professional when

• The estate holds ranch land, water rights, or mineral interests. Utah water law is its own
  discipline, and a water right is frequently the most valuable and least understood asset in a
  rural estate.
• There is an operating business or rental property, including short-term-let property near a
  resort, that needs managing rather than transferring.
• The estate involves a blended family or a second marriage where the elective share and the
  children of a first marriage pull against each other.
• There is conflict among the beneficiaries, or a will contest looks likely — which moves the
  estate from informal to formal proceedings and changes the cost entirely.
• The will is holographic and undated, and more than one version exists.
• A beneficiary is a minor or incapacitated, so a trust runs for years.
• The named representative lives out of state and cannot attend to property that needs
  physical attention through the winter.

What it costs

Corporate fiduciaries charge a negotiated percentage with a minimum annual fee. Attorneys
generally bill hourly — and note that under § 75-3-718 the attorney's compensation is subject
to the same reasonableness test as the representative's.

Middle ground

First check whether a small estate affidavit or a transfer on death deed avoids probate
altogether. If not, appoint a family member, ask for unsupervised administration without bond,
and let them retain a Utah probate attorney at the estate's expense.

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