Do I Need a Lawyer for Probate in Arkansas?
Find out if you can handle probate yourself, see estimated cost savings vs. hiring an attorney, and get a step-by-step filing checklist.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can technically file without a lawyer, but Arkansas has no standardized statewide probate form — the opening petition must be drafted as a formal legal pleading.Ark. Code §§ 28-48-108(a) (executor compensation — just and reasonable, capped at 10% first $1K / 5% next $4K / 3% balance of personal property fully administered), 28-48-108(d)(2)-(3) (attorney fee schedule — 6-tier, 5% to 2%, on total market value reportable in circuit court; court adjusts if excessive or insufficient), 28-41-101 (small estate affidavit — $100K / 45 days / real property counts toward the cap / homestead and statutory allowances excluded), 28-50-101 (creditor claims — 6 months from first publication; (h) 2 years from first publication for known or reasonably ascertainable creditors; (d) 5-year absolute bar), 28-48-201 (bond — court "may require"; mandatory on written demand under (b)(1)), 28-48-206 (court may increase, decrease, or dispense with bond for good cause), 28-40-111(a)(1)(A) (mandatory publication of notice of appointment), 28-1-112 (notice requirements), 28-40-119 (court admits will and grants letters), 28-1-106 (probate referee and clerk), 28-52-103(a) (PR must file verified accounts with the court), 28-49-110 (PR-prepared inventory). Bond sections rewritten by Act 326 of 2023 (HB1448, 94th GA): § 28-48-201 "shall take" stricken and "may require" added, § 28-48-203 (sureties) repealed, and § 28-48-206's will-direction / FDIC-fiduciary / distributee-waiver dispensations stricken. Verified 2026-09-08. The official Arkansas Code (lexisnexis.com/hottopics/arcode/) is a Lexis Advance container that returns a 200 carrying zero statute text, so every section above was read from the codified 2025 Arkansas Code edition on law.justia.com under headless Chrome (Justia Cloudflare-challenges browser-UA curl); e.g. law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/title-28/subtitle-4/chapter-48/subchapter-1/section-28-48-108/. law.onecle.com is NOT a usable Arkansas mirror — it is frozen at “Last modified: November 15, 2016” and still serves the pre-Act-326 “the court or the clerk ... shall take a bond” text of § 28-48-201 and the repealed will-direction / FDIC-fiduciary dispensations of § 28-48-206. The Act 326 of 2023 changes were confirmed against the codified sections, never the act PDF alone, because act PDFs render stricken text identically to enacted text. CURRENCY (2026-09-08): the 2025 edition already folds in the 2025 Regular Session (the history line of § 21-6-403 carries “2025, No. 986, § 4”). The only sessions enacted after it are the 2026 Fiscal Session and the 2026 First Extraordinary Session, and the arkleg session list shows no later session. Every enacted public act of both was downloaded from arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument and converted with pdftotext -layout — 174 acts for 2026F and 2 for 2026S1, a boundary that is exact because a missing act number returns a 42-byte GIF rather than a PDF — and the strings 28-48-108, 28-48-201, 28-48-206, 28-50-101, 28-40-111, 28-40-119, 28-41-101, 28-1-106, 28-52-103, 21-6-403 and 21-6-416 appear in ZERO of the 176 act texts. Controls: “Arkansas Code §” matched 25 act texts and “Arkansas Code” matched 87, so the scan is real; a nonsense term matched 0.Verified Sep 8, 2026 Most people in this situation work with an attorney, though small-estate procedures remain simpler to handle independently.
Court filing fees in Arkansas vary by county.Ark. Code §§ 28-48-108(a) (executor compensation — just and reasonable, capped at 10% first $1K / 5% next $4K / 3% balance of personal property fully administered), 28-48-108(d)(2)-(3) (attorney fee schedule — 6-tier, 5% to 2%, on total market value reportable in circuit court; court adjusts if excessive or insufficient), 28-41-101 (small estate affidavit — $100K / 45 days / real property counts toward the cap / homestead and statutory allowances excluded), 28-50-101 (creditor claims — 6 months from first publication; (h) 2 years from first publication for known or reasonably ascertainable creditors; (d) 5-year absolute bar), 28-48-201 (bond — court "may require"; mandatory on written demand under (b)(1)), 28-48-206 (court may increase, decrease, or dispense with bond for good cause), 28-40-111(a)(1)(A) (mandatory publication of notice of appointment), 28-1-112 (notice requirements), 28-40-119 (court admits will and grants letters), 28-1-106 (probate referee and clerk), 28-52-103(a) (PR must file verified accounts with the court), 28-49-110 (PR-prepared inventory). Bond sections rewritten by Act 326 of 2023 (HB1448, 94th GA): § 28-48-201 "shall take" stricken and "may require" added, § 28-48-203 (sureties) repealed, and § 28-48-206's will-direction / FDIC-fiduciary / distributee-waiver dispensations stricken. Verified 2026-09-08. The official Arkansas Code (lexisnexis.com/hottopics/arcode/) is a Lexis Advance container that returns a 200 carrying zero statute text, so every section above was read from the codified 2025 Arkansas Code edition on law.justia.com under headless Chrome (Justia Cloudflare-challenges browser-UA curl); e.g. law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/title-28/subtitle-4/chapter-48/subchapter-1/section-28-48-108/. law.onecle.com is NOT a usable Arkansas mirror — it is frozen at “Last modified: November 15, 2016” and still serves the pre-Act-326 “the court or the clerk ... shall take a bond” text of § 28-48-201 and the repealed will-direction / FDIC-fiduciary dispensations of § 28-48-206. The Act 326 of 2023 changes were confirmed against the codified sections, never the act PDF alone, because act PDFs render stricken text identically to enacted text. CURRENCY (2026-09-08): the 2025 edition already folds in the 2025 Regular Session (the history line of § 21-6-403 carries “2025, No. 986, § 4”). The only sessions enacted after it are the 2026 Fiscal Session and the 2026 First Extraordinary Session, and the arkleg session list shows no later session. Every enacted public act of both was downloaded from arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument and converted with pdftotext -layout — 174 acts for 2026F and 2 for 2026S1, a boundary that is exact because a missing act number returns a 42-byte GIF rather than a PDF — and the strings 28-48-108, 28-48-201, 28-48-206, 28-50-101, 28-40-111, 28-40-119, 28-41-101, 28-1-106, 28-52-103, 21-6-403 and 21-6-416 appear in ZERO of the 176 act texts. Controls: “Arkansas Code §” matched 25 act texts and “Arkansas Code” matched 87, so the scan is real; a nonsense term matched 0.Verified Sep 8, 2026 Self-filing costs typically include the court petition fee, publication costs. The filing fee is a fraction of total probate costs. See a full breakdown with the Arkansas probate calculator.
Simple estates in Arkansas typically take 6-9 months.Ark. Code §§ 28-48-108(a) (executor compensation — just and reasonable, capped at 10% first $1K / 5% next $4K / 3% balance of personal property fully administered), 28-48-108(d)(2)-(3) (attorney fee schedule — 6-tier, 5% to 2%, on total market value reportable in circuit court; court adjusts if excessive or insufficient), 28-41-101 (small estate affidavit — $100K / 45 days / real property counts toward the cap / homestead and statutory allowances excluded), 28-50-101 (creditor claims — 6 months from first publication; (h) 2 years from first publication for known or reasonably ascertainable creditors; (d) 5-year absolute bar), 28-48-201 (bond — court "may require"; mandatory on written demand under (b)(1)), 28-48-206 (court may increase, decrease, or dispense with bond for good cause), 28-40-111(a)(1)(A) (mandatory publication of notice of appointment), 28-1-112 (notice requirements), 28-40-119 (court admits will and grants letters), 28-1-106 (probate referee and clerk), 28-52-103(a) (PR must file verified accounts with the court), 28-49-110 (PR-prepared inventory). Bond sections rewritten by Act 326 of 2023 (HB1448, 94th GA): § 28-48-201 "shall take" stricken and "may require" added, § 28-48-203 (sureties) repealed, and § 28-48-206's will-direction / FDIC-fiduciary / distributee-waiver dispensations stricken. Verified 2026-09-08. The official Arkansas Code (lexisnexis.com/hottopics/arcode/) is a Lexis Advance container that returns a 200 carrying zero statute text, so every section above was read from the codified 2025 Arkansas Code edition on law.justia.com under headless Chrome (Justia Cloudflare-challenges browser-UA curl); e.g. law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/title-28/subtitle-4/chapter-48/subchapter-1/section-28-48-108/. law.onecle.com is NOT a usable Arkansas mirror — it is frozen at “Last modified: November 15, 2016” and still serves the pre-Act-326 “the court or the clerk ... shall take a bond” text of § 28-48-201 and the repealed will-direction / FDIC-fiduciary dispensations of § 28-48-206. The Act 326 of 2023 changes were confirmed against the codified sections, never the act PDF alone, because act PDFs render stricken text identically to enacted text. CURRENCY (2026-09-08): the 2025 edition already folds in the 2025 Regular Session (the history line of § 21-6-403 carries “2025, No. 986, § 4”). The only sessions enacted after it are the 2026 Fiscal Session and the 2026 First Extraordinary Session, and the arkleg session list shows no later session. Every enacted public act of both was downloaded from arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument and converted with pdftotext -layout — 174 acts for 2026F and 2 for 2026S1, a boundary that is exact because a missing act number returns a 42-byte GIF rather than a PDF — and the strings 28-48-108, 28-48-201, 28-48-206, 28-50-101, 28-40-111, 28-40-119, 28-41-101, 28-1-106, 28-52-103, 21-6-403 and 21-6-416 appear in ZERO of the 176 act texts. Controls: “Arkansas Code §” matched 25 act texts and “Arkansas Code” matched 87, so the scan is real; a nonsense term matched 0.Verified Sep 8, 2026 The 6-month creditor claim period is the minimum timeline. Self-filed probate takes roughly the same time as attorney-filed probate.
Arkansas allows Affidavit for Collection of Small Estate by Distributee for estates with personal property under $100,000.Ark. Code §§ 28-48-108(a) (executor compensation — just and reasonable, capped at 10% first $1K / 5% next $4K / 3% balance of personal property fully administered), 28-48-108(d)(2)-(3) (attorney fee schedule — 6-tier, 5% to 2%, on total market value reportable in circuit court; court adjusts if excessive or insufficient), 28-41-101 (small estate affidavit — $100K / 45 days / real property counts toward the cap / homestead and statutory allowances excluded), 28-50-101 (creditor claims — 6 months from first publication; (h) 2 years from first publication for known or reasonably ascertainable creditors; (d) 5-year absolute bar), 28-48-201 (bond — court "may require"; mandatory on written demand under (b)(1)), 28-48-206 (court may increase, decrease, or dispense with bond for good cause), 28-40-111(a)(1)(A) (mandatory publication of notice of appointment), 28-1-112 (notice requirements), 28-40-119 (court admits will and grants letters), 28-1-106 (probate referee and clerk), 28-52-103(a) (PR must file verified accounts with the court), 28-49-110 (PR-prepared inventory). Bond sections rewritten by Act 326 of 2023 (HB1448, 94th GA): § 28-48-201 "shall take" stricken and "may require" added, § 28-48-203 (sureties) repealed, and § 28-48-206's will-direction / FDIC-fiduciary / distributee-waiver dispensations stricken. Verified 2026-09-08. The official Arkansas Code (lexisnexis.com/hottopics/arcode/) is a Lexis Advance container that returns a 200 carrying zero statute text, so every section above was read from the codified 2025 Arkansas Code edition on law.justia.com under headless Chrome (Justia Cloudflare-challenges browser-UA curl); e.g. law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/title-28/subtitle-4/chapter-48/subchapter-1/section-28-48-108/. law.onecle.com is NOT a usable Arkansas mirror — it is frozen at “Last modified: November 15, 2016” and still serves the pre-Act-326 “the court or the clerk ... shall take a bond” text of § 28-48-201 and the repealed will-direction / FDIC-fiduciary dispensations of § 28-48-206. The Act 326 of 2023 changes were confirmed against the codified sections, never the act PDF alone, because act PDFs render stricken text identically to enacted text. CURRENCY (2026-09-08): the 2025 edition already folds in the 2025 Regular Session (the history line of § 21-6-403 carries “2025, No. 986, § 4”). The only sessions enacted after it are the 2026 Fiscal Session and the 2026 First Extraordinary Session, and the arkleg session list shows no later session. Every enacted public act of both was downloaded from arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument and converted with pdftotext -layout — 174 acts for 2026F and 2 for 2026S1, a boundary that is exact because a missing act number returns a 42-byte GIF rather than a PDF — and the strings 28-48-108, 28-48-201, 28-48-206, 28-50-101, 28-40-111, 28-40-119, 28-41-101, 28-1-106, 28-52-103, 21-6-403 and 21-6-416 appear in ZERO of the 176 act texts. Controls: “Arkansas Code §” matched 25 act texts and “Arkansas Code” matched 87, so the scan is real; a nonsense term matched 0.Verified Sep 8, 2026 There is a 45-day waiting period. These procedures are simpler than formal probate and well-suited for self-filing.
The primary savings from self-filing come from eliminating attorney fees, which are the largest expense in most probate cases. Court filing fees, publication costs, and executor compensation remain the same whether an attorney is involved or not. The Arkansas probate calculator shows the attorney fee component.
The probate process in Arkansas typically involves filing the petition, notifying heirs and creditors, inventorying assets, paying debts, and distributing the remaining estate. Each step has specific court requirements and deadlines. The Arkansas estate settlement plan outlines every step from filing to final distribution.
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Calculators and checklists for navigating probate and estate administration.
Petition for Probate and Letters
Prepare the application to open probate and request Letters Testamentary or of Administration.
Notice to Creditors
Prepare the creditor notice for an estate — the official state form or a notice typeset to statute, plus mailed notices for known creditors.
Small Estate Affidavit
Prepare the affidavit that collects a small estate's property without probate — the official state form or an affidavit drafted to statute, plus a presentation letter for each holder.
Estate Inventory
Prepare the probate inventory of estate property — every asset at its date-of-death value, composed to your state's statute, with the state's filing or delivery instructions.
Estate Closing
Prepare the paperwork that closes the estate — the state's closing statement, petition for discharge, or final account, with the state's closing instructions and the optional federal forms.
Letter of Instruction
Prepare the letter of instruction a bank or insurer requests during estate settlement.
How Much Does Probate Cost?
Estimate attorney fees, executor fees, court costs, and timeline for probating an estate in your state. See if the estate qualifies for simplified probate procedures.
How Much Can an Executor Charge?
Calculate how much an executor (personal representative) can charge for administering an estate. See if your state has statutory fees or uses reasonable compensation.
Who Inherits Without a Will?
Find out who inherits your estate and how much they get if you die without a will. Based on your state's intestate succession laws.
How Much Are Estate & Inheritance Taxes?
Calculate federal estate tax, state estate tax (12 states + DC), and inheritance tax (5 states) for an estate or trust.
How Many Death Certificates Do I Need?
Calculate how many certified death certificates you need based on the assets and accounts you need to close. See state-specific ordering information.
Do I Need Probate?
Answer a few questions to find out if an estate needs full probate, qualifies for simplified probate, or can avoid probate entirely with a small estate affidavit.
Hire a Arkansas Probate Attorney
Browse 107 probate firms in Arkansas with addresses, contact info, and practice details.
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Arkansas Estate Planning Resources
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