Wyoming

Wyoming estates are heard in the District Court of the county where the deceased lived. The
court issues letters testamentary where there is a will, or letters of administration where
there is not.

Summary procedure for smaller estates

Wyoming offers a summary procedure that transfers property by affidavit and court decree
without a full administration, where the estate falls under the statutory value. It is markedly
faster and cheaper. Ask the clerk whether the estate qualifies before opening a full probate —
many Wyoming estates do.

The split estate

This is the Wyoming feature that catches families and out-of-state executors alike. Across much of
the state the surface and the mineral estate have been severed: one person owns the land, a
different person owns the coal, oil and gas beneath it, and the mineral estate is generally
dominant — its owner has rights to use the surface to get at it.

For an estate that means two things. The deceased may own minerals under land they never
owned, inherited generations back and easy to miss entirely. And land the family thinks of as
theirs may be subject to someone else's mineral rights, which affects both its value and what a
buyer will pay.

Establish the position before valuing anything. It usually needs a county records search.

No death tax, no income tax

Wyoming levies no estate tax, no inheritance tax and no state income tax. Only the federal return
can arise.

Before distributing

Publish the notice to creditors, let the claim period run, settle the final income tax returns,
and file the final report and accounting for the court to approve.

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

Holographic wills are valid

Wyoming accepts a will entirely in the testator's own handwriting and signed by them, with no
witnesses. Wyoming's rule is the stricter "wholly handwritten" form rather than the Uniform
Probate Code's "material portions" test, so a printed form with handwritten blanks does not
qualify here. It must all be in your hand.

Valid still is not advisable. A handwritten will does not name an alternate executor, rarely
disposes of the residue properly, and says nothing about minerals — which in Wyoming is a real
omission.

Say what happens to the minerals

If you own mineral, royalty or coal interests — and many Wyoming landowners do, sometimes
without realising it — deal with them expressly and separately from the surface.

Splitting minerals equally among children fractionalises an interest that is already fractional,
and repeating that across generations produces holdings too small to administer and too numerous
for an operator to trace. Consider leaving them whole to one person, or into a trust or an entity,
and equalising with other assets.

Also

• Name an alternate personal representative and waive bond.
• Wyoming permits a transfer on death deed for real estate.
• Wyoming's trust and LLC law is among the most developed in the country — long-lasting trusts, no
  state income tax. If you have a trust or hold land in an LLC, the will must be drafted alongside
  it, not in isolation.
• A surviving spouse has an elective share whatever the will says.

Yes, and Wyoming sets it by statute with the steepest opening rate in the country.

The statutory schedule

Under Wyo. Stat. § 2-7-803 the personal representative is allowed fees on the estate accounted
for:

Confirm the current figures against the statute.

Read the shape of it, not the headline

Ten per cent sounds generous and applies to the first thousand dollars only. On an estate of any
size the effective rate converges on 2%, which is at the low end nationally. A $500,000 estate
yields roughly $10,000 — not a windfall for a year's work.

Extraordinary services

The court may allow further compensation for services beyond the ordinary. In Wyoming the
common case is mineral work: tracing severed interests through county records, dealing with
operators, and releasing royalties held in suspense. That can consume months and is invisible in
the inventory value. Claim it separately and explain it.

How it is approved

Fees are claimed in the final report and allowed by the District Court. Interested persons may
object.

If the will fixes the figure

A will provision governs where the personal representative accepts the appointment on those terms.

Tax

Compensation is taxable income federally. Wyoming has no state income tax, so no state
bite — and no Wyoming death tax for the fee to be deducted against. A family representative who is
also a beneficiary usually gains nothing by taking one, unless they have genuinely done the
mineral work.

A Wyoming personal representative is reimbursed from the estate for the reasonable expenses of
administration, separately from the statutory fee. Given how modest that fee becomes on a larger
estate, claiming expenses properly matters here.

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 records searches, a landman's time, title opinions, and the
  correspondence needed to establish severed interests and release royalties held in suspense.
  In a split-estate state this is core estate work, not an optional extra.
• Appraisals of ranch land, water rights, grazing leases on state and federal land, mineral,
  coal and royalty interests, livestock, machinery, vehicles, firearms and collections.
• Running the ranch while the estate is administered where that serves the estate: feed, hay,
  fuel, veterinary care, fencing and hired labour.
• Carrying costs on estate property until sale: insurance, property tax, utilities, security,
  maintenance and snow removal.
• Winterising an empty property, and wildfire mitigation on wildland-interface land.
• Cleaning, clearing, storing, moving and shipping contents.
• Travel on estate business at a reasonable rate. Wyoming distances are extreme; this is a serious
  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, and keep a dated log of every trip.

Wyoming's summary procedure means many estates never need a full administration. Where one is
needed, the case for professional help usually turns on land and minerals rather than on the size
of the estate.

Consider a professional when

• The estate holds severed mineral, coal or royalty interests. This is the Wyoming case.
  Interests are frequently fractional, inherited through estates that were never probated, and
  producing royalties an operator is holding in suspense because title cannot be proved.
  Establishing what the deceased owned needs a landman and a title opinion, and the value is
  often far greater than the visible estate.
• The estate includes a working ranch with land to divide between the child who ranches and
  those who do not, plus water rights and federal or state grazing leases that do not transfer
  like ordinary property.
• There is a conservation easement on the land, constraining what the estate can do and
  affecting value.
• The deceased was a non-resident who owned Wyoming land, minerals or an LLC — very common —
  so ancillary administration is needed here.
• There is a Wyoming trust or LLC holding assets, which has to be coordinated with the estate.
• There is conflict among the beneficiaries, or a beneficiary is a minor or incapacitated.

What it costs

Corporate fiduciaries charge a negotiated percentage with a minimum annual fee that makes most
Wyoming estates uneconomic. A landman engaged by the day or the project is usually far
better-targeted spending for a mineral estate. Attorneys bill hourly. Ask for all of it in writing.

Middle ground

Appoint a family member, waive bond, and let them retain a Wyoming attorney at the estate's
expense, adding a landman where minerals are involved and a ranch manager where there is stock.

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