Settling Small Estates (PR)

Updated Feb 7, 2026
Show Table of Contents Courthouse for estate probate

In Puerto Rico, all estates must go through probate (known as succession in Puerto Rico): there are no exceptions for small estates.

Court

In Puerto Rico, wills and estates are handled by the Superior Court of the Tribunal de Primera Instancia in the judicial region for the given estate (see judicial region map to determine the estate's region, and thus its court). If you are using EstateExec, you can set your court on the Decedent Tab.

You must go through the official estate probate (i.e., succession) process via this court.

No Small Estate Affidavit

Since people commonly ask, note that Puerto Rico has no notion of a small estate affidavit: you must go through the court.

Additional Information

If your estate doesn't qualify for a small estate approach, or you're simply interested in exploring standard probate, take a look at Probate in PR.

And since probate is just the court-supervised subset of winding up a person's affairs after death, you'll probably want to check out our Complete Guide to Estate Settlement in PR.

Finally, in case you're interested, details about handling small estates in other states can be found here:

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