Richland County or Lexington County?
Columbia straddles two counties. Part of the city is in Richland County and part is in Lexington County. South Carolina opens the estate in the county where the person had their permanent home, so the county on their address decides the court. The city name on the envelope doesn’t.
The property tax notice for their home shows which county it is. If it says Lexington, tell us when you call.
How the Richland County court starts an estate
The court is at 1701 Main Street, Room 207, Columbia, SC 29201. Its own estate packet lays out the start:
- Complete the Application for Informal Probate of Will/Appointment. The court won’t schedule anything until every question on it is answered.
- Gather the papers on the court’s checklist, starting with the original will and a certified copy of the death certificate.
- Mail the documents to the court, or drop them off.
- The court reviews them, then contacts you to set an opening appointment.
The same packet says plainly that the court can’t give legal advice. That’s where we come in: what goes on the application, who should serve, and what the estate actually owns, all before you sign anything.
You were named executor. Here’s the order things happen.
South Carolina’s legal title for an executor is personal representative. Once the court appoints you, the work usually runs in this order.
Prove your authority. The court issues letters of appointment. Banks and insurers will want a copy before they’ll discuss the account with you.
Tell the family. Soon after you’re appointed, South Carolina law requires you to let the heirs and the people named in the will know, within a deadline the statute sets.
Take stock. You list what the estate owns and what each item was worth on the date of death, and file that inventory with the court in the time state law allows.
Deal with creditors. A notice to creditors runs in a local newspaper. Creditors then have a fixed window under state law to make claims, and you review each one before anything is paid.
Distribute and close. After the window, you pay what the estate owes and distribute the rest. Then a final accounting goes to the court. When the family agrees, parts of that last step can be waived.
Throughout, the law expects you to act for everyone who inherits, not only for yourself.
Do you need probate at all?
Not everything goes through the court. Life insurance and retirement accounts with a named beneficiary, payable-on-death bank accounts, and property owned jointly with survivorship usually pass straight to the person named. What’s left in the person’s name alone is the probate estate.
South Carolina also has a shorter route for some smaller estates. It’s an affidavit the probate judge approves, available when the estate is under a limit set by statute and nobody has applied to be personal representative. It collects money and belongings. It doesn’t transfer a house.
So if the house was in your parent’s name alone, plan on a probate estate.
What not to do during probate
- Don’t act before you’re appointed. Selling the car, emptying the house or signing anything “for the estate” has to wait for letters.
- Don’t mix estate money with your own. Once you’re appointed, keep the estate’s money in its own account.
- Don’t pay bills in the order they arrive. Claims are reviewed after the creditor window and paid in the order the law sets.
- Don’t promise anyone their share until the debts are known.
- Don’t let an empty house sit unchecked. Tell the homeowner’s insurer nobody lives there, and ask someone nearby to look in on it.
What happens to the house
Plenty of families handling a Columbia estate live somewhere else, so the house sits empty while everyone works out what to do. Under South Carolina law it passes at death to the people named in the will, or to the heirs if there’s no will, but it remains part of the estate’s administration while debts and claims are settled.
Whether it’s kept, sold or deeded to one of you depends on the will, the title and what the estate owes. A personal representative can sell real estate only with authority in the will or through a court procedure. We prepare the deeds and handle the legal side of keeping or selling inherited property, including family land that has passed down without clear title. If it’s sold, the closing itself is handled by a closing attorney, not by us.
How much does a probate attorney cost in South Carolina?
Firms charge for probate in different ways. Ours is a flat fee. Before any work begins, you get a written fee or scope letter that sets out the fee and exactly what it covers, so there’s no open-ended bill. Court and filing expenses are additional to the fee. In Richland County those include the court’s filing fees and the cost of the newspaper notice.
The fee depends on what the estate needs, so we set it after a first meeting. That first meeting is a paid meeting with Justin Montgomery or Tiffany Lumpkin, and you leave it knowing the next step and whether we can take the estate on. Book a first meeting.
Meeting with us from Columbia
You won’t need to drive to Summerville to get started. Our attorneys do much of their work remotely. Tell us where you are when you call, and we’ll talk through how to meet. Some steps, like the court’s opening appointment, may need you there in person, and we’ll tell you which ones early.
Useful to bring, from the court’s own checklist:
- The original will and any codicils.
- A certified copy of the death certificate.
- The obituary or funeral program, which lists the surviving family.
- Copies of deeds for any real estate.
- The funeral bill.
A missing paper won’t stop the meeting.
Questions families ask about Richland County probate
How do you start probate in South Carolina?
At the probate court in the county where the person lived. In Richland County, you complete the court’s application, gather the papers on its checklist, and mail or drop them off. The court reviews them and contacts you to set an opening appointment.
How long do you have to file probate after death in SC?
Whoever holds the original will has a short deadline to deliver it to the court after learning of the death. Opening the estate has a much longer outer limit under South Carolina law, with narrow exceptions. Start early anyway. The creditor window can’t begin until someone acts, and an empty house costs money every month.
Who has more power, a beneficiary or an executor?
The personal representative runs the estate. They collect the property, pay the debts and distribute what’s left. But they answer to the beneficiaries and heirs, who must be told of the appointment, are owed an accounting, and can take objections to the probate court.
What is a probate judge?
Each South Carolina county has a probate court led by a probate judge. The probate court has exclusive original jurisdiction over the estates of people who have died, including will contests, and it also handles guardianships and conservatorships.
Who owns a home during probate?
Legally, the people named in the will, or the heirs if there’s no will. In practice, the personal representative can take control of the house while the estate is open, and nobody can sell it without the right authority.
Start the Richland County estate with a first meeting
Book a first meeting, or call 980-243-4470. We answer Monday to Thursday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Our South Carolina attorneys, Justin Montgomery and Tiffany Lumpkin, handle Columbia-area estates from our Summerville office at 201 Sigma Drive, Suite 300, Summerville, SC 29486. For estates elsewhere in the Carolinas, start with our probate overview.
Responsible attorneys: Justin Montgomery and Tiffany Lumpkin, 201 Sigma Drive, Suite 300, Summerville, SC 29486.