What the filing costs, and who sets it
The fee on a probate or administration petition is fixed by the Surrogate's Court Procedure Act for the whole state, and it is keyed to the gross value of the estate as the petition states it: $45 below $10,000; $75 from $10,000 to under $20,000; $215 from $20,000 to under $50,000; $280 from $50,000 to under $100,000; $420 from $100,000 to under $250,000; $625 from $250,000 to under $500,000; and $1,250 at $500,000 and above.
A value later shown to be higher carries an additional fee, and a value later shown to be lower produces a refund. The same schedule governs an accounting, keyed to the assets accounted for, and other proceedings, keyed to the value of what they concern.
Several figures people meet along the way are flat. Objections to probate cost $150 to file, as does a demand for a jury trial. A note of issue is $45. An answer or objection in a proceeding other than probate is $75, as is a petition to construe a will, a petition to exercise a right of election, or a discovery proceeding against someone holding estate property.
Certificates and copies are also statewide. A certificate of letters showing that a fiduciary's appointment remains in force is $6. A certified copy of a will or any paper is $6 per page, with authentication $20 more. A search and certificate is $30 where the records run under twenty-five years and $90 over. Recording an instrument is $8 per page with a $16 minimum.
The one place the statute leaves room to the county is a will deposited with the court for safekeeping, which costs $45 except that the court in any county may reduce the fee or dispense with it.
The court, and the department that takes your matter
The Nassau County Surrogate's Court sits on the third floor of the Nassau County Court House at 262 Old Country Road in Mineola. The main number is 516-493-3800 and the Chief Clerk's office is 516-493-3805.
The court publishes a department directory, and it is the most useful thing on its website, because a filing or a question reaches a person faster through the department than through the main line. Accounting takes judicial accountings, petitions to compel a fiduciary to account, receipts and releases, inventories of assets, contempt and claims against the estate, at 516-493-3791. Administration takes administration and temporary letters, ancillary administration, an administrator de bonis non, petitions to lift restrictions and personal injury causes of action, at 516-493-3777.
Guardianship takes guardianship of a minor, article 17-A guardianship of an intellectually or developmentally disabled person, withdrawals and budgets, annual accountings and successor custodian matters, at 516-493-3794. Miscellaneous takes discovery and turnover, right of election, late renunciation, advance payment of commissions or legal fees, inter vivos trusts, revocation of a fiduciary, advice and directions, and dispositions of real property, at 516-493-3788. Calendar and adjournments are at 516-493-3784, and the Law Department at 516-493-3828.
Adoptions moved to the Family Court
As of October 2025 all adoptions are processed in the Nassau County Family Court. The Surrogate's Court continues to handle unsealing of adoption records, certificates of adoption, record requests and certified orders, and orders to vacate an adoption.
The Wednesday calendar
Nassau runs a citation calendar on Wednesdays, and the court posts the coming week's calendar on its own page. A matter returnable on a citation is heard that day.
Filing electronically is by consent
Electronic filing in the Surrogate's Court runs as a consensual program under the Uniform Rules, available on consent in the proceedings and counties the Chief Administrator of the Courts has specified. An attorney or a party agrees to take part in a particular proceeding; agreement in one proceeding carries no further than that proceeding.
Electronic service has a limit worth knowing before it costs a jurisdictional defect: it reaches papers served on parties who have appeared, and it stops short of service of process to gain jurisdiction. A citation is served the way the statute requires, whatever the filing method.
Records
Court records in estate proceedings are searchable through WebSurrogate, the state's free public file search, which allows a file to be searched, documents retrieved and historical records viewed.
What the state decides, wherever the estate is
Where there is a will, the proceeding is probate and the court issues letters testamentary to the executor the will names. Where there is no will, the proceeding is administration and the court issues letters of administration in an order of priority the statute sets.
Where the whole of the personal property comes to $50,000 or less, the estate may be settled without a full administration under the small estate article of the Surrogate's Court Procedure Act, leaving aside property set off to a surviving spouse or children by the Estates, Powers and Trusts Law.
Where a person dies without a will, the Estates, Powers and Trusts Law decides who takes. A surviving spouse with issue takes fifty thousand dollars and one half of the residue, and the issue take the balance by representation. A surviving spouse with no issue takes the whole. Issue and no spouse take the whole by representation. With neither spouse nor issue the estate passes to a surviving parent or parents, then to the issue of the parents by representation, then to grandparents or their issue, divided one half to each parental side, and then to the great-grandchildren of the grandparents per capita on the same halving. Half-blood relatives take as whole blood, and a child conceived before the death and born alive takes as though born in the decedent's lifetime.