1. I am the duly appointed, qualified and acting personal representative of the above estate.

2. I have published notice to creditors as provided in N.D.C.C. 30.1-19-01 and have filed proof of publication of such notice. The first publication occurred more than three months prior to the date of this statement.

Publication is permissive under N.D.C.C. 30.1-19-01, and this paragraph, and 30.1-21-03’s three-month bar, apply only where notice was published and mailed. This statement, Form 15, is the closing route for an estate that published notice. A small estate under N.D.C.C. 30.1-23-03 that did not publish closes instead on the Sworn Statement of Personal Representative Closing a Small Estate, Form 16, a different document not built here. An estate that did not publish notice and is not a small estate cannot truthfully sign paragraph 2 as printed above.

3. I have fully administered the estate of the decedent by making payment, settlement or other disposition of all claims which were presented, expenses of administration and estate, inheritance and other death taxes except as follows (list the exceptions, if none, write “none”):

4. I have distributed the assets of the estate to the persons entitled to the assets in the amount and manner to which they are entitled.

N.D.C.C. 30.1-21-03(1)(a) allows either of two arrangements for a claim not fully discharged, and the form pre-prints only the first, in parentheses. Both print below, each with its own box.

By agreement with the distributees the assets were distributed subject to outstanding liabilities of the estate.

Other arrangements were made to accommodate an undischarged claim, detailed here:

5. I have sent a copy of this statement to all distributees of the estate (and to all creditors or claimants of the estate whom I am aware whose claims are neither paid nor barred), and I have furnished a full account in writing of my administration to the distributees whose interests are affected thereby.

The full account in writing is the Form 14 register below. The form’s own text reads “whom I am aware,” where it means “of whom I am aware”; it is reproduced verbatim above and not silently tidied.

6. This statement is filed for the purpose of closing this estate and terminating the appointment of the undersigned pursuant to N.D.C.C. 30.1-21-03.

N.D.C.C. ch. 57-37.1, North Dakota’s estate tax chapter, is on the books and has not been repealed. Under 57-37.1-04(1), the tax is measured entirely by the maximum tax credit allowable for state death taxes against the federal estate tax. A North Dakota Estate Tax Return is due within fifteen months after the decedent’s death, if one is required. Whether a return is required is a question for the estate’s attorney or the North Dakota Tax Commissioner. This statement computes no tax and does not say one is or is not owed.

If no proceeding involving the personal representative is pending in the court one year after this statement is filed, the appointment of the personal representative terminates (N.D.C.C. 30.1-21-03(2)).

N.D.C.C. 30.1-21-03.1, a section unique to North Dakota, lets any devisee, heir, distributee or claimant petition, or the court act on its own motion, if no closing statement has been filed within three years of the date of death, requiring both the personal representative and any attorney employed by the personal representative to show cause why the estate has not been closed.