Estate planning rules in South Dakota
Key takeaway
South Dakota estate planning rules recognize holographic wills, set out informal probate application requirements, allow a small estate affidavit, and treat joint account survivorship as controlling absent clear proof of a different intention. A will is valid as a holographic will, whether or not witnessed, if the signature and material portions are in the testator's handwriting.
Wills and intestacy
Under intestacy law, a surviving spouse receives the entire estate if there are no surviving descendants or all surviving descendants are also the spouse's descendants. Otherwise the spouse gets $100,000 plus half the balance.
Informal probate applications
An informal probate application must include a statement that the time limit has not expired because three years or less have passed since the decedent's death.
The application must state that the decedent's original will is in the court's possession or accompanies the application, or that a certified copy of a will probated elsewhere accompanies it.
By verifying an informal probate or appointment application, the applicant personally submits to the court's jurisdiction for perjury proceedings relating to the application.
Small estate affidavit
A decedent's personal property may be collected by affidavit thirty days after death if the entire estate, less liens, does not exceed $100,000 and no personal representative proceeding is pending.
The affidavit requires stating that the decedent incurred no indebtedness to the Department of Social Services for medical assistance for nursing home or other institutional care.
Joint accounts and account designations
Sums in a joint account at a party's death belong to the surviving party as against the decedent's estate unless clear and convincing proof shows a different intention at account creation.
Survivorship rights from account terms, trust account beneficiary designations or payable on death payee designations cannot be changed by will unless the will expressly says the account terms are to be changed.
Thresholds and rates change. Check the state's own current figures.