How to Complete NJ Form L-8: Affidavit for Non-Real Estate Investments

New Jersey Form L-8 is a self-executing affidavit that releases a deceased resident’s bank accounts, brokerage accounts, stocks, and bonds without waiting for a tax waiver from the state. You complete the form, sign it before a notary, and deliver it directly to the bank or brokerage holding the money. It works only when every beneficiary of the assets listed on it is a Class A relative, and only for non-real-estate financial assets of a New Jersey resident. When it fits your situation, it is the fastest legal route to unfreezing accounts after a death.

Who Qualifies to Use It

Every beneficiary receiving assets released on the form must fall into New Jersey’s Class A category:

Surviving spouse
Surviving civil union partner (deaths on or after February 19, 2007)
Surviving domestic partner (deaths on or after July 10, 2004)
Children, stepchildren, and legally adopted children
Grandchildren and great-grandchildren (biological or legally adopted, not step)
Parents and grandparents
Mutually acknowledged children (a parent-child relationship that began before age 15 and lasted at least 10 years)

If a sibling, niece, nephew, friend, or charity receives any of the assets you want released, the L-8 is off the table for those assets. Charities are Class E under New Jersey inheritance tax law: exempt from the tax, but not eligible for this shortcut.¹ In those situations the executor has to file a formal inheritance tax return and wait for the Division of Taxation to issue a waiver.

The eligible assets are limited to financial holdings at New Jersey institutions: checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, brokerage accounts, stocks, and bonds. Real estate is excluded. If the estate includes New Jersey real property that needs a lien release, that runs on a separate track using Form L-9.²

What to Gather First

Having everything on hand before you start the form saves rework and repeat trips to the bank.

The decedent’s Social Security number, exact date of death, and county of residence at death.
For each account: institution name, account number, how it was titled (sole name, joint with right of survivorship, payable on death, transfer on death), and the date-of-death balance. Banks and brokerages can issue a date-of-death statement if you don’t already have one.
Names of every beneficiary receiving a share of these accounts and each person’s relationship to the decedent.
Letters testamentary or letters of administration from the county surrogate, if you’re serving as executor or administrator. A surviving joint tenant or a named payable-on-death beneficiary collecting assets that pass outside the will may not need letters, but the institution will still ask for identification.
A copy of the will if the assets pass under the will. You don’t need it for accounts passing by survivorship or by payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designation.

Filling Out the Form

The form is a two-page PDF from the Division of Taxation’s inheritance and estate tax forms page.³ The person completing it can be the executor, administrator, a surviving Class A joint tenant, or a Class A beneficiary named in the will or entitled under intestacy.

Header

Enter the decedent’s name, Social Security number, county of residence, and date of death. Check testate (died with a will) or intestate (without one). Every account on the form is valued as of the date of death, so get that date right.

Part I: Eligible Beneficiaries

Check the box for each Class A category that describes a beneficiary receiving assets on this form. If any beneficiary doesn’t fit a box, the form itself tells you the L-8 cannot be used for those assets.²

Part II: Succession

Check one of three boxes to show how the assets pass:

Box a: By operation of law — joint with right of survivorship, payable on death, or transfer on death. No will copy needed.
Box b: The will specifically names these assets and directs them to a particular beneficiary. Attach the will.
Box c: There is no will and every beneficiary of the estate is Class A, or there is a will with no specific bequests and every beneficiary is Class A. Attach the will if one exists.

A joint bank account is the most common Box a case. When you list it in Part V, write “NOD and/or” followed by the surviving joint tenant’s name in the “How held/Registered” column.²

Part III: Trusts and Disclaimers

If any of the assets you want released pass into or through a trust that controls their distribution, you cannot use the L-8. The Division of Taxation may require a full inheritance tax return. Stop here and talk to the Division or an estate attorney.

Part IV: Estate Tax

New Jersey eliminated its estate tax for deaths on or after January 1, 2018.⁴ For most current estates, check Box a and move on. You must be able to answer yes to one of the three options to use the form.

Part V: Property

List every account at the institution this copy of the form is going to. Each account gets its own row: description of the asset, how it was held or registered, beneficiary’s name and relationship, and the date-of-death value. If an account was in the decedent’s sole name, write “NOD” (name of decedent) in the registration column. Use the balance as of the date of death, not today’s balance and not an estimate.

Signing and Where to Send It

The L-8 is a sworn affidavit. Sign it in front of a notary, who then notarizes the signature.² False information on a notarized affidavit carries legal consequences, so verify every figure and relationship before signing.

Do not mail the form to the Division of Taxation. Nothing comes back if you do. Send or deliver the original notarized affidavit directly to the bank or brokerage holding the funds.² If the decedent had accounts at more than one institution, prepare a separate L-8 for each one.

Institutions review the affidavit against their own compliance policies before releasing funds. Turnaround typically runs one to three weeks. Many banks and brokerages have their own supplemental paperwork, so call ahead and ask what they want alongside the L-8.

When You Can’t Use Form L-8

Several situations disqualify the accounts from the affidavit route:

Any beneficiary of the listed assets is not Class A.
The assets pass through a trust that controls distribution.
The estate owes inheritance tax. Class A beneficiaries have been fully exempt since 1988, so this is rare for them, but if non-Class A beneficiaries receive other estate assets valued at $500 or more, the Division may require a return for the whole estate.⁵
The asset is real estate. Use Form L-9.⁶

When the L-8 doesn’t apply, the accounts stay frozen until the Division of Taxation issues a formal waiver after reviewing an inheritance or estate tax return. That takes considerably longer. There is a partial workaround: under the state’s blanket waiver, a financial institution may release up to 50 percent of the funds in an account (whether solely or jointly held) to the executor, administrator, surviving joint tenant, or legal representative with no tax waiver at all.⁷ The institution holds the other half until the formal waiver comes through. The same 50 percent rule applies to brokerage accounts, measured against the date-of-death value.

If Real Estate Is Also Involved

Real property in New Jersey is handled with Form L-9, not the L-8. The L-9 is similarly limited to estates where every beneficiary is Class A and no inheritance or estate tax is due, but it requires more supporting documents, including a copy of the deed and the death certificate.⁶ Property held as tenants by the entirety between spouses or civil union partners passes automatically to the survivor and needs no L-9 filing at all. As with the L-8, a controlling trust knocks the estate out of the affidavit process.

Deadline to Watch in Mixed Estates

Class A beneficiaries owe no inheritance tax, but if the estate also passes assets to non-Class A beneficiaries, New Jersey inheritance tax is due within eight months of the date of death. Unpaid tax accrues interest at 10 percent per year after that, and the state grants extensions for filing the return but not for payment.⁸ In a mixed estate, run the L-8 for the Class A accounts as soon as you can while the formal return is being prepared for the rest.

1
New Jersey Department of the Treasury. Inheritance and Estate Tax
2
New Jersey Department of the Treasury. Form L-8 Affidavit for Non-Real Estate Investments
3
Division of Taxation. Inheritance and Estate Tax Forms
4
NJ Division of Taxation. Inheritance and Estate Tax
5
New Jersey Department of the Treasury. New Jersey Transfer Inheritance Tax
6
New Jersey Department of the Treasury. Affidavit for Real Property Tax Waiver – Form L-9
7
NJ Division of Taxation. Inheritance and Estate Tax Branch – Lien on and Transfer of a Decedent’s Property Tax Waiver Requirements
8
NJ Division of Taxation. Inheritance Tax Filing Requirements