Your license plate says “Live Free or Die.”
It’s right there. On the plate. Every car in New Hampshire. It’s the state motto, codified in metal and bolted to your bumper. Live free. Or die.
You died.
And here’s the irony: you did it without a will. Which means you’re not living free. Your estate is now under the jurisdiction of the New Hampshire Circuit Court — Probate Division, which will apply its standardized rules to your life’s accumulation of assets, relationships, and wishes. The state will decide. Not you.
New Hampshire is one of the most freedom-maximizing states in the country. No income tax. No sales tax. No estate tax. No inheritance tax. The government basically leaves you alone financially. Then you die without a will, and the government — specifically the Probate Division — steps in to make decisions you could have made yourself.
The good news: New Hampshire has relatively clean intestacy rules and a functional probate system. The bad news: clean and functional still isn’t the same as what you actually wanted.
New Hampshire’s Intestate Succession Law
New Hampshire’s intestate succession is governed by RSA Chapter 561. When you die without a will, this chapter determines who inherits.
If you’re married with children who are all your spouse’s:
Your surviving spouse inherits everything. In New Hampshire, if all your children are also your spouse’s children, the estate goes entirely to your spouse. Clean and simple.
If you’re married and have children from a prior relationship:
Your surviving spouse gets the first $250,000 of the estate, plus one-half of anything above that. Your children from the prior relationship split the remaining half above $250,000. For a $600,000 estate: spouse gets $250,000 + $175,000 = $425,000; your prior children split $175,000.
If you’re married with no children:
Your spouse inherits everything.
If you have children but no spouse:
Your children inherit everything in equal shares. Grandchildren step in per stirpes if a child died before you.
If you have no spouse and no children:
- Your parents (equally, or the surviving parent takes all)
- Your siblings (if both parents are dead) — equally
- More distant relatives following New Hampshire’s kinship order
- The state of New Hampshire (escheat — though the Live Free or Die state probably finds this slightly ironic too)
Unmarried partners: Zero. Nothing. New Hampshire intestacy doesn’t recognize romantic partners who aren’t legally married. Doesn’t matter if you’ve been together for 20 years and own a house together. Your family inherits; your partner doesn’t.
Half-siblings: Inherit equally with full siblings in New Hampshire.
Adopted children: Treated identically to biological children.
What Probate Looks Like in New Hampshire
New Hampshire probate runs through the Circuit Court — Probate Division in the county where you lived. New Hampshire reorganized its court system in 2011, merging the former Probate Courts into the Circuit Court system, but maintaining a dedicated Probate Division with judges who specialize in estate matters.
Timeline:
- Simple estates: 6 to 12 months
- Complex estates or those with disputes: 12 to 24 months or more
- New Hampshire has a competent, reasonably efficient probate system
The process:
- File a petition to open the estate with the Circuit Court — Probate Division
- Court appoints an administrator (for intestate estates — no executor named in a will that doesn’t exist)
- Administrator publishes notice to creditors in a newspaper
- Creditors have six months from publication to file claims
- Administrator inventories assets, pays debts, and files accounting with court
- Court approves distribution to heirs
Costs: Attorney fees, court filing fees, bond premiums, and publication costs typically run 3% to 5% of gross estate value. New Hampshire doesn’t stack state death taxes on top of this, which keeps the overall cost lower than in states with inheritance taxes.
Small estate procedure: New Hampshire has a simplified small estate process. For estates with personal property under a modest threshold and no real estate, heirs can sometimes use simplified procedures. Real estate always requires formal probate.
New Hampshire-Specific Quirks
The Tax Freedom Thing is Real
Let’s be clear about what New Hampshire doesn’t have:
- No income tax (except on interest and dividends, and even that was phased out by 2027)
- No sales tax
- No state estate tax
- No state inheritance tax
This is genuinely unusual. Most states have at least one of these. New Hampshire has essentially none of them. For estate planning purposes, this means heirs in New Hampshire get to keep more of what they inherit — there’s no state-level death tax clawing back a percentage.
The federal estate tax still applies, but only to estates over $13.6 million in 2026. New Hampshire residents — even wealthy ones — often don’t hit this threshold.
Holographic Wills Are Recognized
New Hampshire recognizes holographic wills — entirely handwritten and signed by you, no witnesses required. This is a meaningful safety net. If you’re in a situation where formal will execution isn’t possible, a clear, entirely handwritten, signed document stating your wishes is valid in New Hampshire.
That said, holographic wills are more frequently contested, more subject to interpretation issues, and generally less reliable than formally executed wills with proper witnesses. A Killswitch will is a better choice.
The “Live Free or Die” Ethos in Estate Law
New Hampshire’s relative lack of bureaucratic interference extends somewhat to estate law. The probate system isn’t designed to be punitive or extractive — it’s a functional process for transferring property. But it’s still a court process with real costs and real timelines, and it still operates on default rules that may not match your wishes.
New Hampshire’s ethos of personal freedom is best honored by actually exercising that freedom — which means writing down what you want before you die.
Small Business and Self-Employment
New Hampshire has a significant number of small business owners and self-employed individuals, partly because of the tax environment. When a small business owner dies without a will, intestacy creates the same problems here as anywhere else: business interests become part of the estate, co-owners or partners may have competing interests, and the business may be unable to operate during probate without proper succession planning.
Seasonal and Vacation Property
New Hampshire’s mountains and lakes attract significant vacation property ownership. Cabins, lake houses, and ski properties often have sentimental and financial value that families care deeply about. Without a will specifying what happens to the family cabin on Lake Winnisquam, intestacy distributes it to heirs who may disagree about whether to sell, keep, or use it — creating the same co-ownership conflicts seen with Montana ranch land.
How to Avoid This
New Hampshire gives you more financial freedom in death than almost any other state — no state death taxes of any kind. The state genuinely steps back.
But it doesn’t step back from the probate process itself. Without a will, the Probate Division still runs the show. Your partner still gets nothing. Your executor is still chosen by the court. Your specific wishes about the lake house, the business, the assets you spent a lifetime building — still ignored.
Killswitch costs $69 one-time. That’s it. One-time cost, legally valid in all 50 states including New Hampshire.
In a state with no income tax and no inheritance tax, $69 is about as cheap as it gets for peace of mind. You’re already paying nothing on your income to the state. Spend $69 one time to make sure the state doesn’t get to decide what happens to it after you die.
Live free. Write the will. Die knowing your stuff goes where you want it to go.
killswitch.rip — because the state motto is “Live Free or Die,” not “Let the State Probate Division Handle It.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does New Hampshire recognize holographic (handwritten) wills?
A: Yes. New Hampshire recognizes holographic wills — entirely handwritten and signed by you, with no witnesses required. They’re valid if they meet the requirements. However, holographic wills are more often contested and more subject to ambiguity disputes. A formally executed will (like one from Killswitch, signed with proper witnesses) is more reliable and harder to challenge.
Q: My partner and I have lived together for years but aren’t married. What do they inherit in New Hampshire?
A: Under New Hampshire intestate succession, your unmarried partner inherits nothing. Your estate would go to your closest relatives — spouse, children, parents, siblings — in that order. If you want to protect your partner, you need a will that specifically names them as a beneficiary. This is one of the most important reasons to write a will.
Q: Is probate in New Hampshire expensive given the lack of state taxes?
A: New Hampshire’s lack of state death taxes does reduce the overall cost compared to states with estate or inheritance taxes. But probate costs still apply — attorney fees, court filing fees, bond premiums, and publication costs typically run 3% to 5% of gross estate value. On a $400,000 estate, that’s $12,000 to $20,000 in administrative costs. These costs are separate from state taxes.
Q: What happens if I own property in another state and die without a will in New Hampshire?
A: Real estate is governed by the law of the state where it’s located, not where you lived. If you own a condo in Florida and a house in New Hampshire and die without a will, you’ll likely need probate proceedings in both states — New Hampshire for your primary estate and an “ancillary probate” in Florida for the real property there. A will that covers all your property simplifies multi-state situations significantly.
Q: How does the New Hampshire probate process start if there’s no will?
A: Someone — typically a spouse, child, or other close relative — files a petition with the Circuit Court — Probate Division in your county. They request to be appointed administrator of the estate. The court reviews the petition, appoints the administrator (following a statutory priority order — spouse first, then children, etc.), and the formal probate process begins. Without a will naming an executor, the court decides who handles your estate.
