Richmond County, NY Probate Information

The most common Staten Island misstep is filing before you know what the estate holds and which proceeding fits. New York has three ordinary paths: a probate proceeding when there is a will (Surrogate's Court Procedure Act, SCPA, Article 14), an administration proceeding when there is no will (SCPA Article 10), and voluntary administration for a qualifying small estate (SCPA Article 13, SCPA 1301). Which one applies turns on whether there is a will and on the value and type of the assets; the statewide thresholds are covered on the New York state page. A jointly owned Staten Island home or a beneficiary-designated account often passes outside the estate, so the estate that actually goes through the Surrogate's Court can be smaller than the family expects.

Before you file, identify every bank, credit-union, brokerage, and retirement account, life-insurance policy, cooperative or condominium interest, and parcel of Staten Island real estate, along with every debt, and identify each distributee (the decedent's heirs at law) by name. Only then can you pick the right proceeding, calculate the correct filing fee, and decide whether counsel is needed. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for this step.

The Richmond County Surrogate's Court serves the borough of Staten Island, which is coextensive with Richmond County. Every Staten Island probate and administration is filed here, at the office of the Chief Clerk of the Surrogate's Court in the Richmond County Supreme Courthouse, 18 Richmond Terrace. Under New York's venue rule, the proper county is the one where the decedent was domiciled at death (SCPA 205); for a decedent who was not a New York domiciliary but left property in the state, venue lies where the property is located (SCPA 206), which is the basis for an ancillary proceeding. The court accepts filings only for decedents who resided in Richmond County, or who left property or a cause of action here, so the estate of a Staten Island resident, or one holding Staten Island real property, is filed at this courthouse.

Richmond County is the least populous of the five New York City boroughs, and it operates from a single courthouse rather than the multiple sites some larger counties use. As one of the four borough Surrogate's Courts that require attorneys to e-file, it runs its probate and administration dockets largely through NYSCEF and publishes its e-filing notice and part rules on its nycourts.gov page.

One Staten Island courthouse for the whole borough. The Richmond County Surrogate's Court sits in the Richmond County Supreme Courthouse at 18 Richmond Terrace, Room 201, and every Staten Island probate and administration is filed there. Richmond County is the smallest-volume of the five borough Surrogate's Court dockets and operates from this single site.

Attorneys must e-file; self-represented filers may file on paper. Richmond County is one of the four New York City borough Surrogate's Courts, with Bronx, Kings, and Queens, where attorneys are required to file through NYSCEF. Under the court's published notice, e-filing is mandatory in probate, administration, voluntary administration, and accounting and miscellaneous proceedings, and in related and subsequent proceedings, commenced on or after July 10, 2026; the court had allowed e-filing on a consensual basis since June 1, 2020. Adoption and guardianship matters are excepted from the mandate and are filed on paper, and the court's e-filing protocol has also treated lifetime-trust matters as paper filings, so confirm with the clerk's office before filing one. A self-represented filer is not required to e-file and may file in person or by mail; confirm the current scope on the court's page or the NYSCEF authorized-courts list at nycourts.gov/efile.

Original wills and death certificates travel on paper. Even when a proceeding is e-filed, the original will must be scanned without being unstapled and then mailed or delivered to the court within two business days, and the death certificate must be e-filed with a hard-copy original filed within two business days. Original wills and death certificates are accepted by mail or by drop-off at 18 Richmond Terrace.

A Request for Surrogate's Court Action opens each filing. The court requires a Request for Surrogate's Court Action as the first document uploaded with each NYSCEF filing, submitted as a stand-alone document with nothing else scanned into it. A new Request is prepared for each filing; the non-proceeding-relief page of the form is used to ask for certified documents or Certificates of Appointment.

Search the decedent's name before opening a matter. Before entering a new filing, run an inquiry on the decedent's last name using the first initial to see whether a file is already open, because the court's numbering system makes a search by file number alone unreliable. You should also confirm with the court whether another will is on file, for example a will left for safekeeping.

Letters and certificates come back by mail. Court-issued Letters and Certificates of Appointment are provided in hard copy and mailed to the filer in a self-addressed stamped envelope with adequate postage; the court will not mail documents without a properly stamped envelope. Certificates must be requested and paid for in advance in an e-filed proceeding.

New York does not require an attorney to file a probate or administration proceeding, and many straightforward Staten Island estates are handled with the statewide forms, the CourtHelp overviews, and the DIY Small Estate program. Counsel makes sense when the will is contested or an interested party files objections to probate (SCPA 1410); when the estate is large, taxable, or holds a business interest or out-of-state property; when Staten Island real property, a cooperative, or a condominium must be sold; when the heirs are unknown or hard to prove and a kinship question arises; or when the fiduciary faces a dispute over accounting or removal. Because attorneys must e-file in Richmond County, counsel who appears here files through NYSCEF. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Richmond County probate attorney when the situation calls for counsel.

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, Staten Island real estate and cooperative interests, business interests, and unclaimed property, so you know the estate's value during estate settlement and can pick the right New York proceeding before you file.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the Richmond County filing: the petition for probate (Form P-1) or letters of administration (Form A-1), or the Affidavit of Voluntary Administration for a small estate, with the notice and consent forms, formatted for NYSCEF or for filing on paper at 18 Richmond Terrace.

Find a local probate attorney. When an estate is contested, taxable, or otherwise calls for counsel, Sunset connects families to a vetted Richmond County probate attorney to file and appear.

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).