You Have 39 Probate Courts, a Low Tax Threshold, and No County System. Good Luck.
Your neighbor in Warwick files probate with the city clerk. Your in-laws in North Kingstown file with the town clerk. Your parents in Providence file with the city's municipal court. Every city and town in Rhode Island runs its own probate court — 39 in total — each with its own clerk, schedule, and local procedures. And every single one of them will reject documents that don't meet the exact same statewide statutory requirements under RIGL Title 33.
Meanwhile, Rhode Island's estate tax kicks in at just $1,838,056 — one of the lowest thresholds in the country. Your home, retirement accounts, and life insurance death benefit can push you past this line without your family realizing it until the tax bill arrives.
Free forms from the Secretary of State's website won't help. Those are post-death administrative forms for executors — petitions, voluntary administration filings, court case paperwork. They don't create a plan. They don't write your will, appoint your agents, or keep your home out of probate.
The Rhode Island Municipal Probate Navigator
This kit is built around one principle: your estate plan must work in any of the 39 municipal courts, protect assets from probate and Medicaid recovery, and stay under the state's low tax threshold — without requiring a $1,000 attorney engagement. Instead of handing you blank forms with no instructions, the Municipal Probate Navigator walks you through every document, every execution step, and every filing decision specific to Rhode Island law.
The full guide covers all five core estate planning documents — your will, durable financial power of attorney, health care proxy, living will, and beneficiary designation review — plus the newly enacted 2027 Transfer on Death Deed, Medicaid estate recovery protection, the spousal elective share, and a step-by-step probate administration walkthrough for your executor.
What's Inside the Kit
The kit includes a comprehensive 12-chapter guide with 2 appendices, a one-page checklist, and 8 standalone printable worksheets and reference sheets — everything you need to create, execute, and maintain a legally compliant Rhode Island estate plan.
- Will execution walkthrough for Rhode Island's strict requirements — RIGL § 33-5-5 requires two concurrent witnesses plus the testator's signature, all in each other's physical presence. No holographic wills, no electronic wills. The guide covers every step including the self-proving affidavit under § 33-7-26 that eliminates the need for your witnesses to appear in court when probate opens.
- 2027 Transfer on Death Deed template guidance — Rhode Island's Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act (Senate Bill 2050, effective January 1, 2027) lets homeowners pass their primary residence directly to heirs outside of probate. The guide explains execution requirements, recording with your town clerk's land evidence records, and why this tool makes $1,800 living trusts unnecessary for most middle-class families.
- Medicaid estate recovery protection strategy — Rhode Island is a "probate-only" recovery state. The Executive Office of Health and Human Services can only place liens on assets that pass through probate. The guide shows exactly how to structure joint tenancies, beneficiary designations, and TOD deeds to keep the family home completely out of reach — plus a critical warning about post-2014 Lady Bird deeds that can actually disqualify you from Medicaid under RIGL § 40-8-3.1.
- Estate tax threshold estimator worksheet — a plain-language asset recapitulation modeled after pages 1–4 of Form RI-706. Plug in your home value, retirement accounts, life insurance, and bank balances to see whether your gross estate falls safely below the 2026 threshold of $1,838,056 — or whether you need to explore credit shelter trusts with an attorney.
- Spousal elective share analysis — Rhode Island law lets a surviving spouse renounce a will and claim a life estate in all individually owned real property plus half the personal probate estate. The guide explains how this interacts with trusts, blended families, and the landmark Barrett v. Barrett decision.
- Durable Financial POA and Health Care Proxy execution guides — separate chapters covering notary requirements, agent authority scope, and the specific witness rules for Rhode Island's advance directive (including who cannot serve as a witness). Includes a printable execution checklist so nothing gets missed at the notary appointment.
- Complete probate administration chapter — designed for your executor, covering the six-month creditor claim window, 39-court filing procedures, the nine-month estate tax deadline, and executor compensation rules under Rhode Island law.
- Key contacts and forms directory — probate courts, state agencies, and form numbers organized by task, so your family doesn't have to search.
Who This Kit Is For
- Parents with minor children who need to nominate legal guardians — without a will, a Rhode Island court appoints someone your family may never choose
- Homeowners with combined assets under $1.8 million who want to avoid probate and estate tax without paying for an expensive trust
- Unmarried partners — Rhode Island intestacy law gives cohabiting partners absolutely nothing, regardless of how long you've lived together
- Blended families navigating the spousal elective share and beneficiary coordination between current and former spouses
- Adult children of aging parents worried about Medicaid estate recovery seizing the family home
- Out-of-state property owners facing ancillary probate and the 6% non-resident real estate withholding tax on Rhode Island coastal properties
Why Free Forms and National Services Fall Short
The Secretary of State's website offers free PDFs — but they're only the court-filing forms used after someone dies. Petitions for administration, voluntary executor declarations, estate inventories. None of them create an estate plan.
National services like LegalZoom and Trust & Will generate documents that meet generic legal standards. But they don't address Rhode Island's 39-court municipal system, the low $1,838,056 estate tax threshold, the state's probate-only Medicaid recovery rules, or the newly enacted TOD Deed. They don't tell your executor which town clerk to file with, and they don't warn you about the Lady Bird deed trap that disqualifies Medicaid applicants.
Local Rhode Island attorneys charge $600 for a basic will and $1,000 to $1,800 for a standard estate plan. That's the right move for estates above the tax threshold or families with complex trust needs. For everyone else, it's an expense that doesn't match the complexity of the work.
100% Satisfaction Guarantee
If any Rhode Island municipal court, bank, or state agency refuses to accept documents prepared using this kit's instructions, email us for a full refund — no questions asked.
— Less Than One Hour of a Rhode Island Attorney's Time
The full kit is a one-time purchase. No subscription, no upsell, no recurring fees. You get the complete 12-chapter guide, the quick-start checklist, and all 8 standalone printable worksheets and reference sheets immediately — 10 PDFs total.
Or start with the free Rhode Island Estate Planning Checklist — a one-page overview of every document you need, the execution requirements, and the key deadlines. It covers the essentials. The full guide goes deeper into every chapter.