The Connecticut General Assembly recently enacted legislation increasing probate court fees for the estates of certain decedents. The increase was driven by the State’s decision to decrease funding to the probate courts over the next two years, as a means to mitigate the budget cut. These new fees apply to the estates of decedents who die on or after January 1, 2015. As a result of this recent change, Connecticut now has the highest probate court fees in the country.

There is a common misconception that Connecticut probate fees can be avoided if a decedent did not have an interest in any assets that would be subject to probate at the time of death. Unfortunately, that was not the case in the past and is still not true today. Probate fees will continue to be calculated based on the gross taxable estate. This means that probate fees will be imposed regardless of whether any assets are included in the probate estate.

Similar to the previous probate fee structure, the new probate court fees are based on the percentage of assets reported on the Connecticut Estate Tax return that is required by law to be filed for all Connecticut decedents (even if there are no probate assets).

The fee structure for estates less than $2,000,000 has not changed. Decedents with gross estates in excess of $2,000,000, however, will be affected in two ways: (1) the rate of the fee increased from 0.25% to 0.5%, and (2) there is no longer a $12,500 cap on probate fees. 

Not surprisingly, this legislative change has been met with controversy and we suspect there will be an effort to address it this year. For the time being, however, these fee increases will apply to the estates of all Connecticut residents and non-residents with real or tangible personal property within Connecticut. For more information, please contact Alyssa V. Sherriff (asherriff@brodywilk.com).