Serves clients from offices in Watertown, Milbank, and Arlington. Handles probate and simpler alternatives to it, successor-trustee trust administration, ancillary probates of out-of-state estates, and guardianships and conservatorships, alongside wills, powers of attorney, and trusts. Bills estate work by the time spent on the file, not a percentage of assets.
Probate in Minnehaha County
Probate Court Record
Minnehaha County Circuit Court
Minnehaha County · 2nd Judicial Circuit
Phone
Hours
Monday-Friday 8:00 AM-5:00 PM
Office
425 North Dakota Avenue, Sioux Falls, SD 57104
Website
E-filing
Filing in person
Walk-ins accepted
Self-represented filing
Allowed
How to file probate in Minnehaha County →
Verified October 16, 2026 · Source
Do I need a lawyer for probate in Minnehaha County? →Settling an estate in Minnehaha County →
Guardianship Firms Serving Minnehaha County
Serves eastern South Dakota from offices in Brookings and Watertown. Handles uncontested probate of a will, intestate administration, trust administration for successor trustees of revocable living trusts, business interests in probate, and estate administration for personal representatives who live outside South Dakota. The Brookings practice traces back more than 100 years.
Solo general practice in Mitchell. Administers probate and trust estates, handles guardianships and conservatorships, and drafts wills, revocable and irrevocable living trusts, and durable and health care powers of attorney, alongside business, municipal, zoning, and real estate work. James D. Taylor started the firm in 1987.
Six attorneys practicing from Yankton and Hartington, Nebraska. Handles probate of estates from a few thousand dollars to several million, trust administration for family-member trustees, and estate and trust litigation for trustees, executors, and beneficiaries, plus guardianships and conservatorships. Its attorneys are licensed in South Dakota and Nebraska.
Serves Sioux Falls and clients throughout South Dakota and Minnesota from an office on S. Grand Arbor Court. Handles probate and estate administration, guardianship and conservatorship petitions, and disputes over wills, trusts, and estate administration, including fiduciary misconduct claims. Offers a free consultation for estate administration and probate matters.
Serves Sioux Falls from a solo office on South Crossing Place. Takes families through probate and trust administration and guardianship and conservatorship petitions, and drafts wills, trusts, special needs trusts and Medicaid long-term care plans. Attorney Rebecca Wilson founded it after 18 years in estate planning and elder law and belongs to the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys.
All 13 South Dakota guardianship firms serving Minnehaha County →
Forms for Planning and Settling an Estate in South Dakota
Free South Dakota forms to plan or settle an estate: a will, trust, powers of attorney, TOD deed and the probate forms. Prepare each form for South Dakota.
Free
Last Will and Testament
In South Dakota, a will is signed before 2SDCL 29A-2-502Verified Oct 19, 2026View source witnesses, and a self-proving affidavit signed with it lets the court admit it without witness testimonySDCL 29A-2-502Verified Oct 19, 2026View source.
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Free
Healthcare Power of Attorney
South Dakota allows a choice for a healthcare power of attorney: 2SDCL § 34-12D-3 (living will form; no statutory healthcare proxy form)Verified Oct 15, 2026View source witnesses or a notary.
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Free
Financial Power of Attorney
South Dakota requires explicit durability language for a power of attorney to survive incapacitySDCL § 59-12-3, § 59-12-4, § 59-12-5, § 59-12-6, § 59-12-8, § 59-12-23, § 59-12-41Verified Oct 21, 2026View source, and it is signed before a notarySDCL § 59-12-3, § 59-12-4, § 59-12-5, § 59-12-6, § 59-12-8, § 59-12-23, § 59-12-41Verified Sep 20, 2026View source.
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Tools for Planning and Settling an Estate in South Dakota
Free calculators and checklists to plan or settle an estate in South Dakota: will and trust costs, probate, executor pay and taxes. Run each tool.
How Much Life Insurance Do I Need?
In South Dakota, four years at a public university cost about $69,440NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 330.20, public 4-year in-state tuition, fees, room and board, academic year 2022-23Verified Oct 17, 2026View source and the cost of living is 11% below the U.S. averageBEA Regional Price Parities, all items, by state, 2024Verified Oct 17, 2026View source; no state estate or inheritance tax appliesNo state estate or inheritance tax. Inheritance tax constitutionally prohibited (S.D. Const. Art. XI, § 15, initiated measure approved Nov. 7, 2000, eff. July 1, 2001: "No tax may be levied on any inheritance, and the Legislature may not enact any law imposing such a tax."). Both the inheritance tax (SDCL ch. 10-40, ch. 10-41) and the estate tax (SDCL ch. 10-40A) were repealed outright by 2014 SL ch. 59 (HB 1057), signed February 12, 2014 — a true repeal, leaving no dormant levy. SD DOR: "South Dakota does not have an inheritance tax... There is also no estate tax."Verified Sep 15, 2026View source.
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What Does Estate Planning Actually Cost?
An attorney-prepared revocable trust in South Dakota runs $3,580Estimate: 10 hours at $358, Clio's South Dakota Trusts rate; Compare Lawyer Rates, 2025 dataVerified Oct 15, 2026View source to $5,370Estimate: 15 hours at $358, Clio's South Dakota Trusts rate; Compare Lawyer Rates, 2025 dataVerified Oct 15, 2026View source and a simple will $933Estimate: 3 hours at $311, Clio's South Dakota Wills and Estates rate; Compare Lawyer Rates, 2025 dataVerified Oct 15, 2026View source to $1,866Estimate: 6 hours at $311, Clio's South Dakota Wills and Estates rate; Compare Lawyer Rates, 2025 dataVerified Oct 15, 2026View source, against $0 to $549 up front plus a subscription with an online service.
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Who Inherits Without a Will?
Without a will in South Dakota, a surviving spouse takes the entire estateSDCL § 29A-2-102Verified Oct 21, 2026View source when every child of either spouse is a child of both, and descendants divide what passes to them per stirpesSDCL § 29A-2-106; § 29A-2-709Verified Oct 21, 2026View source.
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