Your Land Stays in the Family. Your Minerals Stay Protected. Your Heirs Stay Out of Court.
You've spent decades building a life in North Dakota — working the land, managing mineral leases, raising a family. But without the right legal documents filed in the right county offices, state law decides what happens to everything you've built.
Your severed mineral rights? Twenty years of silence and they revert to the surface owner under the Dormant Mineral Lapse Statute. Your home? If you ever need Medicaid long-term care, the state can place a recovery lien on any property that passes through probate. Your blended family? Without a Will, North Dakota's intestacy rules cap your surviving spouse's share and cut out stepchildren entirely.
The North Dakota Supreme Court's Self-Help Center provides forms for settling an estate after death — but explicitly does not provide forms for creating a Will, recording a Transfer on Death Deed, or protecting mineral rights before death. That gap is where families lose what they've worked to build.
The North Dakota Estate Protection System
This is not a generic will-writing template. The North Dakota Basic Estate Planning Kit is built around the specific statutes, county recording procedures, and asset protection strategies that apply to North Dakota families — including the mechanisms that national platforms like LegalZoom and WillMaker never address.
Every document is formatted for North Dakota's Uniform Probate Code (N.D.C.C. Title 30.1), with plain-English instructions that tell you exactly what to sign, who can witness, where to notarize, and which county office to file with.
What You Get
- North Dakota Last Will and Testament Template — Fully compliant with N.D.C.C. § 30.1-08-02. Includes clauses for naming personal representatives, designating guardians, distributing mineral and agricultural assets, and granting independent administration powers so your family avoids supervised probate.
- Self-Proving Affidavit — The exact notarized form under N.D.C.C. § 30.1-08-04 that lets the probate court accept your Will immediately, without tracking down witnesses. A handwritten Will cannot be made self-proving — this template eliminates that risk.
- Transfer on Death Deed (TODD) — Formatted for county recording under N.D.C.C. Chapter 30.1-32.1. Covers surface real estate and severed mineral rights. You keep full ownership, leasing, and selling rights during your lifetime — ownership transfers automatically at death, completely outside of probate.
- Mineral Statement of Claim Form — The recording document that resets the 20-year abandonment clock under the Dormant Mineral Lapse Statute (N.D.C.C. § 38-18.1-04). File it with the county recorder to preserve your Bakken oil, gas, and mineral interests.
- 17-Chapter Estate Planning Guide — Covers everything from North Dakota's Will execution requirements and intestacy defaults to farm succession strategies, blended family planning, Medicaid estate recovery avoidance, digital assets, and the exact step-by-step process for signing, witnessing, and filing every document in the kit.
- 20-Item Estate Planning Checklist — A structured audit of your entire estate: real property, mineral leases, bank accounts, retirement designations, insurance beneficiaries, digital accounts. Designed to catch the gaps that cause problems — like a payable-on-death account that overrides your Will.
Who This Kit Is Built For
- Mineral rights owners in the Williston Basin — If you hold severed oil, gas, or mineral interests in McKenzie, Williams, Mountrail, or Dunn counties, you need a recorded TODD and a current Statement of Claim. Without them, your minerals are vulnerable to both probate and the dormant lapse statute.
- Farming and ranching families — The kit's succession planning chapter addresses the hardest conversation in agriculture: how to transition the operation to the child who works the land while providing a fair inheritance to the children who don't.
- Blended families and second marriages — If you die without a Will in North Dakota and your children are not your surviving spouse's children, the spouse's intestate share is capped at the first $150,000 plus half the remainder. A properly drafted Will overrides these defaults.
- Seniors concerned about Medicaid estate recovery — North Dakota is a "probate-only" recovery state. Any asset that transfers outside of probate — via a TODD, joint tenancy, or POD account — is legally beyond the state's reach. The kit shows you exactly how to structure these transfers without a $5,000+ irrevocable trust.
Why Not Free Resources or National Platforms?
The ND Supreme Court's Self-Help Center provides forms for after someone dies — probate petitions, small estate affidavits, personal representative appointments. It provides zero forms for creating a Will, drafting a TODD, or filing a mineral claim. The court's own website tells self-represented individuals to draft their own documents from scratch or hire a private attorney.
National platforms like LegalZoom and Nolo charge $49–$299 per year for generic templates that don't address dormant mineral lapse statutes, county-specific TODD recording, or North Dakota's probate-only Medicaid recovery rule. You're paying a subscription for documents that miss the issues most likely to cost your family.
Local elder-law attorneys absolutely handle these issues — at $2,000–$10,000+ for a full estate plan. If you have a multi-million-dollar trust situation, you need that attorney. But for a straightforward estate — a home, some farmland, mineral interests, bank accounts, and a blended family — every document you need can be completed at your kitchen table with this kit.
What You Get — At a Glance
- 12 professionally formatted PDFs — document templates, worksheets, and reference cards
- Will template + Self-Proving Affidavit, Transfer on Death Deed, Mineral Statement of Claim
- 17-chapter guide with step-by-step instructions for every template
- Asset Inventory Worksheet and Beneficiary Audit Worksheet
- Farm Succession Worksheet aligned with NDSU Extension workshops
- Probate Timeline, Forms Directory, and Statutes Reference cards
- Instant PDF download — no subscription, no recurring fees
100% Satisfaction Guarantee
If the kit doesn't deliver what you need, email us and we'll refund your purchase. No questions, no time limit.
— Less Than One Hour of Attorney Time
A single consultation with a North Dakota estate planning attorney starts at $200–$400 per hour. This kit gives you every document most families need, formatted for North Dakota law, with plain-English instructions — for a fraction of that hourly rate.
Start with the free checklist to audit your estate and identify your gaps. When you're ready for the full document templates and step-by-step guide, the complete kit is waiting.