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Guadalupe County, NM Probate Information
Quick facts
| Category | Guadalupe County Probate Court | Fourth Judicial District Court |
|---|---|---|
| What it handles | Informal, uncontested probate only: informal probate of a will and informal appointment of a personal representative, with the letters testamentary or letters of administration that flow from it, plus informal appointment of a special administrator (NMSA 1978, Sections 45-1-302(C) and 45-3-301 to 45-3-309). An informal case is decided on the verified application without a hearing | Everything formal or contested, exclusively: formal testacy and formal appointment proceedings, supervised administration, determination of heirs, will construction, will contests, disputes over who owns property as between the estate and someone claiming against it, disclaimers and tax apportionment (NMSA 1978, Section 45-1-302(A) and (B)). It can also open an informal probate, because the two courts have concurrent jurisdiction over informal matters (Section 45-1-302.1) |
| Courthouse address | 1448 Historic Route 66, Santa Rosa, NM 88435, through the Guadalupe County Clerk's Office, which is the clerk of the probate court and the filing counter. The county's department directory gives the suite as Suite 1 and its contact page says Suite 2, a suite that page also assigns to the Assessor's, Treasurer's and Sheriff's Offices, so call (575) 472-3791 to confirm the suite before you post anything | 1448 Historic Route 66, Suite 5, Santa Rosa, NM 88435, published by the district as the Guadalupe County District Courthouse. It is the same building as the probate counter. The district's three judges, Divisions I, II and III, all sit at 496 W. National Ave., Las Vegas, NM 87701, in San Miguel County |
| Mailing address | 1448 Historic Route 66, Santa Rosa, NM 88435. Guadalupe County publishes no post office box for the office | 1448 Historic Route 66, Suite 5, Santa Rosa, NM 88435. The district publishes no separate mailing address for the Santa Rosa courthouse |
| Phone | (575) 472-3791, the line the county publishes for the Clerk's and Probate Office, and the number to call to schedule a probate appointment (verified July 2026) | 575-472-3888, published by the district as the Guadalupe County District Courthouse's own line. The district's main number in Las Vegas is 505-425-7281 (verified July 2026) |
| Fax | None published. Guadalupe County publishes no fax for the Clerk's and Probate Office | 575-472-4451 for the Santa Rosa courthouse. The district separately publishes 505-454-8611 on its fee page as its fax filings number, which is the Las Vegas line |
| Hours | None published, and that is the county's position rather than missing information. New Mexico makes the probate court open at such times as the clerk of the probate court determines and publishes on the county's website (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-8), and Guadalupe County publishes no such times anywhere. What it publishes beside the office phone is the instruction to call and schedule an appointment with probate. The only county office hours published anywhere on the county's site are the Treasurer's Office's own, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and that is a different office in the same building. Call (575) 472-3791 | 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, open during the lunch hour, published for the Guadalupe County District Courthouse. The judges' offices in Las Vegas keep different hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, closed during the lunch hour |
| Filing fee | $30.00 for each probate case (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14). Guadalupe County publishes no probate fee sheet, no payee and no accepted payment methods, so ask when you call to make the appointment | $132.00. The district's own fee page lists it as Civil and Probate Cases $132.00. The statutory build is $117 for docketing a civil cause (NMSA 1978, Section 34-6-40(A)) plus $15 in a judicial district running an alternative dispute resolution program (Section 34-6-45(A)). The district accepts cash, cashier's checks, money orders and in-state attorney checks, and states that it does not accept personal checks or credit cards |
| Local forms | None. Guadalupe County publishes no probate packet, no probate checklist and no probate forms of its own. The statewide Form 4B set applies | None of its own, but it hosts the complete statewide Form 4B set on its site for Guadalupe, San Miguel and Mora Counties, together with the courts' plain-language probate guide and a Dine translation |
| E-filing | None. New Mexico's electronic filing system is approved for use by the district courts (Rule 1-005.2(A)(3) NMRA) and no probate court appears in any e-filing authority. You file on paper at the counter in Santa Rosa or by mail, and the original will has to reach the court physically | eFile & Serve, Tyler's Odyssey File & Serve, is mandatory for attorneys (Rule 1-005.2 NMRA). Self-represented parties are prohibited from e-filing and file on paper; the clerk scans a paper filing into the system (Rule 1-005.2(B)(1) and (I)(2) NMRA) |
| Case search | None. Guadalupe County Probate Court cases are county records, are in no statewide system, and the county publishes no probate index. Ask the Clerk's and Probate Office for a case file or a certified copy. The county's online Guadalupe County Lookup covers Assessor, Clerk and Treasurer records, not probate cases | Case Lookup, the free statewide index, covers New Mexico's district courts, so a Fourth Judicial District case appears there. It is an index only, with no document images, and it offers no probate court option. The district also publishes a Guadalupe County District Court docket page showing hearings for the current day plus six days ahead |
| Remote appearance | Nothing published. An informal probate is decided on the papers and needs no hearing, and probate here works by appointment, so ask what the office will do by phone or mail when you call | Nothing published for probate. Ask the Santa Rosa clerk's counter at 575-472-3888 |
| [email protected], the office mailbox the county publishes for the Clerk's staff. The county also publishes two named individuals' addresses, which are not reproduced here; use the office mailbox or the phone | No general public mailbox. The district publishes one proposed text mailbox per judge, for orders and other documents that need a judge's signature and are not e-filed, and [email protected] for its free legal teleclinics | |
| Website | https://www.guadalupecountynm.org/clerk-s-office for the Clerk's and Probate Office, its phone, its office mailbox and the county's recording fee sheet at https://www.guadalupecountynm.org/_files/ugd/96b652_6ecfb188753f4c67ad0092f458805109.pdf | https://fourthdistrict.nmcourts.gov/location-hours-contacts/ for locations, hours and contacts, and https://fourthdistrict.nmcourts.gov/about-this-district/fees-costs-filing/ for the district's own fee page |
Before you begin — know the assets and liabilities
Know what the estate holds before you call for the appointment. Which route fits, and which of the two Guadalupe County forums you use, depends on whether there is a will, who is entitled to be appointed, whether anyone is likely to object, and what kind of property is involved. Some estates here never need a court at all, because the property passes by survivorship, by a transfer on death deed, by a payable on death designation or by a beneficiary designation, and some qualify for one of New Mexico's affidavit routes that are handled at a bank or at the County Clerk's recording counter rather than in a courtroom. Those statewide routes and their dollar limits are covered on the New Mexico state page. Sorting it out first matters in a county this size: there is no e-filing in either forum, no online docket for a probate court case, and the probate side works by appointment rather than by walk-in, so an incomplete application costs another appointment rather than a resubmission.
Then list every asset and every debt in detail. New Mexico requires the application for informal probate to be verified as accurate and complete (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-301), and by verifying it you submit personally to the court's jurisdiction in any later proceeding for fraud or perjury, so a missed account is not a small thing. Within three months of appointment the personal representative must prepare an inventory of everything the person owned at death, with a value for each item as of the date of death (Section 45-3-706). Sunset's asset discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so the application you bring to 1448 Historic Route 66 describes the estate accurately the first time.
Which court handles jurisdiction
New Mexico probate is filed in the county where the person lived at the time of death (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-201(A)(1)). If the person was not a New Mexico resident, it is filed in any New Mexico county where they owned property at the time of death (Section 45-3-201(A)(2)). Within Guadalupe County you have a choice of court: the Guadalupe County Probate Court for an informal, uncontested probate, or the Fourth Judicial District Court for anything formal or contested (Sections 45-1-302 and 45-1-302.1). Where a proceeding could be brought in more than one place, the court where it is first commenced has the exclusive right to proceed (Section 45-1-303(A)).
The Guadalupe County Probate Court sits at 1448 Historic Route 66 in Santa Rosa, the county seat, and serves the whole county: Santa Rosa itself, Vaughn, Puerto de Luna, Anton Chico, La Loma and the ranching country along the Pecos and out toward the Llano. It is a county office within New Mexico's judicial branch, funded by the county (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-4), and the position of probate judge is a part-time, elected one (Sections 34-7-1 and 34-7-2). Its clerk is the Guadalupe County Clerk, because the county clerk of each county is designated as the clerk of the probate court in that county (Section 34-7-22(A)), and Guadalupe County says so itself: its description of the Clerk's Office lists among the office's constitutional duties that of clerk of the probate court in handling informal proceedings only, and adds that the Clerk's Office works with the Office of the Probate Judge in handling informal probate proceedings. The county's own department directory names the office the Clerk's and Probate Office. Probate court hours are whatever the clerk sets and publishes on the county's website (Section 34-7-8), and Guadalupe publishes none, telling you instead to call and schedule an appointment with probate.
The Fourth Judicial District Court covers Guadalupe, San Miguel and Mora Counties, and Guadalupe County is the unusual one in it. A multi-county district is an administrative fact rather than a venue rule, and how it works varies from county to county even inside one district. For Guadalupe County the district publishes a Guadalupe County District Courthouse at 1448 Historic Route 66, Suite 5, in Santa Rosa, with its own counter hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, open during the lunch hour, its own phone on 575-472-3888 and its own fax on 575-472-4451. For Mora County, by contrast, the same district publishes the Mora County District Courthouse at 496 West National Ave. in Las Vegas, which is in San Miguel County. So Guadalupe County has a local district counter and Mora County does not. What Guadalupe County does not have is a resident district judge: all three judges of the Fourth Judicial District, Divisions I, II and III, keep their offices at 496 W. National Ave. in Las Vegas. None of that changes venue. You do not file in a district, you file in the county where venue lies, and a formal or contested Guadalupe County estate stays a Guadalupe County case. Because the district does not publish an express statement about which of its counters accepts filings, call 575-472-3888 before you drive in with papers for the district court.
Two things about the geography are worth fixing in mind before you set out. First, the two probate forums are suites in one building: the Clerk's and Probate Office and the Guadalupe County District Courthouse in Suite 5 are both at 1448 Historic Route 66, along with the county Assessor and Treasurer. Second, the Guadalupe County Magistrate Courthouse is a few hundred yards up the same road at 1633 Historic Rt. 66 on 575-472-3237, and a magistrate court has no probate jurisdiction at all. Check the street number, not just the street name.
The jurisdiction process
- Wait the five days, and check the three-year window. A New Mexico court cannot issue a written statement of informal probate or an order of informal appointment until at least 120 hours have elapsed since the death (NMSA 1978, Sections 45-3-302 and 45-3-307(A)), and if the person was not a New Mexico resident the court must wait 30 days before ordering an informal appointment unless the domiciliary personal representative is the applicant or the will directs New Mexico law. At the other end, a probate or appointment proceeding cannot be commenced more than three years after the death (Section 45-3-108(A)), although a limited late proceeding remains available after that, chiefly to confirm title to real property in the heirs.
- Get the forms. Guadalupe County publishes no probate packet of its own, so use the statewide Supreme Court set, the Form 4B series, which is free from the New Mexico Courts probate forms library and is also mirrored in full on the Fourth Judicial District's own site for Guadalupe, San Miguel and Mora Counties. Form 4B-101 NMRA is the flow chart for opening and closing a probate court case and is the best single page to read first, because its opening step is the choice of forum this page describes.
- Fill in the opening forms before your appointment. With a will, that is Form 4B-302 NMRA, the application for informal probate of will and for informal appointment of personal representative, and Form 4B-304 NMRA, the order. With no will, it is Form 4B-301 NMRA, the application for informal appointment of personal representative, and Form 4B-303 NMRA, the order. Both routes then use Form 4B-305 NMRA, the acceptance of appointment, and the letters form, which is Form 4B-307 NMRA for letters testamentary where there is a will and Form 4B-306 NMRA for letters of administration where there is not. New Mexico's statutory term for the person who settles the estate is personal representative; executor and administrator are correct informal usages for the same office. The application has to be verified as accurate and complete (Section 45-3-301), and the priority order for who may be appointed is set by Section 45-3-203(A). Note that county staff cannot help you complete them: the Guadalupe County Clerk's Office publishes that staff in the office may not fill out forms or offer such direction to the public, and that county employees are prohibited from giving legal advice.
- Call (575) 472-3791 and make the appointment, and bring the originals. The county publishes no probate court hours and tells you to call to schedule an appointment with probate, so this is the step that sets the pace of everything after it. Where there is a will, the original, duly executed and apparently unrevoked will must be in the court's possession (Section 45-3-303(A)(5)); a will with the required signatures and an attestation clause showing proper execution is probated without further proof (Section 45-3-303(C)). Bring a certified copy of the death certificate. If you are mailing an original will from out of state, call first and ask how the office wants to receive it.
- File on paper and pay $30.00 at the Clerk's counter. There is no electronic filing in a New Mexico probate court: the statewide system is approved for use by the district courts (Rule 1-005.2(A)(3) NMRA), the Probate Court Rules contain no electronic filing rule, and the original will has to be physically delivered in any event. The filing fee is $30.00 for each probate case (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14), and the fee is deposited in the county clerk recording and filing fund because the county clerk is the probate clerk here (Section 34-7-22(A)). Guadalupe County publishes no payee and no accepted payment methods, so ask when you call. If the estate cannot afford the fee, ask for free process on Form 4B-201 NMRA, the affidavit of poverty and indigency, with Form 4B-202 NMRA as the order.
- Take the appointment and collect the letters. If the judge makes the findings the statute requires, the court issues a written statement of informal probate and letters (Sections 45-3-302, 45-3-307 and 45-3-103), and administration of the estate is commenced by the issuance of letters. Before receiving them the personal representative qualifies by filing any required bond and a statement of acceptance (Section 45-3-601). Order enough certified copies for the banks, title company and transfer agents you will deal with, and ask the price at the counter: Guadalupe County publishes no certification charge, though its recording fee sheet prices in-person copies at $0.50 per page, and New Mexico caps a county clerk acting as probate clerk at $1.00 per page for document copies while allowing a reasonable certification fee (Section 14-8-14(B)). Note that the court may decline an application for informal appointment for any reason, which is not an adjudication and does not stop a formal appointment later (Section 45-3-309).
- Give notice within 30 days, and file the proof. Not later than 30 days after appointment the personal representative must give notice of the appointment to the heirs and devisees, by delivery or ordinary mail, stating the personal representative's name and address, that the recipient has or may have an interest, whether a bond has been filed, and where the papers are on file, and must then file a statement with the court naming who was notified (Section 45-3-705). Form 4B-401 NMRA is the notice and Form 4B-402 NMRA is the proof. Note that in an informal case notice comes after the probate, not before: no other notice of informal probate is required (Section 45-3-306(A)).
- Prepare the inventory within three months. The personal representative prepares an inventory of the property owned at death, in reasonable detail, with an estimated value as of the date of death and any encumbrance noted, within three months of appointment (Section 45-3-706). It must be sent to interested persons who ask for it, and filing it with the court is permitted but not required. Form 4B-601 NMRA is the inventory.
- Decide whether to publish a notice to creditors. Publication is optional in New Mexico. A personal representative may publish notice once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the proceeding is pending, giving creditors four months from the first publication to present claims, and may also give written notice to a known creditor (Section 45-3-801). It is a tool for cutting claims off early rather than a required step, and the personal representative is not liable for giving or failing to give it. Independently of any notice, claims arising before the death are barred one year after the death (Section 45-3-803(A)). Form 4B-501 NMRA covers both kinds of notice.
- Know the fork to the district court, and that it costs nothing extra. If anyone contests the will, if the heirs are in dispute, if the estate needs a court order about who owns something, if a formal appointment or formal closing is asked for, or if a hearing is required, the case goes to the Fourth Judicial District Court, which has exclusive jurisdiction over those matters (NMSA 1978, Section 45-1-302(A) and (B); Rule 1B-101(B)(2) NMRA; Rule 1B-701 NMRA). Form 4B-1001 NMRA is the transfer order, and Section 34-7-10(B) provides that where a case was properly filed within the probate court's jurisdiction and is later transferred, no filing fee shall be charged in the district court. In Guadalupe County the transfer is unusually short: the district court counter is Suite 5 of the same building. Note also that while a formal testacy proceeding is pending, the probate court cannot act on any informal application (Section 45-3-401(C)).
- Administer, then close. Pay the valid debts and the taxes, deal with the property, and distribute what is left. An informally appointed personal representative has the same power over the title to estate property that an absolute owner would have, exercisable without notice, hearing or court order (Section 45-3-711(A)), so real property in Guadalupe County can be conveyed by personal representative's deed, recorded with the Guadalupe County Clerk at the county's published recording fee of $25.00 per document. What the probate court cannot do is decide a dispute about that title, which belongs to the district court in formal proceedings (Section 45-1-302(B)). Outside supervised administration there is no routine annual court accounting in New Mexico, though Form 4B-602 NMRA exists where one is needed. To close informally, file a verified closing statement no earlier than six months after the original appointment (Section 45-3-1003(A)), on Form 4B-701 NMRA, and if no proceeding is pending one year after it is filed the appointment terminates.
Forms and documents
Probate forms in Guadalupe County
Guadalupe County publishes no probate forms of its own. There is no county probate packet, no county checklist, no county cover sheet and no county instruction leaflet, affirmatively checked across the Clerk's Office page and all five of its subpages, the departments page and the county's file library, which holds election material, the recording fee sheet and county commission resolutions and nothing probate. That is the normal position in New Mexico, and it is not a gap, because the New Mexico Supreme Court approves a complete statewide probate form set, the Form 4B series, and it is free.
The Fourth Judicial District mirrors that whole set on its own site for Guadalupe, San Miguel and Mora Counties, badged as New Mexico Court Forms, which makes it a convenient single place for a Guadalupe County filer to work from. Its probate library carries Form 4B-101 NMRA, the flow chart for opening and closing a probate court case, Forms 4B-201 and 4B-202 NMRA for free process, the applications and orders at Forms 4B-301 to 4B-304 NMRA, the acceptance at Form 4B-305 NMRA, the letters at Forms 4B-306 and 4B-307 NMRA, the notice and proof of notice at Forms 4B-401 and 4B-402 NMRA, the notice to creditors at Form 4B-501 NMRA, the inventory and accounting at Forms 4B-601 and 4B-602 NMRA, the closing statements at Forms 4B-701 and 4B-702 NMRA, proof of authority at Forms 4B-801 and 4B-802 NMRA, the special administration set at Forms 4B-901 to 4B-904 NMRA, and Form 4B-1001 NMRA, the order transferring a case from the probate court to the district court. It also carries the courts' plain-language probate guide and a Dine translation of it. Unlike some districts' county folders, everything in it is genuinely the statewide set.
Two things to plan around. First, the statewide set has real gaps: there is no Form 4B for the affidavit routes that avoid probate altogether, no renunciation or waiver form (consent is a signature block inside Forms 4B-301 and 4B-302), no proof of publication form (the newspaper supplies its own affidavit), and no notice of hearing form, because the 4B set is written for informal cases and a contested matter transfers out on Form 4B-1001 NMRA. Second, nobody at the counter can help you fill them in. Guadalupe County publishes the limit in its own words: staff in the Clerk's office may not fill out forms or offer such direction to the public, and county employees are prohibited from giving legal advice. The Fourth Judicial District publishes the same line for its own staff, who may provide court-approved forms and explain what a form is asking for but may not create documents, fill in forms or suggest specific words. The New Mexico Courts HelpLine can do the explaining half of that by telephone.
| Resource | What it provides |
|---|---|
| New Mexico Courts probate forms, the 4B set (nmcourts.gov) | The current statewide library: the Form 4B-101 flow chart for opening and closing a probate court case, the applications, orders, acceptances and letters, the notice and proof of notice, the notice to creditors, the inventory and accounting, the closing statements, proof of authority, the special administration set and Form 4B-1001 for transfer to the district court, plus a plain-language guide and a Dine translation |
| Fourth Judicial District probate forms (fourthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The same complete Form 4B set hosted by the district that serves Guadalupe, San Miguel and Mora Counties, with the probate guide and its Dine translation. Convenient because it is the district you would file a formal matter in |
| Guadalupe County Clerk's Office (guadalupecountynm.org) | The clerk of the probate court and the filing counter (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-22(A)): the office address at 1448 Historic Route 66, the telephone, the office mailbox and the instruction to call and schedule an appointment with probate. It publishes no probate forms |
| Guadalupe County Clerk's Office legal advice limitation (guadalupecountynm.org) | The county's own published limit on what counter staff may do: staff may not fill out forms or offer such direction to the public, and county employees are prohibited from giving legal advice |
| Fourth Judicial District, ways we can help (fourthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The district's own list of what court staff can and cannot do. Staff can provide court approved forms and instructions and explain what is requested on a form; they cannot create documents, fill in forms, suggest wording or apply the law to your facts |
| Fourth Judicial District eFile (fourthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | Attorney-facing. The district states that documents requiring a clerk seal and signature in civil, probate and domestic case types go through the e-filing process, and that documents needing a judge's signature are sent instead to that judge's proposed text mailbox rather than being e-filed |
Fees
Neither of Guadalupe County's two probate forums charges anything unusual to open a case, but both publish charges around the edges that a personal representative here will meet, and the county and the district publish very different amounts of detail. Guadalupe County publishes no probate fee sheet at all: no docketing line, no packet price, no certification charge. What it does publish is a recording fee sheet headed effective July 1, 2011, which prices the counter where a personal representative's deed and a surviving spouse's homestead affidavit are recorded, along with plain copies of the records that office holds. The Fourth Judicial District, by contrast, publishes a full schedule.
| Item | Published fee and authority |
|---|---|
| Opening a probate case in the Guadalupe County Probate Court | $30.00. The statute is NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14: clerks of the probate courts shall receive a filing fee of thirty dollars ($30.00) for each probate case. Guadalupe County publishes no fee sheet, no payee and no accepted payment methods, so call (575) 472-3791 before you write a check. Because the county clerk is the clerk of the probate court here, the fee is deposited in the county clerk recording and filing fund (Section 34-7-22(A)) |
| Copies and certified copies from the Clerk's and Probate Office | No certified-copy price is published; ask at the counter. Plain copies are priced on the county's recording fee sheet: $0.50 per page in person, $1.00 per page for images sent by email, and $0.10 per image burned to CD or thumb drive plus a $15.00 processing fee. New Mexico caps what a county clerk acting as probate clerk may charge for document copies at $1.00 per page and allows a reasonable certification fee (NMSA 1978, Section 14-8-14(B)) |
| Recording a personal representative's deed with the Guadalupe County Clerk | $25.00 for each document filed or recorded, with an additional $25.00 for each further block of ten or fewer entries to the index. The county publishes this on a sheet headed recording fee effective July 1, 2011, which sets out how it counts grantor, grantee and legal-description entries and uses a probate example of its own: a personal representative of an estate counts as one index entry. It is the same office that takes the probate filing, and it is also where a surviving spouse's homestead affidavit is recorded. The sheet's closing instruction is to contact the County Clerk to verify indexing procedures and exact amounts |
| Searching the county's recorded documents | Free. The Guadalupe County Clerk's Office publishes that there is no charge to search records on file in the office, adds that the office is not licensed or bonded to conduct detailed real estate searches, and says it will instruct persons on request how to perform a title search in the office |
| Opening a probate case in the Fourth Judicial District Court | $132.00. The district's own fee page lists it as Civil and Probate Cases $132.00. The statutory build is $117 for docketing a civil cause (NMSA 1978, Section 34-6-40(A)) plus $15 in a judicial district running an alternative dispute resolution program (Section 34-6-45(A)) |
| Fourth Judicial District Court copies and certification | Photocopies $.35 per page; certified copy $1.50 per pleading; exemplified copy $4.50 per pleading; microfilm copy and computer generated docket $.35 per page plus a $5.00 processing fee; outgoing faxes $2.50 per page; tape or CD duplication $10.00 (district fee page, verified July 2026). The exemplified copy line is the district's own published figure and carries no statute or rule citation; the $.35 and $1.50 charges match Rule 1-099(C) NMRA |
| No second fee if the case moves up | Nothing. Where a case was properly filed within the probate court's jurisdiction and is later transferred to the district court, no filing fee shall be charged in the district court (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-10(B)) |
| If you cannot afford the fee | New Mexico calls it free process, not a fee waiver. In the Guadalupe County Probate Court, ask on Form 4B-201 NMRA, the affidavit of poverty and indigency, with Form 4B-202 NMRA as the order. In the Fourth Judicial District Court it runs under Rule 23-114 NMRA on Forms 4-222, 4-223 and 4-224 NMRA, and Form 4-223 lets the court leave the $15 alternative dispute resolution fee in place and excludes certification, publication and copy charges unless they are granted too |
How the district court takes payment is the trap on this page, and it is published in the court's own words: acceptable forms of payment are cash, cashier's checks, money orders and in-state attorney checks, and the court does not accept personal checks or credit cards. A reader who walks into Suite 5 with a debit card or a checkbook is turned away. Guadalupe County publishes nothing equivalent for the probate court, so ask the Clerk's and Probate Office what it takes rather than assuming.
Local nuance
Guadalupe County-specific considerations
Both probate forums are in the same building, which is rare in New Mexico and genuinely useful here. The Guadalupe County Clerk's and Probate Office and the Guadalupe County District Courthouse, Suite 5, are both at 1448 Historic Route 66 in Santa Rosa, along with the county Assessor and the county Treasurer. Practically, that means the cheap forum and the expensive one share a front door: you can start an informal probate at the Clerk's counter for $30.00 (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14) knowing that if the case has to be transferred to the district court under Rule 1B-101(B)(2) NMRA it moves down the corridor rather than out of town, and that Section 34-7-10(B) means the transfer carries no second filing fee. It also means the address alone does not tell the clerk which court you want, so say which one when you call.
The probate court publishes no hours, and the county's answer is an appointment. New Mexico makes the position of probate judge a part-time one (Section 34-7-1(B)) and provides that the probate court shall be open at such times as determined by the clerk of the probate court and published on the county's website (Section 34-7-8). Guadalupe County publishes no such times on the Clerk's Office page, on any of its subpages, on the departments page, on the contact page or on the home page. What it publishes beside the office telephone is the instruction to call and schedule an appointment with probate. Treat (575) 472-3791 as the first step rather than a follow-up, and do not rely on the 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. hours the Treasurer's Office publishes for itself in the same building.
The district court counter is here and the district court bench is not. The Fourth Judicial District covers Guadalupe, San Miguel and Mora Counties, and it treats its three counties differently. For Guadalupe County it publishes a courthouse in Santa Rosa with its own hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, open during the lunch hour, its own telephone on 575-472-3888 and its own fax on 575-472-4451. For Mora County it publishes a courthouse at 496 West National Ave. in Las Vegas, which is in San Miguel County altogether. So Guadalupe County is the better served of the two small counties in this district. The qualifier is the bench: all three of the district's judges, Divisions I, II and III, keep their offices at 496 W. National Ave. in Las Vegas, with office hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, closed during the lunch hour, so a formal Guadalupe County matter is assigned to a judge based in another county even though the paperwork counter is at home. The district does not publish an express statement about which counter accepts filings, so call 575-472-3888 before making the trip with district court papers.
Nothing about a Guadalupe County probate case is online, and one county search will mislead you. County probate court cases are not in any statewide system: the free statewide Case Lookup tool offers District, Magistrate, Metropolitan and Municipal as its court types and has no probate court option, and no probate court appears in the New Mexico Courts locator either. Guadalupe County publishes no probate index of its own. The county's Records Search does open an online Guadalupe County Lookup, but its tabs are Assessor, Clerk and Treasurer, it is the index of county records rather than of court cases, and the county's own caveat on it is that updates and corrections occur daily, that the county incurs no liability for omissions, and that official copies come from the county office. Finding nothing there tells you nothing about whether a probate case exists. To find out what is on file in an estate, ask the Clerk's and Probate Office at (575) 472-3791. A Fourth Judicial District case is different: it appears in Case Lookup, and the district also publishes a Guadalupe County District Court docket page showing hearings for the current day plus six days ahead, with its own warning that the details may contain omissions.
Recent updates
| Item | What it means in Guadalupe County |
|---|---|
| Every New Mexico probate judgeship is on the ballot on November 3, 2026, with the winner taking office January 1, 2027 | The probate judge is an elected county official and the position is part-time (NMSA 1978, Sections 34-7-1 and 34-7-2). Guadalupe County publishes the proof on its own Clerk's Office page: the Secretary of State's 2026 election proclamation, hosted there, lists one probate judge among the Guadalupe County offices to be filled at the general election on November 3, 2026. The current cohort's terms were extended to December 31, 2026 by Laws 2023, chapter 44, Section 15(B). This page names the office rather than the officeholder for that reason. The court, its counter and its $30.00 fee do not change with the election |
| The Fourth Judicial District staffs a courthouse in Santa Rosa, and its judges sit in Las Vegas | The district publishes the Guadalupe County District Courthouse at 1448 Historic Route 66, Suite 5, with its own hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, its own phone on 575-472-3888 and its own fax on 575-472-4451, and publishes all three of its judges at 496 W. National Ave., Las Vegas (verified July 2026). Directories that give the district's Las Vegas number as the number for Guadalupe County are pointing at the bench rather than the counter |
| The Fourth Judicial District does not take personal checks or cards | Its published payment rule is cash, cashier's checks, money orders and in-state attorney checks only (verified July 2026). Sources that list credit cards or personal checks for a New Mexico district court probate filing are wrong for this district |
| The county's recording fee sheet is dated effective July 1, 2011 | It still shows $25.00 for each document filed or recorded, with an extra $25.00 for each further block of ten or fewer index entries, and it is the charge a personal representative meets when recording a deed or a surviving spouse's homestead affidavit with the Guadalupe County Clerk. The sheet's own closing line is to contact the County Clerk to verify indexing procedures and exact amounts (verified July 2026) |
Page last reviewed: July 2026.
Scenarios
| Situation | Likely path in Guadalupe County | Where Sunset helps |
|---|---|---|
| Surviving spouse, co-owned home | If the home in Santa Rosa, Vaughn or elsewhere in the county was held with a right of survivorship or passes by a recorded transfer on death deed, it goes to the survivor with no court involved, and accounts with payable on death or beneficiary designations do the same. Where the home was community property and passes to the survivor, New Mexico has a recorded affidavit route that avoids probate entirely and is handled at the Guadalupe County Clerk's recording counter rather than in court; that route and its assessed-value limit are covered on the New Mexico state page, and the recording charge is the county's published $25.00 per document. Where assets stood in the deceased person's sole name, the spouse calls (575) 472-3791 for a probate appointment and applies informally on Form 4B-302 NMRA with a will or Form 4B-301 NMRA without one. A surviving spouse who is a devisee ranks second in the appointment priority, behind only a person named in a probated will (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-203(A)). | Asset discovery to establish how the home and the accounts are actually titled and how much really has to reach a court. Packet generation for the application, the acceptance and the notices, ready to take to the appointment at 1448 Historic Route 66. A vetted attorney referral if title or a claim turns out to be disputed, which would move the matter to the Fourth Judicial District Court. |
| Out-of-state adult child, small estate | Start by checking whether a court is needed at all: New Mexico lets a claiming successor collect personal property from a bank or transfer agent on an affidavit thirty days after the death, with no court filing and no fee, where the whole estate is under the statewide limit and no real estate is involved. That route is covered on the New Mexico state page. Where a probate is needed, the informal route in the Guadalupe County Probate Court costs $30.00 (Section 34-7-14) against $132.00 in the district court, and it is decided on the papers with no hearing. Doing it from out of state means post and telephone: there is no e-filing in either forum, the original will has to reach the court physically, and the probate side works by appointment, so call (575) 472-3791 before mailing anything to 1448 Historic Route 66 and ask how the office wants to handle the appointment. | Asset discovery to value the estate from out of state and work out which route it qualifies for before anyone books a flight. Packet generation for the affidavit or the application, assembled so it can be posted to Santa Rosa and accepted the first time. |
| Parent settling a predeceased child's estate, home must be sold | Selling real property does not by itself force the case into the district court. An informally appointed personal representative has the same power over the title to estate property that an absolute owner would have, exercisable without notice, hearing or court order (Section 45-3-711(A)), so a parent appointed by the Guadalupe County Probate Court can convey by personal representative's deed, recorded with the Guadalupe County Clerk at $25.00 per document. With no will the parent applies on Form 4B-301 NMRA and receives letters of administration on Form 4B-306 NMRA, ranking behind any surviving spouse and any children in the priority order of Section 45-3-203(A), so obtain the renunciations or consents of anyone ahead. Notice follows within 30 days (Section 45-3-705) and the inventory within three months (Section 45-3-706). What does move the case to the Fourth Judicial District Court is a dispute about who owns the property, because determining title as between the estate and an adverse claimant is exclusively a district court matter in formal proceedings (Section 45-1-302(B)), and Section 34-7-10(B) means that transfer costs no second filing fee. | Asset discovery for the accounts, insurance, vehicles, Guadalupe County real property and debts. Packet generation for the application, the notices and the inventory. Attorney referral where the sale, a mortgage payoff, a dispute among heirs or a title question makes counsel worthwhile. |
Self-help resources
| Resource | What it offers |
|---|---|
| Guadalupe County Clerk's and Probate Office (guadalupecountynm.org), (575) 472-3791, [email protected], 1448 Historic Route 66, Santa Rosa, NM 88435 | The informal probate forum for the county and its filing counter. The county states that one of the Clerk's constitutional duties is clerk of the probate court in handling informal proceedings only, and that the Clerk's Office works with the Office of the Probate Judge on informal probate. No hours are published; the county's instruction is to call and schedule an appointment with probate. This is where the $30.00 fee is paid, where case files and certified copies are requested, and where a personal representative's deed is recorded |
| Guadalupe County recording fee sheet (PDF) | The county's own published recording charges, headed effective July 1, 2011: $25.00 for each document filed or recorded and an additional $25.00 for each further block of ten or fewer index entries, with the county's rules for counting grantor, grantee and legal-description entries and a worked probate example |
| Guadalupe County online records (guadalupecountynm.org) | The county's Records Search, opening a Guadalupe County Lookup with Assessor, Clerk and Treasurer tabs. It is an index of county records, including recorded documents, and it is not a probate case search. The office publishes that there is no charge to search records in the office and that official copies come from the county office |
| Fourth Judicial District, location, hours and contacts (fourthdistrict.nmcourts.gov), 575-472-3888 | The formal and contested forum for Guadalupe, San Miguel and Mora Counties. It publishes the Guadalupe County District Courthouse at 1448 Historic Route 66, Suite 5, Santa Rosa, open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and open during the lunch hour, fax 575-472-4451, and gives 505-425-7281 for its main courthouse at 496 West National Ave., Las Vegas |
| Fourth Judicial District fees, costs and filing (fourthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The district's own fee page: Civil and Probate Cases $132.00, photocopies at $.35 per page, a certified copy at $1.50 per pleading, and the payment rule that matters, which is cash, cashier's checks, money orders and in-state attorney checks only, with no personal checks and no credit cards |
| Fourth Judicial District legal resources and free teleclinics (fourthdistrict.nmcourts.gov), 505-425-7281 extension 2230, [email protected] | The district's own resource list for self-represented people, and its free legal teleclinics, which readers sign up for through the contact above. The list also points to the Legal Resources for the Elderly Program, New Mexico Legal Aid, Free Legal Answers and the State Bar |
| Guadalupe County District Court docket (fourthdistrict.nmcourts.gov) | The district's published hearing list for the Santa Rosa courthouse, covering the current day plus six days ahead, with the court's own note that details may contain omissions. It reaches district court hearings only, not probate court appointments |
| New Mexico Courts HelpLine (nmcourts.gov), 1-855-268-7804 | The judiciary's own information service, Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Saturdays 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., in English and Spanish with interpreters available. It can provide court-approved forms and explain what a form is asking for and point you to free or low-cost legal services, but it cannot tell you what to write on a form or apply any law to your situation. The most useful statewide resource for a self-represented probate filer in a county with no self-help center |
| New Mexico Courts probate forms (nmcourts.gov) | The free statewide Form 4B library, plus a plain-language guide and a Dine translation |
| New Mexico Courts self-representation (nmcourts.gov) | The judiciary's self-representation site, with a probate page carrying the same 4B forms. Note that the free Guide and File document tool elsewhere on the site covers free process, divorce and orders of protection only, and has no probate interview |
| New Mexico Courts Case Lookup (nmcourts.gov) | The free statewide case index, covering the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, district, magistrate and municipal courts. It reaches a Fourth Judicial District case and it does not reach a Guadalupe County Probate Court case, because it has no probate court option. It is an index only, with no documents |
| Legal Resources for the Elderly Program, State Bar of New Mexico (sbnm.org), 505-797-6005 or 1-800-876-6657 | A free statewide legal helpline for New Mexico residents aged 55 and older, with no income restrictions, in English and Spanish. Phone lines are open and accepting voicemails Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Mountain Time. It names probate and transfer on death deeds among the areas it advises on, which makes it the strongest probate-specific free resource in the state |
| Modest Means Helpline, State Bar of New Mexico (sbnm.org), 505-797-6013 or 888-857-9935 | Advice by telephone for New Mexico residents of modest means, Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mountain Time, with referrals to pro bono attorneys in limited cases. Callers aged 55 or older should use the elderly program instead |
| New Mexico Free Legal Answers (nm.freelegalanswers.org) | Free written answers to civil legal questions from volunteer New Mexico attorneys, for people who qualify. Useful for a single question about a Guadalupe County estate rather than for representation |
| New Mexico Compilation Commission (nmonesource.com) | The official free text of NMSA 1978 and the rules and forms, published by the state's own compiler. The place to read Sections 34-7-14, 45-1-302 and 45-3-201 for yourself |
When to hire an attorney
Most Guadalupe County estates are uncontested, and the informal route is built for families doing this themselves: an informal probate is decided on the papers for $30.00 (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14) without a hearing. But nobody at either counter can help you decide anything. Guadalupe County publishes that staff in the Clerk's office may not fill out forms or offer such direction to the public and that county employees are prohibited from giving legal advice, and the Fourth Judicial District publishes its own list of what court staff cannot do, which includes creating documents, filling in forms, suggesting wording and applying the law to your facts. Both restate Rule 23-113 NMRA. Consider counsel when a will is likely to be contested or the heirs disagree, when someone outside the family claims an interest in ranch ground, water rights or mineral interests, when the estate is insolvent or a creditor is pressing, when a personal representative's deed or a sale has to be drafted (the courts' own guide warns that deeds can be tricky to draft and execute properly), when heirs cannot be located, when a guardianship or conservatorship has to run alongside the estate, or whenever the matter has to move to the Fourth Judicial District Court, which is the only forum that can decide any of it. Distance is a quieter argument here: the counter is in Santa Rosa but every judge of the district sits in Las Vegas, so a contested matter means hearings in another county. Sunset can connect families to a vetted New Mexico probate attorney serving Guadalupe County.
How Sunset helps
Find the accounts and assets. Sunset searches more than 2,300 financial institutions and public records to surface bank and credit union accounts, retirement plans, brokerage holdings, life insurance, Guadalupe County real property and unclaimed property, so estate settlement starts with a clearer picture of what the estate holds before you file. New Mexico requires the application for informal probate to be verified as accurate and complete (NMSA 1978, Section 45-3-301), and requires an inventory with date of death values within three months of appointment (Section 45-3-706).
Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, whether an informal application on Form 4B-302 or Form 4B-301 NMRA or one of New Mexico's affidavit routes, ready to take to an appointment at 1448 Historic Route 66 in Santa Rosa or to post there.
Find a local probate attorney. When a matter is contested, when title is disputed, or when it otherwise has to go to the Fourth Judicial District Court, Sunset connects families to a vetted New Mexico probate attorney serving Guadalupe County.
Sunset is free for families. Revenue comes from bank partners that pay Sunset while estate funds sit in an FDIC-insured estate account ($3M coverage).
Frequently asked questions
Do I file in the Guadalupe County Probate Court or the Fourth Judicial District Court?
Both can open an informal probate, and only the district court can do anything else. The Guadalupe County Probate Court handles informal, uncontested probate: admitting a will informally, appointing a personal representative informally, and issuing letters (NMSA 1978, Section 45-1-302(C)). The Fourth Judicial District Court has exclusive jurisdiction over formal proceedings, determinations of testacy and of heirs, will construction, will contests, supervised administration, disputes about who owns property as between the estate and an adverse claimant, disclaimers and tax apportionment (Section 45-1-302(A) and (B)), and it also has concurrent jurisdiction over informal matters (Section 45-1-302.1). In practice almost everyone starts in the probate court, because it costs $30.00 rather than $132.00, because there is no hearing, and because Section 34-7-10(B) means there is no second filing fee if the case has to be transferred up. In Guadalupe County the choice is unusually low stakes, because both counters are in the same building at 1448 Historic Route 66.
Where exactly do I file a probate in Guadalupe County?
At the Guadalupe County Clerk's and Probate Office, 1448 Historic Route 66, Santa Rosa, NM 88435, (575) 472-3791. The county clerk of each county is designated as the clerk of the probate court in that county (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-22(A)), and Guadalupe County says so in its own description of the office, which lists clerk of the probate court in handling informal proceedings only among the Clerk's constitutional duties and names the office the Clerk's and Probate Office. One caution about the suite number: the county's department directory gives the office as Suite 1 and its contact page gives Suite 2, which that page also gives to the Assessor's, Treasurer's and Sheriff's Offices, so confirm the suite by telephone before you post anything. The Fourth Judicial District Court is in Suite 5 of the same building. File in Guadalupe County if the person who died lived here (Section 45-3-201(A)(1)), or if they lived out of state and owned property here (Section 45-3-201(A)(2)).
What are the Guadalupe County Probate Court's hours?
The county publishes none, and that is genuinely the position rather than missing information. The position of probate judge in New Mexico is a part-time one (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-1(B)), and the probate court is open at such times as the clerk of the probate court determines and publishes on the county's website (Section 34-7-8). Guadalupe County publishes no such times anywhere on its site. What it publishes beside the office telephone is the instruction to call and schedule an appointment with probate, so treat (575) 472-3791 as the first step. Do not rely on the 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. hours the county Treasurer's Office publishes for itself: that is a different office in the same building. The district court counter in Suite 5 does publish hours, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and stays open during the lunch hour.
How much does it cost to file probate in Guadalupe County?
$30.00 in the Guadalupe County Probate Court and $132.00 in the Fourth Judicial District Court. The probate court fee is set by statute at thirty dollars for each probate case (NMSA 1978, Section 34-7-14), and because the county clerk is the probate clerk here it is deposited in the county clerk recording and filing fund (Section 34-7-22(A)). Guadalupe County publishes no fee sheet, no payee and no accepted payment methods for the probate court, so ask when you call. The district court figure is what the Fourth Judicial District publishes on its own fee page as Civil and Probate Cases $132.00, and it is built from $117 for docketing a civil cause (Section 34-6-40(A)) plus $15 in a judicial district running an alternative dispute resolution program (Section 34-6-45(A)). If the estate cannot afford it, ask for free process on Form 4B-201 NMRA in the probate court or under Rule 23-114 NMRA in the district court. One warning about paying the district court: it publishes its accepted payments in plain terms, cash, cashier's checks, money orders and in-state attorney checks, and it states that it does not accept personal checks or credit cards. That applies at the Suite 5 counter in Santa Rosa as much as at the Las Vegas courthouse, so bring cash or a money order for the $132.00.
Can I e-file a probate case in Guadalupe County?
Not in the probate court, and not as a self-represented filer in the district court either. New Mexico's electronic filing system, Tyler's Odyssey File and Serve, branded by the courts as eFile and Serve, is defined by rule as the system approved for use by the district courts (Rule 1-005.2(A)(3) NMRA); no probate court appears in any e-filing authority, and the Probate Court Rules contain no electronic filing rule. And even at the district court, self-represented parties are prohibited from electronically filing documents and shall continue to file documents through traditional methods (Rule 1-005.2(B)(1) NMRA), with the clerk converting a paper filing into electronic format (Rule 1-005.2(I)(2)). So you file on paper at the counter or by post in both forums, and the original will has to be physically delivered.
What happens if someone contests the will in Guadalupe County?
The case leaves the probate court, though in Santa Rosa it does not go far. A probate court case must be transferred to the district court when a contest arises, when a formal appointment or formal closing is requested, when a determination of testacy or heirship is requested, when a hearing is required, or when any interested party or the judge asks for it (Rule 1B-101(B)(2) NMRA, with the procedure in Rule 1B-701 NMRA), and the district court has exclusive original jurisdiction over all of it (NMSA 1978, Section 45-1-302(A)). Form 4B-1001 NMRA is the transfer order, and the transfer costs nothing: where a case was properly filed within the probate court's jurisdiction and later transferred, no filing fee shall be charged in the district court (Section 34-7-10(B)). Expect the hearings themselves to be before a judge based in Las Vegas, because all three judges of the Fourth Judicial District sit at 496 W. National Ave. Note also that a probate judge may decline an application for informal appointment for any reason, which is not an adjudication and does not prevent a formal appointment later (Section 45-3-309), and that while a formal testacy proceeding is pending the probate court cannot act on any informal application (Section 45-3-401(C)). A contest is the point at which counsel is worth having.
How do I look up a Guadalupe County probate case?
By asking the Clerk's and Probate Office at (575) 472-3791 or at the counter at 1448 Historic Route 66. Case Lookup, the free statewide index, covers New Mexico's district, magistrate, metropolitan and municipal courts, and has no probate court option at all; the New Mexico Courts locator lists no probate courts either. Each county probate court keeps its own records, and other counties' probate court records are not available online. Guadalupe County publishes no probate index of its own. Do not be misled by the county's online Guadalupe County Lookup: its tabs are Assessor, Clerk and Treasurer, it indexes county records such as recorded deeds rather than court cases, and the county's own note on it says official copies come from the county office. A Fourth Judicial District Court case, by contrast, does appear in Case Lookup as an index entry without documents, and the district publishes a Guadalupe County District Court docket page showing hearings for the current day plus six days ahead.
Are there local Guadalupe County probate forms?
No. Guadalupe County publishes no probate packet, no checklist and no forms of its own, which is the ordinary position in New Mexico. Use the statewide Supreme Court Form 4B set, which is free from the New Mexico Courts probate forms library and is also hosted in full by the Fourth Judicial District for Guadalupe, San Miguel and Mora Counties, together with the courts' plain-language probate guide and a Dine translation. Start with Form 4B-101 NMRA, the flow chart for opening and closing a probate court case. Remember that neither counter can help you fill anything in: the county publishes that its staff may not fill out forms or offer such direction to the public, and the district publishes the same limit for its own staff.
Do I have to travel to Santa Rosa, or to Las Vegas, to settle an estate in Guadalupe County?
To Santa Rosa, usually at least once, because the original will and the death certificate have to reach the court physically and the county's answer to a probate enquiry is an appointment. To Las Vegas, only if the matter becomes formal or contested and a judge wants a hearing, because all three judges of the Fourth Judicial District sit at 496 W. National Ave. there while the Guadalupe County District Courthouse counter stays in Santa Rosa. Beyond that, most of an uncontested estate here runs on post and telephone: the application and the later filings can be posted to 1448 Historic Route 66, Santa Rosa, NM 88435. What you cannot do is e-file, in either forum. Neither the county nor the district publishes any rule about appearing by telephone or video in a probate matter, so ask rather than assume.
How long does an informal probate take in Guadalupe County?
The statutory clock, rather than any local docket, sets the shape of it, and neither Guadalupe County nor the Fourth Judicial District publishes a processing time for probate. Nothing can be granted until at least 120 hours have passed since the death (NMSA 1978, Sections 45-3-302 and 45-3-307(A)). An informal case is decided on the verified application without a hearing, so once the judge has the complete papers, letters can issue quickly; the local variable is how soon your appointment is. After appointment, notice to the heirs and devisees goes out within 30 days and the proof is filed (Section 45-3-705), the inventory is prepared within three months (Section 45-3-706), and the estate cannot be closed informally earlier than six months after the original appointment (Section 45-3-1003(A)). Claims arising before the death are barred one year after the death whether or not anything was published (Section 45-3-803(A)). Six to twelve months is therefore the realistic span for a straightforward estate.
Shaped by the families we've helped
Thank you to the thousands of families who have trusted Sunset to help settle their loved ones' estates. This page is shaped by the questions they actually asked and the obstacles they actually hit — and that hard-won experience is what keeps it accurate, current, and genuinely useful to the families who come next.