To fill out an affidavit of domicile, enter the decedent’s full legal name, date of death, and last permanent address; identify yourself and your legal capacity (executor, administrator, spouse, or heir); list the securities or accounts being transferred if the form asks; and sign the document in front of a notary public. If you are using the affidavit to transfer stocks or bonds, plan on a medallion signature guarantee as a second, separate step. The details below walk through each section, the notarization, and the mistakes that get affidavits sent back.
Confirm You Are the Right Person to Sign
The person who signs the affidavit is called the affiant. Usually that is the executor named in the will or the administrator appointed by the court. If letters testamentary or letters of administration have already been issued, the person named in them is the natural signer because they already hold legal authority over the estate.
Some transfer agents and banks will also accept an affidavit from a surviving spouse, an heir, or another person with direct personal knowledge of where the decedent lived. Secondhand information does not qualify. Before you fill anything out, call the institution that requested the affidavit and confirm who they will accept as the signer. This one call prevents the most common reason for a rejected form.
What to Gather Before You Start
Pull these together before you open the form:
- The decedent’s full legal name exactly as it appears on the account, including suffixes like Jr. or III.
- The exact date of death, matching the death certificate.
- The decedent’s last permanent address, meaning their domicile, not a seasonal or temporary residence.
- How long the decedent lived at that address, usually stated in approximate years.
- Your full legal name, current address, and your legal relationship to the decedent.
- A certified copy of the death certificate, your letters testamentary or letters of administration, and any account statements for the assets being transferred.
Get the blank form from the institution requesting it. Banks and transfer agents typically publish their own version, and they prefer their form to a generic one downloaded elsewhere. If a probate court needs one, ask the court clerk which format that jurisdiction accepts.
How to Complete Each Section
Forms vary in layout, but most affidavits of domicile follow the same structure.
Affiant Information
The top section identifies you. Enter your full legal name, mailing address, and your capacity: executor under the will, court-appointed administrator, surviving spouse, or heir. If you have letters testamentary, reference the issuing court and the date they were granted.
Decedent Information
Next comes the deceased person. Fill in their full legal name, date of death, and last permanent address. Some forms split county and state into separate fields. You will typically see a field for how long the decedent lived at that address; if it was roughly 15 years, write that. Precision to the month is helpful but rarely required.
Securities or Asset Details
Forms designed for transferring stocks, bonds, or mutual funds usually include a section to list the specific holdings. Enter the issuing company’s name, the number of shares or units, and any account or certificate number you have. If the form has no such section, the institution may ask you to attach a separate schedule.
The Sworn Statement
At the bottom sits pre-printed language stating that the information is true, that the address given was the decedent’s permanent home, and that the affidavit is being made to facilitate the transfer of property. Read it. When you sign, you are swearing under oath that everything above is accurate. Do not sign yet.
Sign Only in Front of a Notary
An affidavit of domicile is a sworn document and has no legal effect until you sign it in front of a notary public. The notary checks your ID, watches you sign, and applies the official seal. Institutions routinely reject pre-signed affidavits, and the fix is a fresh form.
Notaries are available at most banks, UPS stores, shipping centers, and law offices. Fees generally run between $5 and $15. More than 40 states now allow remote online notarization by video call and electronic signature, which helps if you are handling the estate from out of state. Before going that route, confirm the requesting institution accepts remotely notarized documents.
Witnesses are generally not required on an affidavit of domicile; the notary’s seal is the validation. A few jurisdictions require a witness on certain sworn documents, and the notary will know the local rule.
Add a Medallion Signature Guarantee for Securities
If you are transferring stocks, bonds, or other securities out of a deceased person’s name, the transfer agent will almost certainly require a medallion signature guarantee on top of the notarization. This catches people off guard because they assume notarization is enough. It is not, and the two do different jobs.
A notary confirms that you appeared, showed identification, and signed voluntarily. A medallion signature guarantee goes further: the institution issuing the guarantee is vouching for your identity and accepting financial responsibility if the signature later turns out to be fraudulent. That exposure is why banks and brokerages do not issue them casually.
Federal securities regulations require transfer agents to set written standards for accepting signature guarantees, and only certain institutions qualify to issue them. These “eligible guarantor institutions” include banks, brokers and dealers, credit unions, savings associations, and national securities exchanges.1eCFR. 17 CFR 240.17Ad-15 – Signature Guarantees A notary, a lawyer, or a post office cannot provide one. You need a bank or brokerage where you or the decedent hold an account.
The process: bring the unsigned affidavit, your government-issued ID, the death certificate, and your letters testamentary to the institution. An officer verifies everything, watches you sign, and stamps the document with a medallion imprint that encodes the maximum dollar value the guarantee covers. If the securities exceed that limit, you need a larger institution that can issue a higher-value medallion.
Where to Send the Finished Affidavit
Where the document goes depends on who asked for it:
- Transfer agents like Computershare and Equiniti handle stock transfers for publicly traded companies. They usually require the original notarized affidavit with medallion guarantee, a certified death certificate, and a copy of letters testamentary, mailed to the address on their estate processing instructions.
- Banks generally accept the affidavit at a branch, though some route estate paperwork to a centralized department.
- Probate courts, if they require the affidavit, take it through the clerk in the county where the decedent was domiciled. Filing fees vary.
Keep certified copies of everything you send. Processing can take several weeks, and mailed originals do sometimes go missing. Use trackable mail. If the institution accepts the filing, you will typically get written confirmation; if something is wrong, expect a letter telling you what to correct.
Why Affidavits Get Rejected
Most rejections come from a short list of avoidable errors:
- Signing before meeting the notary. If the form is already signed, the notary cannot witness the signature, and you need a new one.
- Name mismatches. If the account lists “Robert J. Smith” and the affidavit says “Bob Smith,” the transfer agent will send it back.
- No medallion guarantee when securities are involved.
- An expired or missing notary seal.
- Using a generic form when the institution has its own required version.
The fix for most is a fresh form done correctly. A quick call to the institution before submitting prevents the majority of these errors.
The Oath Is Real
Because the affidavit is sworn, knowingly providing false information carries serious consequences. Federal perjury is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years, with similar penalties under state law.2Congress.gov. False Statements and Perjury: An Overview of Federal Criminal Law A false affidavit can also unravel completed asset transfers, trigger estate tax audits, and expose you personally to civil claims from other beneficiaries or from state tax authorities. Domicile is the field where this comes up most, and states with estate taxes cross-check claims against voter registration, tax filings, and property records. Answer accurately.