Add Dropdown List Legal New Mexico Heirship Affidavits Forms For Free

In New Mexico, estates valued at $50,000 or less may be exempt from probate under certain circumstances. Additionally, the process can be avoided if all property is structured to transfer automatically upon the owner's death or if assets are appropriately placed within a living trust before the individual's passing.

Proving Heirship The affidavit of heirship requires that the person filing the document include the heir's basic information along with a description of the property being claimed. Basic information includes your name, age, and the names and information of any other possible heirs if known.

(N.M. Stat. § 45-3-1201 (2024).) If your estate meets the requirements listed above, your inheritor can sign a simple document under oath, called a small estate affidavit or "affidavit for collection of personal property." (Here's a sample of a New Mexico small estate affidavit.)

From start to finish, most New Mexico probates take about two years to complete. However, 90% of the work is usually done in the first five or six months of a probate, and most estates distribute assets within a year. Creditors have up to one year to make a claim.

It often depends on how the decedent's assets were titledor whether someone needs other legal authority to act on behalf of the estate. Examples of matters that may need a probate proceeding include, but are not limited to: Changing title to real property or personal property, such as bank accounts, stocks, bonds, etc.

In New Mexico, you can make a living trust to avoid probate for virtually any asset you own—real estate, bank accounts, vehicles, and so on. You need to create a trust document (similar to a will), naming someone to take over as trustee after your death (called a "successor trustee").

The 120-hour rule. Your transfer-on-death deed will be subject to New Mexico's 120-hour survival rule, which states that your beneficiary must survive you by 120 hours (or 5 days) to receive the property.

In New Mexico, if the total value of the estate exceeds $50,000 the will must go through the Court to be probate. An estate worth less than $50,000 is considered a small estate.

When there is no will, New Mexico distributes a decedent's property based on heirship: Surviving spouse and children — In this situation, the spouse receives all communal property and a quarter of the decedent's separate property. The remaining separate property is split among surviving children.