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How to Form an LLC in New Hampshire — and What the Filing Doesn’t Protect You From

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 18:27:16 GMT

Forming the LLC is the easy part and takes about twenty minutes. The gap between what owners think an LLC does and what it actually does is where the losses happen.

New Hampshire makes it genuinely easy to form a limited liability company. You can do it yourself in an afternoon for about a hundred dollars. We will walk through exactly how — and then spend the second half of this article on the part nobody tells you, which is the list of things a Certificate of Formation does not protect you from.

Part one: forming the LLC

Step 1 — Choose and check the name

Your name must be distinguishable from existing New Hampshire registrations and must include an approved designator: “Limited Liability Company,” “L.L.C.,” or “LLC.” Search the Secretary of State’s business name database before you print anything. Availability at the Secretary of State is not a trademark clearance — those are different questions, and a state filing does not give you rights against a prior trademark user.

Step 2 — Appoint a registered agent

Every New Hampshire LLC must maintain a registered agent with a physical New Hampshire street address — not a P.O. box. Any member with a New Hampshire address can serve at no cost. The tradeoff is that the address becomes public and you must actually be there to receive service of process. Commercial registered agent services solve both problems for roughly $50 to $150 a year.

Step 3 — File the Certificate of Formation (Form LLC-1)

File with the Secretary of State, Corporation Division. Filing fees:

• $100 by mail with the paper Form LLC-1.

• $102 online through NH QuickStart (the $2 difference is the electronic handling charge).

• Expedited in-person service is available in the Customer Lobby for an additional fee.

The certificate states the LLC’s name, the nature of its business, the registered agent and office, and whether the LLC is manager-managed. Check the Secretary of State’s current processing dates before promising a client or a lender a formation date.

Step 4 — Get an EIN

Apply directly with the IRS. It is free and takes minutes online. Do not pay a service for this.

Step 5 — Adopt an operating agreement

New Hampshire does not require an operating agreement under RSA 304-C. It is still the single most important document your LLC will have. Without one, the statutory default rules govern — and those defaults were written for a generic company, not yours.

A real operating agreement addresses: capital contributions and who owes what; how profits and losses are allocated and when distributions are made; who has authority to sign contracts and borrow money; what happens on death, disability, divorce, bankruptcy, or a member simply wanting out; how the interest is valued; transfer restrictions and rights of first refusal; deadlock resolution; and dissolution. For a single-member LLC it is shorter but still matters — it is part of the record showing the entity is real and separate.

Step 6 — Open a dedicated bank account

Before the first dollar of revenue arrives. Bring the stamped Certificate of Formation, the EIN letter, and the operating agreement.

Step 7 — Handle trade names, licenses, and taxes

• Trade name (DBA) under RSA 349 — $50, valid for five years, filed through NH QuickStart or by mail.

• Licenses and permits — state-level requirements vary by industry (trades, food service, childcare, health-related fields, alcohol), and municipalities in Merrimack County add their own. Check both.

• Business taxes — register through Granite Tax Connect. BPT applies to businesses with gross business income over $109,000; BET applies over $298,000 in gross receipts or enterprise value tax base.

• Employer obligations if you hire — NH Employment Security, workers’ compensation coverage, and new hire reporting.

Step 8 — Calendar the annual report

Every New Hampshire LLC files an annual report between January 1 and April 1 each year, for $100 , through NH QuickStart. Late filing adds a $50 penalty and puts the LLC in “Not in Good Standing” status. Miss two consecutive years and the state administratively dissolves the LLC. There is a narrow exemption for LLCs formed between December 1 and April 1, which skip that year’s filing.

A note on federal beneficial ownership reporting

The Corporate Transparency Act’ s beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirement caused years of confusion for small businesses. That requirement no longer applies to companies formed in the United States. FinCEN issued an interim final rule in March 2025 exempting domestic reporting companies, and on August 11, 2026, FinCEN issued a final rule permanently removing the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons, and announced it would delete previously reported information from U.S. persons. Foreign entities registered to do business in a U.S. state remain subject to reporting. If you were told you needed to file a BOI report for your New Hampshire LLC , you almost certainly do not.

Part two: what the filing does not protect you from

Here is the mental model that causes trouble. Owners think the LLC is a shield: anything that happens in the business stops at the entity. It is closer to a container : it separates business obligations from personal ones, and it has a specific list of leaks.

1. Your own conduct

An LLC does not protect you from liability for torts you personally commit . If you cause the accident, do the defective work, make the misrepresentation, or commit the assault, you are personally liable. The LLC may be liable too. The entity protects you from others’ acts and from the company’s contractual debts — not from your own hands.

2. Personal guarantees

Commercial landlords, SBA lenders, equipment lessors, and trade creditors routinely require a personal guarantee. Every one you sign is a hole you have drilled in your own container, voluntarily. Read the signature page. Negotiate caps, sunsets, and carve-outs where you have leverage. If a guarantee is unavoidable, at least know it is there.

3. Payroll taxes and other trust-fund obligations

Under IRC § 6672, a responsible person who willfully fails to remit withheld payroll taxes is personally liable for the trust fund recovery penalty. The LLC is irrelevant here. If cash gets tight, pay the payroll taxes first — this is the debt that follows you personally through a bankruptcy.

4. Professional malpractice

Licensed professionals remain personally responsible for their own professional negligence regardless of entity form. This is why professional liability insurance exists and why an entity is no substitute for it.

5. Unpaid wages

New Hampshire’s wage payment statute, RSA 275, and its federal counterparts reach individuals with control over pay decisions in defined circumstances. Do not assume the entity absorbs wage claims.

6. Veil piercing — usually self-inflicted

New Hampshire courts will disregard an entity where an owner has used it to promote injustice or fraud, or has so disregarded its separateness that the entity is merely the owner’s alter ego. The facts that produce this outcome are almost always mundane:

• Paying personal expenses from the business account, or vice versa.

• No operating agreement and no records of significant decisions.

• Undercapitalization — no meaningful assets and no insurance for foreseeable risks.

• Contracts, invoices, leases, and signs that use your personal name rather than the LLC’s.

• Letting the annual report lapse so the LLC is not in good standing.

None of that is exotic. It is bookkeeping and discipline, and it is entirely within your control.

7. Signature-block sloppiness

This is the most common and most avoidable error we see. If you sign a contract “Jane Smith” instead of “Smith Contracting LLC, by Jane Smith, Member,” you have given the other side a serious argument that you contracted personally. Every contract, every lease, every credit application. Every time.

8. Pre-formation obligations

Contracts you signed before the LLC existed are yours. Forming the entity afterward does not retroactively transfer them. If you have been operating as a sole proprietor, existing agreements need to be assigned or novated — which requires the other party’s cooperation.

9. The absence of insurance

An LLC allocates risk. Insurance pays claims. General liability, professional liability or errors and omissions, commercial auto, property, cyber, and workers’ compensation are what actually stand between a bad day and a closed business. An LLC with no insurance and no assets protects you personally while the business simply ceases to exist.

10. Single-member limitations

New Hampshire, like most states, makes the charging order the primary creditor remedy against a member’s LLC interest. That protection is meaningfully stronger in a multi-member LLC, where a creditor’s interference would prejudice innocent co-members. Owners of single-member LLCs should not over-rely on charging order protection.

The annual maintenance checklist

• File the annual report between January 1 and April 1. $100. Set a calendar reminder for January 15.

• Keep the registered agent and address current with the Secretary of State.

• Keep business and personal funds strictly separate, all year, without exception.

• Document significant decisions — admitting a member, taking on debt, major contracts, distributions.

• Update the operating agreement when ownership or management changes. An operating agreement that no longer describes reality is worse than none.

• Review insurance annually against how the business has actually changed.

• Confirm every contract signature block names the LLC.

Bottom line

Filing a Certificate of Formation costs $100 and takes twenty minutes. Making the LLC do what you hired it to do is an ongoing practice: an operating agreement that reflects your real deal, clean separation of funds, insurance sized to your actual risk, disciplined signing, and an annual report filed on time.

The businesses that get hurt are almost never the ones that filed the wrong form. They are the ones that filed the right form and then behaved as though nothing had changed.

Form it right, or fix what is already there

A.A. Archambault Law, PLLC forms New Hampshire LLCs, drafts and repairs operating agreements, and reviews contracts and guarantees for small businesses in Hopkinton, Concord , Bow , Henniker , and across New Hampshire. Call (603) 527-5101 or contact us through this website .

Disclaimer

This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, nor is it a substitute for advice from a licensed attorney. Reading this article, or contacting the firm through our website, does not create an attorney-client relationship with A.A. Archambault Law, PLLC. New Hampshire law changes, and the way the law applies depends on the particular facts of each situation. No result is guaranteed in any matter. Before you act or decline to act on anything discussed here, consult a New Hampshire attorney about your own circumstances. Statutory citations, dollar figures, and filing fees are stated as of August 2026 and should be verified against current sources.

Do I Need a Trust, or Is a Will Enough? A New Hampshire Perspective

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:07:53 GMT

The honest answer is that plenty of New Hampshire families are fine with a well-drafted will — and a specific set of situations where a trust is worth every dollar.

There is a version of this question that gets asked online constantly and answered badly. Trust-heavy marketing tells everyone they need a revocable living trust. Do-it-yourself sites tell everyone a will is fine. Neither is a New Hampshire answer, and neither accounts for your facts. Here is how we actually think about it.

What a will does — and the three things it does not do

A will is a set of instructions to a probate court. It names who receives your probate property, who serves as executor, and who serves as guardian for minor children. In New Hampshire, RSA 551:2 requires that a will be in writing, signed by the testator, and signed by two or more credible witnesses who attest to the testator’s signature at the testator’s request and in the testator’s presence.

Two New Hampshire specifics worth knowing:

• Handwritten (holographic) wills are not valid here. A will written entirely in your own hand but without witnesses does not work in New Hampshire, no matter how clearly it expresses your wishes.

• Notarization is optional but valuable. A self-proving affidavit under RSA 551:2-a, signed before a notary or justice of the peace, allows the probate court to accept the will without tracking down witnesses years later. It costs almost nothing and saves real trouble.

What a will does not do:

1. It does not avoid probate. A will is the probate instrument. Filing it starts the process.

2. It does not control non-probate assets. Retirement accounts, life insurance, annuities, transfer-on-death accounts, and property held in joint tenancy with rights of survivorship pass by contract or by operation of law. Your will has no say. We regularly see beautifully drafted wills that govern almost nothing because everything of value passes outside them.

3. It does nothing while you are alive. A will has no effect until death. If you become incapacitated, the will sits in a drawer. That job belongs to a durable power of attorney and an advance directive.

What probate actually looks like in New Hampshire

It helps to know what you are avoiding before deciding whether to pay to avoid it. New Hampshire probate is handled by the Circuit Court Probate Division. In a typical administration:

• The executor is appointed and letters testamentary issue.

• A six-month creditor claim period runs from the date of appointment. This sets the practical minimum timeline — no estate closes faster than that.

• An inventory is filed, assets are marshaled, debts and expenses are paid, and a final accounting or waiver is submitted.

• Simplified paths exist. A waiver of administration is available in defined circumstances, commonly where a surviving spouse or sole heir is also the named executor, which strips out most of the accounting burden.

For a straightforward New Hampshire estate — one house, a few accounts, cooperative heirs — probate is an administrative chore, not a catastrophe. It is public, it takes the better part of a year, and it costs something. Whether that is worth engineering around depends entirely on the next section.

When a will is genuinely enough

A will plus good beneficiary designations is often the right plan when most of the following are true:

• All of your real estate is in New Hampshire.

• Your family situation is simple — a first marriage, adult children who get along, no one with special needs or creditor problems.

• Most of your wealth is already in accounts with beneficiary designations that are current and correct.

• You are not concerned about privacy.

• You are not doing long-term care or asset protection planning.

If that is you, the highest-value work is not a trust. It is making sure the will is validly executed, the powers of attorney are in place, and every beneficiary designation actually says what you think it says.

When a trust earns its keep

A revocable living trust is worth the additional cost and complexity when one or more of these applies:

1. Out-of-state real estate. This is the single most common reason. A Vermont camp, a Florida condo, or Maine coastal property owned in your individual name means a second, ancillary probate in that state on top of the New Hampshire one. A trust eliminates that.

2. Blended families and second marriages. A trust can provide for a surviving spouse for life while guaranteeing that the remainder eventually goes to your children. A will leaving everything outright to a spouse guarantees nothing.

3. Beneficiaries who should not receive money outright. Minors, young adults, a beneficiary with a substance use disorder, a beneficiary in a shaky marriage, or a beneficiary receiving needs-based public benefits. A direct bequest to a person receiving SSI or Medicaid can disqualify them; a properly drafted supplemental needs trust does not.

4. Incapacity planning. A funded revocable trust lets a successor trustee step in and manage assets seamlessly, with no court involvement and none of the friction that financial institutions sometimes create around powers of attorney.

5. Privacy. A probated will is a public record. Anyone can read what you owned and who received it. A trust generally is not filed.

6. Business interests. Where continuity of management matters, a trust coordinated with an operating agreement is usually cleaner than a probate transfer.

7. Long-term care planning. This is a different instrument — an irrevocable trust, not a revocable one — with its own five-year lookback and significant tradeoffs. It is not for everyone, and it needs to be done early to work.

New Hampshire is an unusually good place to have a trust

This is not marketing. New Hampshire has spent two decades deliberately modernizing its trust law under RSA 564-B, the New Hampshire Trust Code. The state permits directed trusts that separate investment, distribution, and administrative functions; has broad decanting and modification provisions; recognizes trust protectors; and has largely eliminated the rule against perpetuities for qualifying trusts. Combined with the absence of a state income tax, New Hampshire is a destination trust jurisdiction that out-of-state families deliberately choose.

For an ordinary Hopkinton or Concord family, that flexibility mostly shows up as options later — the ability to fix a trust that no longer fits without going to court.

The mistake that quietly ruins trusts

Funding. A trust controls only what it owns. We have reviewed trusts that were signed years ago and never funded — the deed was never recorded transferring the house, the accounts were never retitled, the LLC interest was never assigned. Those clients paid for a trust and got a probate anyway.

If you have a trust, ask yourself a concrete question: whose name is on the deed to your house right now? If you cannot answer, that is the thing to check this month.

In practice, it is rarely either/or

A complete New Hampshire plan almost always includes several documents working together:

• A will — either as the primary instrument or as a pour-over will that catches anything not retitled into the trust.

• A durable power of attorney for financial matters.

• An advance directive — in New Hampshire, a combined durable power of attorney for health care and living will under RSA 137-J.

• A trust , where the facts justify it, and a funding checklist that actually gets completed.

• Beneficiary designations reviewed and coordinated with everything above.

The right question is not “will or trust.” It is “what has to happen for my family to be fine, and which combination of tools gets there with the least friction?”

Get a straight answer about your own situation

We will tell you if a will is enough. A.A. Archambault Law, PLLC handles wills , trusts , powers of attorney , advance directives , and probate for families in Hopkinton , Concord, Bow , Henniker , and across Merrimack County and new Hampshire. Call (603) 627-5101 or reach us through this website to schedule a consultation.

Disclaimer

Does New Hampshire Have an Estate Tax? What NH Families Actually Owe

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 19:55:48 GMT

New Hampshire is one of the friendliest states in the country for passing wealth to the next generation — but “no estate tax” is not the same as “no planning needed.”

This is one of the most common questions we hear from New Hampshire families, and the answer is refreshingly simple: New Hampshire has no estate tax and no inheritance tax. If you die a New Hampshire resident, your estate owes nothing to the State of New Hampshire simply because you died. There is no state-level death tax return to file.

That is genuinely good news, and it puts New Hampshire in a small group of states. But the question behind the question is usually broader — what will my family actually pay, and what should I be doing about it? That answer is more nuanced, and it is where most of the real money is won or lost.

What New Hampshire repealed, and when

New Hampshire used to tax inherited wealth. Two statutes did the work, and both are gone:

• The Legacy and Succession Tax (RSA 86) — repealed for deaths occurring on or after January 1, 2003. This was the closest thing New Hampshire had to an inheritance tax; it taxed transfers to certain non-lineal beneficiaries.

• The Transfer Tax Upon the Personal Property of Nonresident Decedents (RSA 89) — also repealed effective January 1, 2003.

• The New Hampshire estate tax (RSA 87) — this was never a stand-alone tax. It was a “pick-up” or “sponge” tax that captured the federal credit for state death taxes. When Congress phased out that federal credit, the New Hampshire tax went with it. For deaths on or after January 1, 2005, no NH-706 estate tax return is required.

The Department of Revenue Administration confirms all three points. Practically, this means that for any death in recent memory, there is no New Hampshire death tax filing at all.

The Interest and Dividends Tax is gone too

New Hampshire’s Interest and Dividends Tax under RSA 77 was fully repealed for taxable periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025. This mattered to estates and trusts more than most people realize — an estate or trust holding investments and earning more than the old threshold in interest or dividend income during administration had a state return to file. That obligation no longer exists.

The result: New Hampshire now has no general income tax on individuals, no sales tax, no estate tax, and no inheritance tax. The state’s revenue comes from property taxes and business taxes instead — which is its own planning consideration if you own real estate or a business here.

The federal estate tax still exists — but the threshold is very high

The federal estate tax is the only death tax a New Hampshire family needs to think about, and the exemption is currently at a historic high. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the scheduled 2026 “sunset” never happened. Instead:

For the overwhelming majority of New Hampshire families, that means no federal estate tax either. The realistic candidates for exposure are families with a closely held business, significant commercial or lakefront real estate, large concentrated stock positions, or substantial life insurance owned outright by the insured.

A trap worth knowing about: Portability — the ability of a surviving spouse to use the deceased spouse’s unused exemption — is not automatic. It requires a timely federal estate tax return electing it, even when no tax is owed. A simplified late-election procedure exists for estates not otherwise required to file, but it has its own deadline. If your spouse died recently and no return was filed, this is worth a conversation now rather than in ten years.

So what do New Hampshire families actually owe?

When we sit down with a family after a death, the costs that show up on the ledger are almost never estate tax. They are these:

1. Probate administration. Court fees, publication, bond premiums where required, appraisals, and professional fees. New Hampshire’s Circuit Court Probate Division runs a six-month creditor claim period from the date the fiduciary is appointed, which sets a practical floor on how quickly any estate can close.

2. Income tax on income in respect of a decedent. Traditional IRAs, 401(k)s, annuities, and savings bonds carry deferred income tax that comes due when the beneficiary takes distributions. Since the SECURE Act, most non-spouse beneficiaries face a ten-year payout window. This is often the single largest tax cost a New Hampshire family faces, and it is almost entirely a beneficiary-designation and timing question.

3. Capital gains — or the absence of them. Assets owned at death generally receive a stepped-up basis to date-of-death fair market value. That is a quiet, enormous benefit. It is also the reason that giving appreciated real estate away during life is frequently a costly mistake compared to letting it pass at death.

4. Property taxes. New Hampshire’s high property tax burden continues after death and does not pause during administration. For an estate holding a lake house or a farm, carrying costs during a long administration are real.

5. Long-term care costs and estate recovery. If a decedent received Medicaid long-term care benefits, the State may have a recovery claim against the estate. This is the tax-adjacent issue that most often surprises families.

Why “no estate tax” does not mean “no estate plan”

Estate tax avoidance is one purpose of an estate plan, and for most New Hampshire families it is not even in the top five. The reasons our clients plan are:

• Incapacity. A durable power of attorney and an advance directive determine what happens if you are alive but unable to make decisions. This is statistically far more likely than a taxable estate, and the alternative — a court guardianship — is expensive and public.

• Minor children. Naming a guardian and controlling when and how a young beneficiary receives money.

• Blended families. Making sure the surviving spouse is provided for and that children from a prior marriage eventually inherit. Intestacy does not do this well.

• Probate avoidance. Not because probate is a disaster in New Hampshire — it is manageable — but because a properly funded trust is faster, more private, and much easier when there is out-of-state real estate that would otherwise require a second, ancillary probate.

• Business succession. An operating agreement and a buy-sell arrangement usually matter more than anything in the will.

• Creditor protection for the next generation. New Hampshire’s homestead exemption rose sharply on January 1, 2026, to $400,000 per person (with a $550,000 cap where multiple people hold an interest in the same property), up from $120,000. That protects the owner, not the heirs — a trust can extend protection forward.

What to do next

If you have been putting off estate planning because you assumed New Hampshire would take a cut, you can stop worrying about that particular problem. Redirect the energy toward the things that actually move money: beneficiary designations, how title to real estate is held, whether your documents still name the right people, and whether anyone can legally act for you if you cannot act for yourself.

A short review is usually enough to tell you whether you need a full plan or just a few corrections. Most families are surprised by how much of the value comes from the second category.

Talk with a New Hampshire estate planning attorney

A.A. Archambault Law, PLLC is an estate planning and general practice firm in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, serving families in Concord, Bow, Henniker, Hopkinton, and throughout Merrimack County. If you would like to review an existing plan or start one, call (603) 627-5101 or contact us through this website.

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NH Security Deposit Rules Under RSA 540-A: What Landlords and Tenants Need to Know

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 03:35:51 GMT

Start with the question almost nobody asks first: does the security deposit law even apply to you?

A surprising number of New Hampshire rentals fall outside RSA 540-A entirely, and a surprising number of landlords who are covered assume they aren't. Both mistakes are expensive, because the penalty for getting this wrong is double the deposit.

Who the law covers — and who it doesn't.

RSA 540-A:5 defines "landlord" for security deposit purposes, and the definition carves out two significant groups:

Someone who rents a single-family residence and owns no other rental property.
Someone who rents units in an owner-occupied building of five units or fewer.

If you're in either category, the security deposit rules generally don't apply to you.

But read the next clause. The exemption does not apply to any individual unit in such a building occupied by a person or persons 60 years of age or older. A landlord living in a four-unit building is outside the statute — until one tenant turns 60, at which point that unit falls squarely inside it.

The subdivision also excludes rentals for vacation or recreational purposes. The New Hampshire Supreme Court confirmed as much in a 2020 case, holding the legislature didn't intend these restrictions to reach short-term vacation rentals.

If you own more than one rental property, or a building you don't live in, none of this helps you. You're covered.

What counts as a "security deposit" is broader than you think.

Here's the provision that catches the most landlords . Under RSA 540-A:5, II, a security deposit means all funds in excess of the monthly rent which are transferred from the tenant to the landlord for any purpose.

For any purpose. That language sweeps in:

Last month's rent collected up front
Pet deposits and pet fees
Cleaning fees
Key or fob deposits
Move-in fees

If a landlord collects first month, last month, and a "damage deposit" each equal to one month's rent, the second two are both security deposit — and together they exceed the statutory cap before anyone has moved a box.

Calling something a non-refundable fee doesn't change the analysis. The statute looks at what moved, not what it was labeled.

The cap: one month's rent or $100, whichever is greater.

RSA 540-A:6, I(a). That's the ceiling, and it's the total across everything that qualifies as a deposit.

Longer rent cycles don't change it. A lease requiring quarterly rent payments still limits the deposit to the equivalent of one month's rent on top of the initial rent payment.

The receipt and the five-day window.

Upon receiving a deposit, the landlord must forthwith deliver a signed receipt stating the amount and specifying where the deposit will be held. The receipt must also tell the tenant that any conditions needing repair should be noted on it, or given to the landlord in writing, within five days of occupancy.

One exception: no receipt is required when the deposit comes by personal check, bank check, or a check from a government or nonprofit agency on the tenant's behalf — the check itself is the record. But even then, the landlord must still give written notice about the five-day condition list.

Tenants: that five-day window is your protection. Photograph everything, write down every scuff and stain, and deliver the list in writing within five days. Move-out disputes are won and lost on whether a move-in record exists.

Landlords: the receipt is cheap to get right and costly to skip. New Hampshire courts have excused minor deviations where a landlord substantially complied and the tenant received all the required information — but "substantial compliance" is a defense you argue after being sued, not a strategy.

The money isn't yours.

RSA 540-A:6, II is unambiguous: security deposits continue to be the money of the tenant and are held in trust. They cannot be mingled with the landlord 's personal funds or treated as an asset of the landlord.

A landlord may pool all deposits into a single trust account at a New Hampshire bank, savings and loan, or credit union. Alternatively, a landlord can post a bond with the clerk of the city or town where the property sits, in the amount of the deposits held there, which exempts them from the account requirement.

Using deposit money for operating expenses is not a gray area. It's a violation.

Selling the property? The deposit goes to the grantee at the time the deed is delivered, or within five days after, and the tenant must be notified by registered or certified mail with the new holder's name and address. Do that and you're relieved of liability for it.

Interest

A landlord holding a deposit for one year or longer owes interest, at the rate paid on regular savings accounts at the New Hampshire institution where it's deposited. For pooled accounts, each tenant gets a proportional share of the actual interest earned.

Two provisions landlords often don't know exist:

On request, the landlord must tell the tenant the name of the institution, the account number, the amount on deposit, and the interest rate — and must let the tenant examine the security deposit records.
Every three years, a tenant may request the accrued interest, made 30 days before the expiration of that year's tenancy. The landlord has 15 days after that year's tenancy expires to comply.

Returning the deposit: 30 days, itemized, with evidence.

This is where most disputes live. Under RSA 540-A:7, the deposit and any interest due must be returned within 30 days from the termination of the tenancy.

Deductions are allowed for damage beyond reasonable wear and tear, unpaid rent, an agreed share of real estate tax increases, and other lawful charges under the lease. But the landlord must provide a written, itemized list that:

Indicates with particularity the nature of each repair needed, and
Includes satisfactory evidence that the repair has been or will be completed

The statute spells out what evidence looks like: receipts for materials, labor estimates, bills, or invoices showing actual or estimated cost. A one-line note saying "carpet damage — $600" does not satisfy this.

"Reasonable wear and tear" is doing real work in that sentence. Faded paint, worn carpet in traffic paths, and minor nail holes are the cost of renting property. A hole punched in a door is not.

The penalty for getting it wrong.

Two different consequences, depending on which provision was violated.

Failure to comply with the deposit cap, receipt, trust account, or transfer-on-sale rules (RSA 540-A:6, I, II, or III) is deemed a violation of the Consumer Protection Act. That opens the door to the remedies under RSA 358-A, which include attorney's fees and the possibility of enhanced damages for willful conduct.
Failure to comply with the interest requirements or the return requirements (RSA 540-A:6, IV or RSA 540-A:7) makes the landlord liable for twice the sum of the deposit plus any interest due, less payments already made and any legitimate charges owed.

Read that again if you're a landlord who's been sitting on a deposit past 30 days. A $1,500 deposit becomes a $3,000 exposure, before fees.

Two protections for landlords are worth knowing. A landlord isn't liable if the failure resulted from the tenant not providing a forwarding address. And a deposit that remains unclaimed six months after the tenancy ends becomes the landlord's property, free of the tenant's claim, absent fraud.

And one protection for tenants: any lease provision purporting to waive these rights is void. You cannot sign these protections away, and a landlord who papers around them has accomplished nothing.

One procedural point people get wrong.

New Hampshire has a well-known expedited remedy sometimes called a "540-A petition" — no filing fee, fast hearing, no lawyer required. It's a genuinely powerful tool.

It applies to the prohibited practices sections of the chapter: illegal lockouts, utility shutoffs, unlawful entry. The security deposit subdivision has its own remedies section, and a deposit dispute generally proceeds differently — often through small claims, or as a Consumer Protection Act claim.

Bringing the wrong action wastes time you may not have. It's worth a call before filing.

Quick Checklists

Landlords, before the next tenancy:

Confirm whether you're covered — and check whether any tenant is 60 or older
Add up everything you collect beyond the first month's rent
Issue the signed receipt, or the written five-day notice if paid by check
Hold deposits in trust, separate from operating funds
Calendar the 30-day return deadline the day a tenancy ends
Keep receipts and invoices for every deduction

Tenants, at move-in and move-out:

Deliver a written condition list within five days of occupancy, and keep a copy
Photograph everything, both directions
Give the landlord a forwarding address in writing
If 30 days pass with no deposit and no itemized list, the statute is on your side

We represent both landlords and tenants in New Hampshire, including lease drafting, deposit disputes, and eviction matters. See our Landlord/Tenant page, or call (603) 627-5101 for a $99 30-minute consultation.

This article describes New Hampshire law generally and is not legal advice for any particular situation. RSA 540-A has been amended repeatedly in recent sessions; confirm current text before relying on it.

The New Hampshire Probate Process, Explained Step by Step

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 03:09:19 GMT

Someone has died and you've been told the estate needs to go through probate .

Maybe you're named as executor in the will . Maybe there's no will and you're the one who stepped forward.

Either way, you're now looking at a court process nobody prepared you for, at a moment when you have the least capacity to absorb new information. This walks through what actually happens, in order.

The short version: for a routine estate , plan on nine to twelve months. Not because the work takes that long, but because a six-month statutory clock sits in the middle and can't be shortened.

Step 1: Determine whether probate is required at all

Not every estate needs it. Probate reaches property held in the decedent's name alone. A great deal passes outside it:

Real estate or accounts held jointly with right of survivorship
Bank accounts with a payable-on-death designation
Life insurance and retirement accounts with a living named beneficiary
Anything already titled in a trust

If everything the person owned falls into those categories, there may be nothing to administer. Plenty of families open an estate they didn't need, and plenty of others assume they don't need one when a single vehicle title or a savings account in the decedent's sole name means they do.

This is worth ten minutes with an attorney before you file anything.

Step 2: File the petition in the right court

New Hampshire probate is handled by the Circuit Court, Probate Division, in the county where the decedent lived. For Hopkinton and the surrounding towns, that's the 6th Circuit in Concord, at 2 Charles Doe Drive.

You'll file a Petition for Estate Administration (form NHJB-2145-P), along with:

A certified copy of the death certificate
The original will and any codicils, if there was a will
The filing fee, which is scaled to the value of the estate

Note original will. A photocopy creates a separate problem requiring separate proof. If the original is in a safe deposit box you can't access yet, say so in the filing rather than substituting a copy.

Attorneys file electronically through TurboCourt. Self-represented petitioners can file on paper or electronically.

New Hampshire has not adopted the Uniform Probate Code, so guidance you find online written for other states will frequently be wrong in the details.

Step 3: Appointment, Letters, and bond

If the petition is in order and uncontested, the court appoints the personal representative — an executor if named in a will, an administrator if not. Contested or irregular petitions get a hearing, typically scheduled a month or two out.

The court then issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration. This document is the point of the whole exercise so far. Until it's in hand, nobody has authority to close an account, sell a car, or sign a deed. Banks will ask for it, and they will want a certified copy with a raised seal.

The court may require a surety bond, essentially an insurance policy protecting the estate against mismanagement. It's commonly waived when the will says so, when the sole beneficiary is serving as administrator, or when all interested parties agree.

Step 4: Give notice

Two kinds, on two clocks.

To the people involved. Where a will has been proved, notice goes to the surviving spouse, legatees, and heirs within 60 days, and the executor certifies to the court within 90 days that it was given (RSA 552:15).
To everyone else. Notice of the appointment is published in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, running for three successive weeks. This is what puts unknown creditors on notice.

Neither of these is optional, and the certification is a genuinely common thing to overlook because it feels administrative.

Step 5: Inventory, within 90 days

Within 90 days of appointment, the personal representative files an Inventory of Fiduciary (form NHJB-2125-P) listing estate assets at fair market value as of the date of death.

Real estate, vehicles, bank and investment accounts, business interests, personal property of meaningful value. Real estate and unusual assets typically need an appraisal, and getting one scheduled is the step most likely to push you against the deadline. Start early.

The inventory is waived under a waiver of administration — more on that below.

Step 6: The creditor period — six months

This is the clock that sets the floor on your timeline.

Creditors have six months from the date of appointment to present claims against the estate. The personal representative reviews each one for validity, and valid ones get paid before anything is distributed.

Two things people get wrong here:

Don't pay early, and don't pay out of order. New Hampshire sets a strict priority under RSA 554:19 — administration expenses first, then funeral and burial, then certain preferred debts, with general unsecured creditors well down the list. A personal representative who pays a credit card before those higher classes can end up personally responsible for the shortfall.
Don't distribute early. Handing a beneficiary their share in month three, before you know what claims will surface, is the single most common way a well-intentioned executor creates liability for themselves.

If it becomes clear the estate owes more than it's worth, there's a separate insolvency track under RSA 554:19-b with its own procedure and its own protections.

Step 7: Taxes

Any required federal returns, and any New Hampshire returns, are generally due within nine months of the date of death unless an extension is obtained.

For most estates this means a final personal income tax return and possibly a fiduciary return. New Hampshire imposes no state estate or inheritance tax, so the great majority of estates here have no death tax exposure at all.

Step 8: Close the estate

Three routes, and which one applies was largely determined back at Step 2.

Waiver of administration (RSA 553:32). Available in a narrow but common situation: the decedent died with a will naming the surviving spouse — or if no spouse, an only child — as sole beneficiary, and that person serves as administrator; or died without a will and that same person is the sole heir and serves as administrator. No inventory, no bond, no accounting. The estate closes when the administrator files an affidavit of administration, which must be filed no sooner than six months and no later than one year after appointment. Miss that window and you're in default, and the clerk issues a citation.
Summary administration (RSA 553:33). Available on motion after six months where the estate qualifies. Lighter than a full accounting.
Full administration. If neither of the above applies, the personal representative files an account within one year of appointment and annually after that, until the estate is settled and the court decrees distribution.

Step 9: Distribute and finish

Once debts, taxes, and expenses are paid and the court approves, the remaining assets go to the beneficiaries under the will — or, if there's no will, to the heirs under New Hampshire's intestacy statute, which distributes on a formula regardless of what anyone believes the decedent intended.

Deeds get recorded, accounts get transferred, and the estate closes.

How long, realistically

Waiver of administration: six to nine months, driven almost entirely by the mandatory waiting period.

Straightforward full administration: nine to fifteen months.

Estates involving real estate to sell, a business, an out-of-state property, an insolvency question, or a contested claim: longer, sometimes considerably.

The delays that actually hurt are self-inflicted: waiting months to open the estate, missing the 90-day inventory, or discovering at month eight that the certification of notice was never filed.

Where an attorney earns their fee

Some estates genuinely don't need one. A waiver of administration where a surviving spouse inherits everything is often manageable alone.

Where it stops being a paperwork exercise: real estate that needs to be sold or cleared, an insolvent estate, a Medicaid recovery claim, a missing or contested will, an out-of-state asset, a beneficiary who has retained counsel, or a personal representative who lives outside New Hampshire and needs a resident agent.

And underneath all of it — the personal representative is a fiduciary, personally accountable for getting the sequence right. That's the part that justifies a phone call even if you handle the rest yourself.

We help New Hampshire families through probate , from straightforward waivers to insolvent and contested estates. See our Probate Administration page, or call (603) 499-7431 for a free 30-minute consultation.

This article describes New Hampshire law and procedure generally and is not legal advice for any particular estate. Court forms, fees, and procedures change; verify current requirements with the Circuit Court.

What Happens If You Die Without a Will in New Hampshire?

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 03:03:03 GMT

New Hampshire has already written a will for you.

It's not a good one. It doesn't know your family, it doesn't know what you'd have wanted, and it doesn't care that your daughter has been paying your property taxes for six years while your son hasn't called since 2019. But it exists, it's called RSA 561:1, and if you die without a valid will , it governs.

Most people have a rough sense that this is how it works. What surprises them is the substance — because the assumption almost everyone brings to the question turns out to be wrong.

"Everything goes to my spouse" is usually false.

Ask someone what happens to their estate if they die without a will and married, and the answer is nearly always: my husband gets it, or my wife gets it. Simple. Under New Hampshire law, that's true in exactly one situation — when you leave no children and no living parents. In that case your spouse takes the entire intestate estate. Every other scenario splits it. Here's what the statute actually provides:

No children, but a surviving parent. Your spouse receives the first $250,000, plus three-quarters of the balance. Your parent or parents receive the remaining quarter.
Children, all of them shared with your spouse, and your spouse has no children from anyone else. Your spouse receives the first $250,000, plus half the balance. Your children divide the rest.
Children, all shared with your spouse, but your spouse has other children. Your spouse receives the first $150,000, plus half the balance.
Any child of yours who is not also your spouse's child. Your spouse receives the first $100,000, plus half the balance.

Notice the direction. The more blended the family, the smaller the spouse's guaranteed share — and it drops from $250,000 to $100,000 based purely on family structure, not on need, not on how long you were married, not on who actually depends on the money.

What does that look like in practice?

Consider a Concord couple, married eighteen years. He has a daughter from his first marriage. They own the house jointly and he has $400,000 in an investment account in his own name. He dies without a will .

The house passes to his wife automatically — joint ownership with right of survivorship isn't part of the intestate estate. But the investment account is. Under subsection (e), his wife receives the first $100,000 plus half of the remaining $300,000, so $250,000. His daughter receives $150,000.

That daughter is not a villain in this story. She may be lovely. But she is now a co-beneficiary of her stepmother's retirement savings, and if she'd rather have her share now than wait, there is no mechanism for the widow to say no.

A will would have taken twenty minutes to prevent.

Some people receive nothing at all.

Intestacy recognizes legal relationships and nothing else. The following inherit zero from an intestate estate in New Hampshire, no matter the circumstances:

An unmarried partner, however long you lived together
A stepchild you raised but never legally adopted
A close friend, a caregiver, a sibling's spouse
Any charity, church, or cause you supported for decades
Anyone related to you more distantly than the fourth degree of kinship — the statute cuts off there entirely
If nobody within that boundary survives you, the estate passes to the State of New Hampshire.

For unmarried couples in particular, this isn't a fine-print issue. It's the whole ballgame. A will is not optional if the person you live with isn't your spouse.

Your children's guardian gets decided by a judge.

For parents of minor children, this is the part that matters more than the money. A will is where you nominate a guardian. Without one, the court appoints someone based on the record in front of it — which may mean a contested proceeding between relatives who each believe they know best, at the worst possible moment in your children's lives.

The court isn't hostile to your wishes. It simply has no way to learn them.

What doesn't pass through intestacy?

Intestacy only reaches your probate estate — property held in your name alone, subject to the homestead right. A great deal of what people own passes outside it:

Property held jointly with right of survivorship
Accounts with a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designation
Life insurance and retirement accounts with a named living beneficiary
Anything already titled in a trust

This cuts both ways. It means some intestate estates are small and simple. It also means a stale beneficiary designation — an ex-spouse still named on a 401(k), a form filled out in 2004 and never revisited — overrides everything, including a will written later. Reviewing those designations is often the single highest-value hour in an estate plan.

The cost isn't only financial.

Someone still has to open the estate. Without a will there's no nominated executor, so the court appoints an administrator, which can require a bond and can invite disagreement about who serves. Distribution follows the statute regardless of what the family believes you wanted, and there's no discretion to correct an outcome everyone in the room agrees is wrong.

That's the part families find hardest — not that the law is harsh, but that it's indifferent. It applies the same formula to a devoted second marriage and an estranged one.

The fix is not complicated.

For most New Hampshire families, a will, a durable power of attorney , and an advance directive cover it. A trust makes sense for some situations and is unnecessary in plenty of others. The point isn't to build something elaborate. It's to make sure the document governing your estate is one you actually wrote.

We handle most wills on a flat fee, so you know the cost before you start.

Call (603) 499-7431 for a free 30-minute consultation, or get in touch and we'll find a time.

This article describes New Hampshire law generally and is not legal advice for any particular situation. RSA 561:1 was last amended effective July 1, 2021; verify current figures before relying on them.

If someone has already passed away without a will, you likely need help now rather than background reading. Our Probate Administration page covers what happens next and how the estate gets opened. Or call us at (603) 499-7431.