New York probate is decentralized: each of the state’s 62 counties runs its own Surrogate’s Court, and your estate is handled by the court in the county where the decedent was domiciled at death (SCPA 205-206). There is no statewide Surrogate’s Court and no central filing office. The substantive rules come from the Estate Powers and Trusts Law (EPTL); the procedure comes from the Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act (SCPA). This guide explains how to find your court and what changes — and what does not — from county to county.
This is the page to read first if you are not sure which court applies to your situation. It ties the statewide statutes to the practical, county-level realities that decide where and how a New York estate is settled.
The statewide framework
Courts: 62 county Surrogate’s Courts — one per county, no statewide court. Venue: SCPA 205-206 — the decedent’s county of domicile at death. Substantive law: EPTL — wills, intestacy (EPTL 4-1.1), trusts, spousal right of election. Procedure: SCPA — probate petitions (1402), commissions (2307), fees (2402), examinations (1404). Estate tax: New York estate tax with the 105% “cliff,” separate from federal — applies statewide.
How to find your New York Surrogate’s Court
Start with one question: where was the decedent domiciled? Domicile is the true, fixed, permanent home — not necessarily where they died or owned a vacation property. That county’s Surrogate’s Court is your venue. A few examples of how this maps across the state:
- New York City splits into five courts — New York County (Manhattan), Kings (Brooklyn), Queens, Bronx, and Richmond (Staten Island) — by borough of domicile.
- Long Island is two separate counties — Nassau (court in Mineola) and Suffolk (court in Riverhead) — not one jurisdiction.
- The Hudson Valley and suburbs — Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess — each has its own court.
- Upstate metros — Erie (Buffalo), Monroe (Rochester), Onondaga (Syracuse), Albany — each county its own.
A person who lived in Albany but died in a Manhattan hospital is probated in Albany County, not Manhattan, because domicile, not place of death, controls.
Local property and asset realities by region
The statute is uniform; the assets are not. What an executor actually handles varies sharply across the state:
- Downstate / NYC: co-op apartments dominate many estates. A co-op owner holds shares plus a proprietary lease, not real property — so title passes differently and the executor must work with the co-op board’s transfer approval. High values frequently trigger the New York estate-tax cliff.
- Long Island: single-family homes (real property, unlike NYC co-ops), plus boats, small businesses, and seasonal East-End second homes in the Hamptons and the North Fork. Western Suffolk residents face a real travel consideration: the Suffolk court sits far east in Riverhead.
- Hudson Valley / suburbs: appreciated single-family homes and condos, often pushing estates toward the cliff once a paid-off house is added to retirement accounts.
- Upstate / rural: farmland, lakefront property, and closely held businesses; estates more often fall below the New York exemption but valuation of land and a business still matters.
Local filing realities
Most New York Surrogate’s Courts use NYSCEF e-filing, but whether it is mandatory or consensual varies by county and case type — the large downstate courts have the most developed electronic practice, while some smaller counties remain paper-heavy. Filing fees are statewide under SCPA 2402, graduated by estate value, so the schedule does not change county to county, but your bracket depends on the estate’s size. Each court runs its own Help Center for self-represented filers and its own calendar, which is why timelines diverge.
County-specific quirks worth knowing
- Venue cannot be shopped. Under SCPA 205, you file in the domicile county or the petition is rejected — even if another county would be more convenient.
- Caseload drives timelines. High-volume courts — the five NYC boroughs, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Erie — generally move slower than rural counties for both uncontested probate and contested matters.
- Multi-county estates multiply work. A decedent who owned real property in more than one New York county is probated only in the domicile county, but ancillary steps may be needed to clear title elsewhere — one of the strongest arguments for a revocable trust.
A worked New York scenario
Consider Margaret, domiciled in Saratoga County with a will leaving everything to her two children. Her estate: a paid-off home near downtown Saratoga Springs (real property), a brokerage account, an IRA naming her children as beneficiaries, and a checking account.
- The IRA passes outside probate directly to the children by beneficiary designation.
- The home and brokerage and checking accounts (in her name alone) go through probate in the Saratoga County Surrogate’s Court — her county of domicile under SCPA 205.
- Her executor files a probate petition (SCPA 1402), notifies both children as distributees (they sign waivers), and receives letters testamentary.
- Because her total taxable estate sits below the New York exemption, no New York estate tax is due — but had her home appreciated enough to push the estate just over the cliff, she could have owed tax on the entire estate.
The same fact pattern in Suffolk County would land in Riverhead; in Manhattan, the home would likely be a co-op requiring board approval. Same statute, different court, different asset mechanics.
Mini-FAQ for New York State estates
There’s no statewide probate court — so where do I actually file? In the Surrogate’s Court of the county where the decedent was domiciled at death (SCPA 205). Identify the domicile county first; everything follows from that.
My relative owned homes in two New York counties. Two probates? Generally one probate, in the domicile county. The second county may need ancillary steps to clear real-property title — avoidable with a funded trust.
Does the estate-tax cliff apply everywhere in New York? Yes. The New York estate tax and its 105% cliff are statewide, though high-value downstate and suburban estates hit it far more often.
Is the filing fee different in different counties? No. The SCPA 2402 fee schedule is statewide; only your estate-value bracket changes the amount.
Where to get help
Identifying the right county Surrogate’s Court and understanding that county’s asset and filing realities is the first real step. Russel Morgan of Morgan Legal Group handles probate and administration across New York’s county courts. Start with the probate process guide, the Surrogate’s Courts overview, and the FAQ.