Letters testamentary

What it means

Letters testamentary are issued by a court after it accepts a will and appoints the executor named in it. The document is short and its only job is to prove authority.

'Letters' is an old word for it, and it confuses people: this is a certificate, not correspondence.

Institutions almost never keep your original. What they want is a certified copy issued by the court, and many will not accept one more than about sixty days old — so ask what each will need, and how recent it has to be, before ordering.

Letters can be issued with limits. A court may grant limited or special letters for one purpose, temporary letters while something is contested, or restricted letters that require its permission before selling property. An institution reading the letters will act on those limits.

Why it matters

This is the document institutions actually want. A will on its own does not prove that the person holding it is entitled to act — the letters do.

Many organizations want a certified copy issued recently, because letters can be revoked or superseded. Asking how recent is worth doing before making the trip.

When you are likely to meet it

• When a bank, brokerage, registry or motor vehicle agency asks for proof of authority.
• Whenever a form asks for 'letters' without saying which kind.

How authority is proved, and what an institution will take

A reader arriving from “the bank said I need letters” needs to know which of these they are being asked for, and that an institution almost always wants a certified copy rather than the document the court handed them.

Keep the original. Order several certified copies at the same time as the first — each one costs a fee, and a second trip to the court costs a morning.

From a death to authority over the estate

The gap between these steps is where most families believe, wrongly, that they can already act.

1. At the death Nobody has authority over the estate's property, including the person named in the will Being named executor is a nomination. It becomes an appointment only when a court makes it one.
2. The will is filed The original is lodged with the probate court, and its validity is established A self-proving affidavit signed with the will usually removes the need to find the witnesses.
3. The court appoints Letters testamentary are issued, naming the person and the powers they hold
4. Before each institution A certified copy is presented, and the institution keeps it Many refuse a copy issued more than a set number of days earlier, so order them close to when they are needed.
5. At the end The court discharges the appointment, and the authority ends with it

How this varies by state

Some states issue a single document covering both testate and intestate appointments, and the required recency of a certified copy is set locally or by the institution.

Below is how the states Sahvelo has published describe it, in their own words, each linked to the guide that sources it.

Related terms

• Ancillary probateA second, smaller probate in another state, for property located there.
• ApostilleA certificate authenticating a public document so it can be used in another country.
• Certified copyA copy issued by the office that holds the original, carrying a seal or stamp that says so. A photocopy is not one.
• Estate accountA bank account in the estate's own name. Estate money must not pass through anybody's personal account.
• Estate saleA sale of the contents of a house, usually run by a company on commission. It is one of several ways to clear a home, and rarely the only one worth considering.
• ExecutorThe person named in a will to carry it out — once a court actually appoints them.
• Independent administrationAdministering an estate without the court supervising each step — and it is granted in opposite ways in different states.
• Informal probateProbate handled administratively by a court official rather than by a judge, where nobody is contesting anything.
• Letters of administrationThe court document proving somebody has been appointed to handle an estate where there is no will.
• Local administrationAdministration opened in a state that is not where the person lived, because they left something there — the second estate the first one does not mention.
• Medallion signature guaranteeA bank's stamp guaranteeing a signature on a securities transfer. It is not a notarization.
• Personal representativeThe neutral term for whoever is authorized to act for an estate, whether named in a will or appointed by a court.
• ProbateThe court process that confirms who has authority to deal with what somebody owned when they died.
• Probate courtThe court that supervises estates. In many states it is a division of a general trial court and goes by another name.
• RenunciationDeclining an appointment as executor. It is always allowed, and it is done in writing.
• Safe-deposit boxA box rented at a bank. Getting into one after the renter has died is its own procedure, and often a slower one than the family expects.
• Successor in interestSomebody who receives an interest in a mortgaged home from a borrower who died, and gains the borrower's rights.
• Transfer agentThe company a corporation employs to keep its share register and to move shares from one owner to another.
• Waiver of noticeA signed form in which somebody entitled to be told about a court step agrees they do not need to be told.
• Beneficiary claimThe request a named person makes to an institution to be paid what they were named on. It is not a claim against the estate, and the two are opposites.
• LettersThe court's certificate that somebody has been appointed to act for an estate: letters testamentary when there is a will, letters of administration when there is not.

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Being an executor
• Bank accounts after a death