Probate and estate bonds in Michigan

• A special personal representative is appointed, under section 700.3603(1).
• The will expressly requires a bond. Section 700.3603(2) then lets the court waive it where it finds a bond unnecessary.
• A person apparently having an interest in the estate above the section 700.3605 threshold, or a creditor with a claim above it, files a written demand with the register. No court finding is needed for the requirement to attach.
• The proceeding is formal and the court orders a bond at appointment. Where the will relieves the personal representative of bond, section 700.3603(2) permits that only if an interested person requests it and the court finds it desirable.

The starting position is the waiver: in an informal proceeding section 700.3603(1) requires no bond at all unless one of its exceptions applies. A will can impose a bond, and section 700.3603(2) then lets the court waive it where it finds the bond unnecessary. The reverse also holds and is narrower than it looks: where the will relieves the personal representative of bond, the court in a formal proceeding may order one only if an interested person requests it and the court finds it desirable. What no waiver reaches is a demand filed under section 700.3605, which operates on its own terms.

Where the decedent was domiciled elsewhere and no local administration, application or petition is pending in Michigan, section 700.4203 lets a domiciliary foreign personal representative file authenticated copies of the appointment, and of any official bond already given, with a court in a county where the decedent's property is located. That section adds no bond rule of its own, though it does make the representative's ability to maintain an action here subject to any conditions imposed upon non-resident parties generally. Where the estate is a Michigan administration and the person serving simply lives out of state, the bond sections turn on the proceeding, the will and any demand rather than on the representative's residence, and none of sections 700.3603 to 700.3606 addresses residency separately. That is not the same as a rule that residency is irrelevant — a representative with no Michigan presence is the kind of fact that prompts the demand under section 700.3605 in the first place. Confirm the position with the probate court handling the file.

Section 700.3983 allows a successor to collect personal property on a sworn statement where the estate contains no real property and its value, after liens and encumbrances are subtracted, is at or below $50,000 adjusted as provided in section 1210, beginning 28 days after the death. The statement has to confirm that no application for a personal representative is pending or granted in any jurisdiction, that the successor is entitled to the property, and who else is entitled and in what share. Treat the figure as a base rather than a current number: section 1210 multiplies it by a cost-of-living factor the Department of Treasury publishes each year, rounded to the nearest $1,000, applied by the year of death for deaths from 1 January 2024. Take the current amount from the Treasury's published factor or from the court.

Tell us the bond amount the court set and we will place it. Most Michigan files are issued the same day once the application is in.

• Probate bonds in California — Bond is the default unless the will or every beneficiary waives it, and the court can still require one for good cause.
• Probate bonds in Texas — A will can dispense with the bond where the court finds the executor qualified, and the amount is built from personal property rather than land.
• Probate bonds in New York — The Surrogate's Court counts eighteen months of rents in the bond, and a non-domiciliary executor can be required to post one even where the will excuses it.
• Probate bonds in Arizona — A bond is required unless the will or every heir waives it, and real estate counts toward the amount unless the letters restrict sales to court confirmation.
• Probate bonds in Pennsylvania — A bond is required before letters issue, and the section 3174 exemptions are conditioned on the personal representative living in Pennsylvania.

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