How Do I Get Appointed as Executor in Nevada?

In Nevada, the District Court appoints the personal representative and the District Court clerk issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration; every appointment goes through the court.

State

Document Type

Getting appointed in Nevada

Personal Representative (executor if testate, administrator if intestate)

The form that opens the estate

No statewide fill-in form

Attorney-drafted pleading

Where you file

District Court (probate jurisdiction; styled the Probate Division in the Eighth Judicial District / Clark County)

What the court issues (with a will)

Letters Testamentary

issued by District Court clerk

Letters are an output — the court issues them after granting the petition.

At a glance

UPC adoptedInformal trackE-filing (self-represented)Self-represented filingLocal/county forms

E-filing is set per county. Washoe County (2nd JDC) makes electronic filing mandatory for all cases (eFlex, Administrative Order 2018-12); Clark County (8th JDC) e-files through Odyssey. Pro se probate filers are supported by the statewide AOC Self-Help Center, but summary/general-probate pleadings are not provided as fillable forms and must be drafted to NRS.

No statewide fillable form exists for summary or general probate, and no county supplies one either. The statewide Self-Help Center covers only small estate (set aside, affidavit of entitlement), special administration, and ex parte petitions — plus a free-text "Generic Probate Petition" shell ("PETITION FOR ____ / write a short title describing what you are asking the judge to order") that pleads none of the NRS 136.090 elements. Washoe County (2nd JDC) publishes a PR probate packet (e.g., PR-4 Petition for Letters of Special Administration; the Letters documents) but states: "We do not provide forms for the following case types: Set Aside, Summary Administration, and General Administration" — complex cases "you may want to file with professional help from an attorney." Clark County (8th JDC, probate departments PC-1 / PC-2) routes self-represented filers to the Civil Law Self-Help Center, whose probate forms library likewise carries no summary/general administration petition, and the court "strongly recommend[s] that you hire an attorney that practices in estate planning and probate."

Bond

Required before Letters: No
Waivable by will: Yes
Waivable by beneficiaries: No

What to file with the petition

Copy of the death certificate, attached to the initial petition as an exhibit with the decedent's Social Security number redacted (an uncertified copy suffices; Washoe accepts "some other evidence of death")
Original will and any codicils, delivered to the clerk of the district court within 30 days after knowledge of the death (NRS 136.050(1)-(2))
Petition for probate of will and/or for issuance of letters stating the jurisdictional facts and NRS 136.090 contents (heirs/next of kin/devisees, character & estimated value of estate, felony-conviction statement, convenient-forum statement); intestate petitions plead NRS 139.090
Notice of hearing on the petition, served per NRS 155.020 on heirs, named devisees, non-petitioning personal representatives, and the Director of the Department of Human Services (NRS 136.100)
Oath or affirmation of the personal representative, taken before a person authorized to administer oaths and filed by the clerk (NRS 142.010)
Bond if the court requires one and it is not waived (NRS 142.020, 142.070)

Small-estate alternative

Bypasses full Letters: Yes
Form name: Petition to Set Aside Estate Without Administration (NRS 146.070 — "If the value of a decedent’s estate does not exceed $150,000, the estate may be set aside without administration") and Affidavit of Entitlement (NRS 146.080 — applicable amount is $150,000 for a surviving-spouse claimant, $25,000 for any other claimant; available 40 days after death, and only if the decedent left no Nevada real property)

State-specific notes

Three Letters variants, each with statutory text: Letters Testamentary (executor named in a will, NRS 141.020), Letters of Administration With the Will Annexed (will exists but no qualified named executor, NRS 141.030), and Letters of Administration (intestate, NRS 141.040); each section prints the form and says letters "may be in substantially the following form," and the clerk signs them under the court's seal (NRS 141.010(1)). If the estate includes real property, a certified copy of the letters must be recorded in each county where the real property sits (NRS 141.010(2)). Administrator priority follows NRS 139.040. A non-resident may serve only by associating a Nevada-resident coadministrator (or an authorized banking corporation), or where named as personal representative in a pending will (NRS 139.010(4)). Special administration (temporary) has its own statewide fillable petition; it is not the general appointment path. THRESHOLDS: set aside without administration if the estate does not exceed $150,000 (NRS 146.070(1)(a)); affidavit of entitlement for a "applicable amount" of $150,000 (surviving-spouse claimant) or $25,000 (any other claimant), 40 days after death, and only if the decedent left no Nevada real property (NRS 146.080(1), (7)); summary administration if the gross value of the estate, after deducting encumbrances, does not exceed $500,000 (NRS 145.040) — over $500,000 the case is a general administration. DEADLINE: anyone possessing the will must deliver it to the district-court clerk within 30 days after knowledge of the death (NRS 136.050(1)); Nevada sets no outer deadline for commencing probate.

General information about how a personal representative is appointed, not legal advice. Consult a licensed attorney for legal questions. Data verified Aug 24, 2026

Nevada has no single statewide fill-in petition; the opening document is prepared to statute and filed with the District Court. District Court clerk issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration after the court grants the petition.

Along with the petition, Nevada generally requires: Copy of the death certificate, attached to the initial petition as an exhibit with the decedent's Social Security number redacted (an uncertified copy suffices; Washoe accepts "some other evidence of death"); Original will and any codicils, delivered to the clerk of the district court within 30 days after knowledge of the death (NRS 136.050(1)-(2)).

Nevada does not require a bond by default before Letters issue, though the court can order one.

Nevada permits a self-represented person to open an estate. E-filing is open to self-represented filers. The Nevada self-file probate assessment sets self-filing against attorney costs.

Yes. A revocable living trust passes its assets to the beneficiaries without a court appointment in Nevada: no petition, no Letters, no bond. A revocable trust built with SimplyTrust takes about fifteen minutes.

Getting Appointed in Nevada

Authority to act for the estate comes from Letters issued in Nevada by District Court clerk, on appointment by the District Court. The document is Letters Testamentary (with a will) or Letters of Administration (no will). Nevada has not adopted the Uniform Probate Code.

Nevada publishes no single statewide fill-in petition; the opening document is prepared to statute and filed with the court. The filing fee is $0 - $426 (based on estate value). Nevada has no informal (registrar) appointment track, so every appointment goes through the court.

Nevada does not require a bond by default before Letters issue, though the court can order one where it is needed to protect creditors or heirs.

For smaller estates, Nevada offers a small-estate procedure for estates under $25,000 that can transfer assets without a full appointment or Letters. The Nevada self-file probate assessment compares self-filing and attorney costs.

SimplyTrust Editorial·Updated September 8, 2026

Legal Sources

Data sourced from Nevada statutes and official state code. How we research.

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