Heir Rights (MP)
As an heir, you likely have questions about the inheritance process in MP, and your rights.
Overall, if you are entitled to receive an inheritance, you have the right to expect to receive that inheritance ... eventually. While some states attempt to put deadlines on estate settlements, an average estate takes 16 months to settle, and some take years (see Inheritance Timing).
Rights Under MP Probate
Most estates are settled by an executor appointed by the court (often a family member), under a court-supervised process known as probate. The executor has significant discretionary power, but he or she has a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the estate, to follow the law, and to distribute estate proceeds to the rightful heirs.
However, MP estates must satisfy obligations according to priority (for example, debts take precedence over distributions), so in some cases your inheritance will be less than expected, or even be completely consumed by other estate priorities (which must generally affect all potential heirs proportionately). See Estate Expenses, Fees, and Taxes for more information, and note that for your protection, estate executors must document all estate transactions and make these records available to the courts ... and in some states, must proactively deliver these records in a Final Accounting to the heirs as well.
Your rights as an heir include:
- Notice: Many states have laws that require an estate executor to notify you of the death and the estate proceeding if you are mentioned in the will, if there is no will and you are entitled to inherit by intestate succession, or even if there is a will that doesn't mention you, but you would have been entitled to inherit by intestate succession (i.e., you are an "heir-at-law").
- Estate Information: Many states require the executor to provide you a copy of the estate inventory, as well as a Final Accounting (what happened to the inventory, what estate expenses were incurred, etc.). If the estate is undergoing probate, and the state does not require that the executor directly supply you the information, you can simply make a public records request for the reports filed with the court.
- MP Family Entitlements: If you are a surviving spouse or dependent child, you likely have additional rights that go beyond anything mentioned in the will or mandated by the laws of intestate succession. Surviving family members often have the right to remain living in the family home for a certain period of time, to automatically receive certain personal possessions, to receive a living allowance from the estate while it is being settled, and to receive certain minimum amounts (see MP Family Entitlement details for your state).
- Reasonable Timeframe: Unless the asset is one that automatically transfers on death (such as an IRA with a named beneficiary), you can expect the process to take 12-18 months on average, and sometimes considerably longer (see Inheritance Timing). An executor has a duty to settle an estate in a reasonable timeframe, but most states are very lenient about such timeframes, and there are legitimate reasons that some estates take years to settle. On the other hand, some executor simply cannot handle the task, or unreasonably delay, and those can be grounds to ask the court to remove the executor and appoint someone else.
- Court Objections: If the estate undergoes probate (and most do), you have the right to object to the probate court about anything you think is being done incorrectly or improperly. You can object to the appointment of a particular executor, you can object to the validity of a will, you can object to particular distributions (not just your own), you can object to sales of assets, you can object to how long things are taking ... in fact, you can object to almost anything. You just need to make sure you have valid grounds for doing so, and it's important to realize that settling an estate is a difficult task that takes time. See Court to find your particular court.
- Lawsuits: If the probate judge does not respond to your objection as desired, or if there is no probate proceeding, then you can file a civil lawsuit against the estate. Such lawsuits can be expensive, and should be considered only as a last resort.
Additional considerations:
- Expectations: Please keep in mind that although a will may be specific about an intended inheritance, other factors can sometimes intervene to modify or even entirely invalidate the inheritance. See MP Rules of Inheritance for details.
- Inheritance Taxes: Some states have inheritance taxes for which the executor has the responsibility of paying, out of your share, before giving you your remaining inheritance. If your executor is using EstateExec, it will tell him or her if such taxes apply.
- Executor Discretion: Unless the inheritance is a specific bequest, the executor may have some discretion in deciding how to give you your share of an estate. The executor may decide to liquidate assets and give you all cash (and cash equivalents), or the executor may mix and match assets to equal your share. You have to the right to ask for your share to be given in a certain form, but the executor does not have to respect your wishes. For this reason (and others), it is advisable to try to retain a good relationship with the executor (see Working with Executors).
- Inheritance Receipts: When you receive an inheritance, the executor will likely ask you to sign a receipt, which can be required. However, the executor will often ask you, as a condition of receiving the proceeds, to waive any rights you may to decide to sue the estate or the executor in the future. Such waivers are best practice for an executor, but heirs are not required to waive their rights, so the decision is up to you. It may be best to sign anyway, to preserve the relationship and to receive your inheritance in a timely manner, but your ultimate recourse is to either convince the executor to drop the waiver, or object to the court.
MP Small Estate Rights
Most states have laws enabling small estates to be settled without full probate, sometimes without any court involvement at all. In such cases, there may be no formally appointed executor, and the heir can directly collect any inheritance to which he or she is entitled, by providing appropriate documentation to the current asset holders.
In the Northern Mariana Islands, settlement of small estates does not require probate and is generally straightforward, but if necessary you can use Summary Administration to obtain an Order of Transfer.
Requirements for Summary Administration
In The Northern Mariana Islands, you can use Summary Administration to bypass probate if the following conditions are true:
- The adjusted probate value of the estate is <$5,000
- The estate is solvent (i.e., can pay its debts)
- You cannot readily obtain estate assets without a court order (otherwise, just handle things without court involvement)
In calculating estate value, you should value assets as of the date of death, and ignore any debts (other than secured debt such as liens and mortgages). Do not include assets that would not normally go through probate, such as property with right of survivorship, assets with named beneficiaries (e.g., 401Ks, life insurance policies), and other standard probate exclusions.
You should also exclude from the valuation calculation any Family Entitlements.
Process
To settle an estate of limited value via Summary Administration:
- Submit to the court a Petition for Transfer of Decedent's Personalty (see below)
- Upon approval, the court will an order directing the property to be transferred
- Use the order to collect estate assets (this order cannot be used to collect land)
- Settle the estate in the normal way (pay debts, make distributions)
- If you belatedly discover the estate cannot pay all its debts, stop, and report back to the court
For statute details, see 8 CMC §§ 2501 - 2506.
Hint: It is not necessary to submit a petition for transfer — if you can convince current custodians of estate assets to give you possession. Of course, you still need to pay debts and distribute assets to the appropriate recipients.
Petition
A Petition for Transfer of Decedent's Personalty must include:
- The name of the decedent, residence, and date of death
- The names and addresses of the surviving spouse, children, siblings of the decedent, and the eldest living brother of decedent’s mother, the head of the lineage, where applicable, or, if none of the above persons survived the decedent, the name, address, and relationship of the nearest surviving relative
- A statement of the total value of the personal property, and that the total value is over and above the exempt property and homestead allowance of the surviving spouse.
- List the property, if any, that passes or is to pass under an existing will and to whom it went or is to go
- A promise to pay, as far as the assets in excess of the exempt property and homestead allowance permit, the debts of the decedent, or see that the debts are paid, and to distribute the balance, if any, to the person or persons entitled to it
See 8 CMC §§ 2502.
Estate Settlement Considerations
Before paying any debts or making any distributions, be sure to account for any MP Family Entitlements, which typically have priority over everything except expenses of the last illness, funeral charges, and any estate administrations expenses.
Estate debts have priority over most distributions in turn, so you should arrange to have all debts resolved before distributing assets. Unpaid estate creditors have the right to sue heirs for the value of any distributions received using the approaches described on this page.
Personal representatives (i.e., executors) using this small estate process are not entitled to compensation, but any reasonable expenses should be reimbursed.
If estate solvency is uncertain, an executor should consider going through official probate for the increased creditor protection it offers. Alternately, such uncertainty can sometimes persuade creditors to forgive a portion of debts, since they will want to avoid legal expenses as well, and may prefer to get something rather than nothing.
See also Making Distributions.
No Small Estate Affidavit
Many people ask about using a small estate affidavit without any court involvement, but MP does not support such an affidavit. You must use above method (or full probate) for handling small estates in MP.
Court
In the Northern Mariana Islands, the Clerk of the Superior Court handles wills and estate matters.
Estate Debts
Finally, note that as an heir, you are NOT responsible for paying the debts of the MP estate out of your own funds. You do NOT inherit responsibility for paying the debts of parents, for example. If the estate is insolvent (i.e., cannot pay all its bills), then creditors simply end up with less than owed, or even nothing ... as do you.
If an estate ends up being insolvent, and you somehow received a distribution anyway (perhaps through a small estate process), some states allow creditors to sue you to reclaim any amounts they are still owed. So you can't inherit a debt outright, but if you receive a distribution that the estate needed to pay its bills, you may be forced to pay out some or all of that distribution.
Additional Information
For more information about inheritances in general, see EstateExec Heir Guide.
In case you're interested, heir rights in other states can be found here:
EstateExec™ Leaves More $ for Heirs!
EstateExec will likely save the estate thousands of dollars (in reduced legal and accounting expenses, plus relevant money-saving coupons), leaving more funds for distributions to heirs.
- Awarded Best Estate Executor Software in North America at the Worldwide Finance Awards 2023
- Named Best Estate Executor Tool – – by Retirement Living
- Web Application of the Year Winner at the Globee Business Excellence Awards 2022
- Winner of Best Executor Software at the Software and Technology Awards
- Rated 4.9 stars – – on TrustPilot reviews