New Jersey living trusts & estate documents

Living trust law in New Jersey

A revocable living trust holds your home, accounts, and other property during your life, you stay in full control as trustee and can change or revoke it any time, then passes it to your beneficiaries without probate when you're gone. In New Jersey, trusts are governed by the New Jersey Uniform Trust Code, N.J.S.A. 3B:31.

Avoiding probate in New Jersey

Probate in New Jersey is governed by the N.J.S.A. Title 3B and handled by the county Surrogate's Court, with contested matters heard in the Superior Court's Probate Part. Probate through the county Surrogate is largely unsupervised.

Affidavit in lieu of administration: up to $50,000 to a surviving spouse/partner, or $20,000 to other heirs. That simplified procedure is set out in N.J.S.A. 3B:10-3 and 3B:10-4. Assets held in a funded living trust pass to your beneficiaries without probate, whatever the size of the estate. Many New Jersey homeowners set one up for that reason.

In New Jersey, creditors generally have 9 months from the date of the decedent's death to file claims against the estate (N.J.S.A. § 3B:22-4), one reason court probate takes time that a funded trust avoids.

Estate and inheritance tax in New Jersey

New Jersey has an inheritance tax, a tax on what each beneficiary receives, usually scaled to how closely related they were to you: New Jersey repealed its estate tax (2018) but retains an inheritance tax for non-Class-A beneficiaries. The separate federal estate tax reaches only estates above $15 million per person (2026, adjusted yearly), so most families never owe it.

Protecting a surviving spouse in New Jersey

A surviving spouse in New Jersey who is left out of the will can instead claim an elective share of one-third of the augmented estate under N.J. Stat. § 3B:8-1, a protection the will itself cannot override.

New Jersey also sets aside a support allowance out of estate income, ordered by the Superior Court only while a will contest is pending for the surviving spouse or children, as the court deems just (N.J. Stat. § 3B:3-30).

Signing your New Jersey documents

1. Sign the living trust. Executed and acknowledged before a notary.
2. Sign the will. Two witnesses; notarized self-proving affidavit included (standalone and pour-over wills).
3. Sign the power of attorney. Sign your Durable Power of Attorney before a Notary Public.
4. Sign the health care documents. Sign your Advance Directive for Health Care either in the presence of two adult witnesses, who then sign the witness statement, or before a Notary Public. You do not need both. The person you named as your health care representative may not be a witness. The eligibility rules printed on the form govern who may serve as a witness.
5. Follow your package instructions. Your package includes page-by-page signing instructions written for New Jersey. Follow those as the authoritative guide.

Serving all of New Jersey

Answer the questionnaire from anywhere in New Jersey and download your completed documents in minutes: Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, Lakewood, Edison, Woodbridge, Toms River, Hamilton, Trenton, Clifton, Camden, and every community in between.