South Carolina § 62-3-1201 - Collection of personal property by affidavit.

§ 62-3-1201. Collection of personal property by affidavit.

(a) Thirty days after the death of a decedent, any person indebted to the decedent or having possession of tangible personal property or an instrument evidencing a debt, obligation, stock, or chose in action belonging to the decedent shall make payment of the indebtedness or deliver the tangible personal property or the instrument evidencing the debt, obligation, stock, or chose in action to a person claiming to be the successor of the decedent upon being presented an affidavit made by or on behalf of the successor. Before this affidavit may be presented to collect the decedent's personal property, it must:

(1) state that the value of the entire probate estate (the decedent's property passing under the decedent's will plus the decedent's property passing by intestacy), wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed forty-five thousand dollars;

(2) state that thirty days have elapsed since the death of the decedent;

(3) state that no application or petition for the appointment of a personal representative is pending or has been granted in any jurisdiction;

(4) state that the claiming successor, which for the purposes of this section includes a person who remitted payment for reasonable funeral expenses, is entitled to payment or delivery of the property;

(5) be approved and countersigned by the probate judge of the county of the decedent's domicile at the time of his death, or if the decedent was not domiciled in this State, in the county in which the property of the decedent is located, and only upon the judge's satisfaction that the successor is entitled to payment or delivery of the property; and

(6) be filed in the probate court for the county of the decedent's domicile at the time of his death, or, if the decedent was not domiciled in this State, in the county in which property of the decedent is located.

(b) A transfer agent of any security shall change the registered ownership on the books of a corporation from the decedent to the successor or successors upon the presentation of an affidavit as provided in subsection (a).

HISTORY: 1986 Act No. 539, SECTION 1; 1987 Act No. 171, SECTION 50; 1990 Act No. 521, SECTIONS 66, 67; 2013 Act No. 100, SECTION 1, eff January 1, 2014; 2025 Act No. 26 (H.3472), SECTION 1, eff May 8, 2025.

Effect of Amendment

2025 Act No. 26, SECTION 1, in (a)(1), substituted "forty-five thousand dollars" for "twenty-five thousand dollars".