Arkansas estate administration

Arkansas probate: rules, process, costs, executor fees and deadlines

Small-estate limit: procedure-specific

This guide explains probate in Arkansas: Arkansas offers a small-estate affidavit under Ark. Code Ann. § 28-41-101, filed in the Circuit Court, Probate Division of the county of the decedent's residence. The affidavit filing fee is $25.00 ($5.00 per certified copy). Creditors of a full administration are barred six months after first publication of notice; a small-estate proceeding uses a three-month bar. The statutory value ceiling, the 45-day waiting period, the general § 21-6-403 administration filing fee, and the § 28-48-108 compensation schedule remain honest UNKNOWNs because they live only in the LexisNexis-contracted Arkansas Code and were never restated by a text-extractable enacted Act.

Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch October 3, 2026.

Answer first

Arkansas simplified probate route

No single dollar limit; waiting period not verified.

Affidavit for collection of small estate (Ark. Code Ann. § 28-41-101)

Screen a specific Arkansas estate with the calculators on the small-estate page, or compare states in the full estate navigator.

What the reviewed rules establish

Simplified route

procedure-specific

Affidavit for collection of small estate (Ark. Code Ann. § 28-41-101); waiting period not verified.

Eligibility and caveats

Court cost

$25

1 published schedule, itemised on the filing-cost page.

Filing-cost detail

Executor compensation

Court-reviewed

No verified rule is published here.

Ark. Code Ann. § 28-48-108 fixes personal-representative compensation as a statutory percentage schedule on personal property. No Arkansas Act in the text-extractable era (2001–2025) amended or restated § 28-48-108 (zero hits in the full-text Act search at www.arkleg.state.ar.us), and the codified section is served only through the LexisNexis contract. The percentage schedule is therefore recorded as UNKNOWN rather than reproduced from memory.

Creditor deadline

Multiple triggers

Act 217, §§ 1–2, 2009 Ark. Acts (Reg. Sess.) (amending Ark. Code Ann. § 28-40-111(a)(1)(A) and § 28-50-101(c)) (Arkansas General Assembly / Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research; reviewed August 9, 2026)

Timeline and creditor details

Arkansas decision map

The four facts that change the Arkansas route

Each Arkansas answer below links to the page that sets out its source.

Arkansas estate administration decision map
Question	Recorded Arkansas answer
What route is being screened?	Affidavit for collection of small estate (Ark. Code Ann. § 28-41-101)
What property and basis count?	probate property within the rule's stated scope; gross value with statutory exemptions not classified by this worksheet.
What is the amount screen?	No numeric ceiling verified
What is the time or deadline record?	No waiting-period number verified; creditor deadlines: separate clocks by triggering event
What does the cost record establish?	$25 is the recorded statewide amount.
What does compensation use?	No verified rule.

Limits and unresolved costs

Small-estate value ceiling and 45-day waiting period (§ 28-41-101(a)) are UNKNOWN — Lexis-locked, never restated by a harvestable Act.
General administration filing fee (§ 21-6-403) is UNKNOWN — only cross-referenced, never restated.
Executor compensation percentage schedule (§ 28-48-108) is UNKNOWN — zero Act hits, Lexis-locked.

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What Arkansas courts publish

Every link is probed before each release.

Forms indexArkansas Judiciary — Forms and PublicationsArkansas Administrative Office of the Courts
Court resourceArkansas Circuit Courts (probate jurisdiction)Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts

Limits on court material

Arkansas probate is heard in the Circuit Court, Probate Division (confirmed from the statutory small-estate notice caption in Act 526/2015). There is no single statewide small-estate form or statewide filing-fee dollar schedule reproduced here; the affidavit is filed with the county circuit clerk, whose administration filing fee is set by Ark. Code Ann. § 21-6-403.

Arkansas primary sources

Act 289, § 1, 2011 Ark. Acts (Reg. Sess.) (amending Ark. Code Ann. § 28-41-101(b)(1)(B)) — Arkansas Act 289 of 2011 (88th General Assembly, Regular Session) — amending Ark. Code § 28-41-101
Act 526, § 1, 2015 Ark. Acts (Reg. Sess.) (amending Ark. Code Ann. § 28-41-101(b)(2)(B)) — Arkansas Act 526 of 2015 (90th General Assembly, Regular Session) — amending Ark. Code § 28-41-101(b)(2)(B) (small-estate affidavit / notice)
Act 217, §§ 1–2, 2009 Ark. Acts (Reg. Sess.) (amending Ark. Code Ann. § 28-40-111(a)(1)(A) and § 28-50-101(c)) — Arkansas Act 217 of 2009 (87th General Assembly, Regular Session) — amending Ark. Code § 28-40-111 and § 28-50-101
Act 217, § 2, 2009 Ark. Acts (Reg. Sess.) (amending Ark. Code Ann. § 28-50-101(c)) — Arkansas Act 217 of 2009 — Section 2 amending Ark. Code § 28-50-101(c) (statute of nonclaim)

Every quotation, edition label and machine check is on the Arkansas source record.

Arkansas record: 4/4 verified, 19 matched checks, latest source re-fetch October 3, 2026. Source record · method · report a correction