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How much does probate cost in Minnesota?

Opening a probate case in Minnesota costs a $322 initial filing fee in the state's largest county. The Hennepin County District Court fee schedule — published by the Minnesota Judicial Branch with changes effective July 1, 2025 — prices the initial filing for estates, trusts, guardianships and conservatorships at $322, charges a responding, intervening or adverse party the same $322 on a first filing, and charges $322 again for a petition that commences an action after an earlier petition was dismissed. The statutory spine underneath is Minn. Stat. §357.021, the district court fee statute: its schedule carries the same family of charges the county schedule itemises, including a $27 fee to deposit a will and a $55 fee for filing each partial, final or annual account in a trusteeship, both of which appear at identical figures on the Hennepin schedule.

Minnesota probate fees at a glance — Hennepin County

Minnesota's honesty about its own fee structure is built into the Judicial Branch's fees page: the Branch warns that its published base fee amounts do not include county law library fees, and that a filer must select a county to see total amounts including the applicable law library fee. That is why this page is labelled Hennepin County rather than pretending to a single statewide total. The base statutory fees in §357.021 are statewide — the general civil first-paper fee, the $100 motion fee in civil, family and guardianship cases, the $14 certified copy and the $27 will deposit all come from the statute — but the collected total in a given county is the base plus that county's law library component, and Hennepin's published all-in initial figure is $322. Other counties' totals differ modestly; the clerk or the Branch's fee catalog confirms any county's exact number. The national comparison is on the probate court costs hub.

One probate counter for estates, guardianships and trusts

Minnesota runs its probate court as a division of district court, and the Hennepin schedule's grouping is the practical consequence: a single $322 initial fee opens an estate, a trust matter, a guardianship or a conservatorship. That grouping matters for families whose cases straddle categories — an estate that needs a conservatorship for a beneficiary, or a guardianship that becomes a trust administration — because each new case number is a new $322 commencement, while work inside an open case is priced at the motion level instead. The schedule's exceptions reward agreement inside guardianships: no fee is charged for uncontested petitions to allow accounts, sell real estate or obtain discharges, while a party objecting to such a petition pays the initial filing fee or motion fee as applicable. Certified sale papers — a bundle of the will, order and letters — are priced at $42, or $56 for a successor's set, against $14 per individual certified document.

What the statute adds around the county schedule

Section 357.021 fills in the charges a probate filer meets beyond the opening fee. A motion or response to a motion in a guardianship case is $100 under the statute's clause (4), matching the county schedule; issuing a writ is $55; a transcript of judgment is $40; filing and entering a satisfaction of judgment is $5; a judgment search certificate is $5 per name; and a subpoena is $16 per name — the same $16 that appears on the Hennepin probate list. The statute also sets the adoption registry surcharge of $75 on each adoption petition under §259.52, subdivision 14, which is not a probate charge but explains the arithmetic on the Judicial Branch's family schedules, where a petition for adoption of a U.S.-born child totals $397 in Hennepin County — the $322 base plus the $75 registry surcharge — against $322 for a child born outside the United States or an adult adoptee. Probate filers will not pay that surcharge; it is noted here because it proves the county schedule and the statute are describing one coherent system.

How the case runs

1. File the application or petition to open the estate — or the guardianship, conservatorship or trust matter — in district court, probate division, and pay the initial filing fee $322
2. Serve or give notice to heirs, devisees and interested persons as the probate code requires
3. Receive letters testamentary or of administration and begin administering the estate
4. Work inside the case at motion prices — guardianship and trust motions $100, trust accounts $55
5. Close with the final account and certified documents as needed — certified copies $14, certified sale papers $42 or $56

What probate really costs beyond the clerk

Minnesota probate's larger costs sit outside §357.021. Personal representative compensation, where claimed, is governed by the probate code's reasonableness standards rather than a fee schedule; attorney fees for the estate follow the same pattern; and publication of notice to creditors, appraisal charges and bond premiums are priced by the newspaper, the appraiser and the bonding company. None of those amounts is published on a statewide schedule, so this page names them without inventing figures — the same discipline applied on this site's Washington probate costs, North Carolina probate costs and Oklahoma probate costs pages. What a Minnesota filer can predict exactly is the court-side spine: $322 to open in Hennepin County, $100 motions, $55 trust accounts, $27 to deposit a will, $14 certified copies. The wider state picture is on the Minnesota court costs guide.

Can't afford the fee?

Minnesota district courts can reduce or waive court fees for a filer who cannot afford them: the Judicial Branch's fees guidance points filers who cannot pay to the in forma pauperis process under Minn. Stat. §563.01 — the same provision this site's Minnesota divorce costs page notes — supported by a sworn statement of income, assets and expenses filed with the opening papers. In an estate, remember that filing fees advanced by the personal representative are ordinarily an administration expense addressed in the accounting, which is a separate question from a filer's personal inability to pay at the counter. Ask court administration which route fits before the petition is filed. The general mechanics of fee waivers are explained in the fee waiver guide.

Sources: Hennepin County District Court, Fees (Minnesota Judicial Branch, mncourts.gov; changes effective July 1, 2025), read directly — probate initial filing $322 (estates, trusts, guardianships, conservatorships); responding, intervening or adverse party $322; petition after dismissal $322; guardianship and trust motions $100; trust accounts $55; deposit of wills $27; certified sale papers $42 / successor $56; certified copy $14; subpoena $16 · Minn. Stat. §357.021 subd. 2, official text at revisor.mn.gov — motion in civil, family and guardianship cases $100; certified copy $14; uncertified copy $8; subpoena $16 per name; writs $55; trusteeship accounts $55; deposit of a will $27; adoption registry surcharge $75 under §259.52 subd. 14 · Minnesota Judicial Branch, District Court Fees guidance (base fees exclude county law library fees; county selection shows totals). Last verified: October 2026 — confirm your county's total with court administration.