Iowa Estate Accounting: A Representative's Guide

Iowa administers decedents' estates under Iowa Code chapter 633, through the district court in each county, filed with the clerk. The statute calls the fiduciary the personal representative throughout, and this guide uses the same term. Iowa has adopted no statewide form for either document the personal representative files, and none of the mandatory forms in the court rules apply, because those forms govern guardianships and conservatorships, not a decedent's estate. What the statutes say a document must contain is the whole of the requirement.

The first document is the report and inventory, required by Iowa Code § 633.361. Its name says what it is: a report of the family and the heirs as much as an inventory of the property. It lists who the decedent was, who the heirs and beneficiaries are, and what the decedent owned, all in one instrument, and the personal representative verifies it under penalty of perjury. Filing it is not optional. Iowa Code § 633.362 makes it mandatory, and no estate closes without one on file.

The second document is the final report, required by Iowa Code § 633.477. It sets out what has not been sold, what has been collected and paid out, and what remains to be distributed, closing with the personal representative's account of the whole administration. Between the two, Iowa Code § 633.364 adds a third, smaller instrument: a supplementary report and inventory, due whenever property or information not in the original report and inventory comes to light, filed on its own, never folded into the original.

The report and inventory is due within ninety days after the personal representative qualifies, not ninety days from death, unless the court grants a longer time (Iowa Code § 633.361).

Iowa Code § 633.197 sets a schedule, and unlike many states, the schedule runs off a figure this app already holds: the gross assets of the estate listed in the probate inventory. It is a maximum the court may allow, not an amount owed automatically. The statute's words are that reasonable fees may be determined by the court, but not in excess of the schedule. The schedule is marginal, not flat: six percent of the first $1,000 of gross assets, four percent of the amount between $1,000 and $5,000, and two percent of everything above $5,000.

Life insurance proceeds are left out of that base, unless the policy is payable to the estate itself rather than to a named beneficiary. ExecutorLedger's records do not show who a policy names, so a ceiling built from the inventory may need to be reduced by hand once that is checked.

Iowa Code § 633.198 caps the estate's attorney at the same schedule, not a separate one of its own. Iowa Code § 633.199 allows further amounts for extraordinary services and expenses, outside the schedule and on no formula, again subject to the court's approval.

So an Iowa fee has a ceiling you can compute from the inventory, but the actual figure still comes from the court. ExecutorLedger shows the maximum the schedule allows; it is never a promise that the court has allowed it or will.

Most Iowa estates go through full chapter 633 administration, whatever the estate's size, filing both the report and inventory and the final report. Iowa Code § 633.477's final report sets out an accounting of all property that came into the personal representative's hands, and a detailed accounting of all cash receipts and disbursements, though the statute lets all interested parties waive the accounting entirely. Real estate the decedent died owning and that has not been sold is described in the final report, not valued or totaled there; the report and inventory is where a value is estimated for it.

No appraisement is required to reach any of these figures, except for inheritance tax on a death before January 1, 2025, or when the court orders one (Iowa Code § 633.365). So every value on an Iowa report and inventory is the personal representative's own estimated value, the statute's own phrase, not an appraised or fair-market figure.

A smaller estate has two other routes, and they are not the same thing despite similar names. Chapter 635 administration of small estates is still a supervised administration with letters issued by the clerk, available when the gross value of the probate assets does not exceed $200,000; chapter 633's report and inventory still applies, and the estate closes with a chapter 635 closing statement instead of a final report, with its own fee cap of three percent of the gross value unless the personal representative itemizes services (Iowa Code § 635.1, § 635.8). Separately, the Iowa Code § 633.356 affidavit is not administration at all: no letters, no inventory, no final report, available at least forty days after death when the decedent's probate assets are personal property only, with no interest in real estate, and a gross value of $100,000 or less.

That $100,000 figure is current as of House File 2660, 2026 Iowa Acts chapter 1048, effective July 1, 2026, which raised the affidavit threshold from $50,000. The published Iowa Code 2026 compilation predates the act and still shows $50,000, and guidance written before the change online does too. Use $100,000.

Iowa's inheritance tax no longer applies to a death on or after January 1, 2025. A death before that date still carries it, and the report and inventory, the final report, and the § 633.197 fee base all keep language conditioned on the date of death for exactly that reason.

• Square away taxes first. The final report must state that all tax requirements are satisfied, including Iowa income tax compliance under Iowa Code §422.27 (and, for deaths before January 1, 2025, inheritance tax clearance under §450.58).
• Prepare and file the final report with the clerk of the district court, covering everything Iowa Code §633.477 lists: remaining real estate, who takes and where they live, tax and claims statements, and a detailed accounting of all receipts and disbursements unless every interested party waives the accounting.
• Collect a signed waiver of notice (§633.478) and a statement of consent from every adult distributee, dated no more than 30 days before the final report. With those on file, §633.479(2) treats the final report's prayer as granted, and the estate closes and you are discharged without a hearing or even a court order.
• If anyone won't sign, give notice of the final report and set it for hearing instead, then ask the court for an order approving the report and discharging you (§633.479(1)).
• Watch the outer limit: final settlement is due within 3 years of the second publication of the creditor notice unless the court orders otherwise (§633.473).

Iowa has no separate probate court, surrogate, or register of wills. The district court sitting in probate handles estates, and all filings go to the clerk of the district court in the county where the estate is pending.

The report and inventory's thirteen items, in the statute's own order, split into a family report and a property inventory. The first seven cover the decedent's name, age and residence, the date of death, whether the decedent died testate or intestate, the personal representative's address, the surviving spouse if any, every beneficiary or heir with their relationship and address, and any child born to or adopted by the decedent after the will was signed. ExecutorLedger knows the decedent's name, date of death and the beneficiary names on file; it does not know ages, addresses or relationships, so those print as ruled blanks in the statute's own words rather than a guess.

The remaining six items are the property inventory: real estate inside Iowa and real estate outside Iowa on two separate schedules, both asking for a legal description; personal property exempt from execution and all other personal property on two more separate schedules; a listing of items subject to inheritance tax for a death before January 1, 2025, or to federal estate tax; and a report on any reduction in the federal estate tax unified credit. ExecutorLedger records no exemption from execution, so everything it holds prints on the all-other-personal-property schedule, with a note that anything exempt has to move to the exempt schedule by hand. It also records no legal description or which state a parcel sits in, so real estate prints on a single ruled schedule with a place to mark Iowa or out of state and fill in the legal description.

Verification on both documents is a certification under penalty of perjury, in the words Iowa Code § 633.35 sets out, with a signature and a date. Neither document carries a notary jurat. A supplementary report and inventory under § 633.364 covers additional property and additional information both, filed within thirty days of the discovery, and it is its own instrument with its own total, never merged into the original.

The final report's accounting, required by § 633.477(9), is two things together: an accounting of all property that came into the personal representative's hands, and a detailed accounting of all cash receipts and disbursements, a shape close to Washington's combined report. There is no gain-or-loss vocabulary anywhere in the sections that govern it, so a sale posts once, at the amount actually collected. Money found after the report and inventory reaches the closing cash figure on its own line rather than as a receipt, and other property found later gets its own schedule, the same split Washington's report uses. An account still held that was also inventoried as cash is never charged twice, once as opening cash and again as sale proceeds.

Recording is free for as long as the estate takes: every receipt and disbursement with its date and description, distributions per beneficiary, and a balance that checks itself as you go. ExecutorLedger builds Iowa-style documents from those records, a report and inventory laid out in § 633.361's thirteen items and a final report in § 633.477's shape, ready to transcribe or file when you're ready. Neither is a court form, and your attorney should review them before anything is signed or filed. Every document previews free with your real numbers, and $149 (one-time payment) per estate lifts the watermark. Usually less than one attorney hour, and typically reimbursable by the estate.