General information, not legal advice. Whether an estate needs a grant depends on what it holds and how it was owned. Your state’s Supreme Court probate registry, public trustee or legal aid service can tell you; their pages are linked in the table below. Figures are as at October 2026. Checked 8 October 2026; the Queensland and NT pages were read from March and April 2026 archive copies because the live sites refuse automated reads.
Victoria Legal Aid describes a grant as the Supreme Court’s document that allows the executor or administrator to deal with the assets of an estate: probate where the executors prove the will is valid, and letters of administration where there is no valid will, or no executor to apply. For a family paying for a funeral, the question matters because a bank or fund that wants a grant can’t release everything until one exists. The table gives each state’s own line, in its own terms.
| State or territory | What its own page says | Figure stated |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | Usually no grant where everything was held jointly (including land owned as joint tenants), or where no one holding an asset asks for one; a small estate made up only of belongings such as clothes, furniture and jewellery may not need one either. A grant is needed for land in the person’s sole name or held as tenants in common, or for any asset that can’t pass without probate. | No figure on Legal Aid NSW’s page |
| Victoria | Victoria Legal Aid: no one has authority to deal with the assets until the Supreme Court issues a grant, unless the estate is small. The Supreme Court’s Probate Office runs a small estates optional service: for a fee it helps prepare the application for a grant, for simple estates under the limit. | $137,210 (limit for the court’s optional help with a grant application, deaths 1 Jul 2026 to 30 Jun 2027; a grant is still applied for); service fees $323 ($38 advertisement and $285 service) |
| Queensland | Some estates need no grant, and each bank or fund sets its own requirements, so ask them. A modest asset, such as a bank account with little in it, may not need one, and jointly owned assets don’t. | No figure on the Public Trustee’s page |
| Western Australia | A small estate can sometimes be handled informally: where a modest bank account is all there is, the bank may pay part of the funeral from it and hand the rest to the beneficiaries. | No figure on the Public Trustee’s page |
| South Australia | From 1 January 2025, section 100 of the Succession Act 2023 (SA) lets a person or institution holding a small amount for the person who died pay it to a surviving spouse, domestic partner or child without a grant. | $15,000 or less in cash or property (from the Law Handbook, revised 31 December 2024) |
| Tasmania | The Supreme Court notes that collecting the assets, paying debts including the funeral, and distributing the estate may require a grant. Public Trustee Tasmania explains that joint assets go straight to the surviving owner and sit outside the estate. | No figure on either page |
| Australian Capital Territory | A grant from the Supreme Court of the ACT is often needed, though the Public Trustee and Guardian has its own legal powers to handle small estates more simply. | No figure in the factsheet |
| Northern Territory | Below $20,000, with or without a will, family may be able to manage the estate themselves without a grant of representation from the Supreme Court. | Less than $20,000 |
What usually sits outside the estate
Some money never passes through the estate at all, so it doesn’t count towards whether the estate is small. NSW Trustee and Guardian’s guide lists what an executor’s list of assets doesn’t include:
- assets held jointly with another person, which generally pass to the surviving joint owner;
- assets held in trusts, such as a family trust, which continue after the death;
- super death benefits, unless they are paid to the estate;
- life insurance proceeds, unless paid to the estate (depending on the policy).
Legal Aid NSW adds that if the person left money in super, you don’t need a grant for it; you contact the super fund. More on that in Super and funeral costs.
Where the funeral fits
A small estate still pays for its funeral. The NT Government’s worked case follows a wife managing her husband’s small estate: his bank money pays for the funeral, and after that she notifies government agencies, settles debts, moves the car into her name and arranges with the bank to close his account. And even where a grant will be needed, banks that follow the Banking Code of Practice can release money for funeral expenses before it is issued; see Paying from the bank account.
Before deciding a grant isn’t needed
The Public Trustee of Queensland’s advice is to ask each bank or fund involved, since their requirements differ. For certainty about your own case, the NSW Government points you to a lawyer. Where NSW estates need no grant, Legal Aid NSW says next of kin pay off what the person owed and then pass on what is left.