Louisiana probate leads and inheritance data, by county.
If you are researching Louisiana probate leads, the public court file is only one part of the inherited-property market. USLeadList starts with death and property records, typically about five weeks after death, and generates an average of 1777 records a month across Louisiana.
Louisiana counties
Browse 64 counties.Every Louisiana county has its own page. Highlighted counties currently generate the largest monthly record volume.
How inherited property moves in Louisiana
Verified state rules behind the county data.Probate rules matter because they determine when a public court record appears and which inherited properties never appear in an ordinary probate case.
What changes for an heir
Louisiana has no inheritance tax and no estate transfer tax due. The Department of Revenue states that Act 822 of the 2008 session repealed the inheritance tax at R.S. 47:2401 to 2426, and that no state estate transfer tax is due for deaths after December 31, 2004. Nothing is reassessed because of a transfer. What is distinctive here is who ends up owning the house. Forced heirship under Civil Code art. 1493 reserves a share for first degree descendants who are 23 or younger at the death, and for descendants of any age permanently incapable of caring for themselves or administering their estates; art. 1495 caps donations at three fourths of the estate where there is one forced heir and one half where there are two or more. Under art. 890 a surviving spouse takes a usufruct over the decedent's share of the community to the extent the decedent has not disposed of it by testament, while the children hold naked ownership, so the person living in the house often cannot sell it alone. That usufruct is not permanent: it terminates when the surviving spouse dies or remarries, whichever occurs first.
Where probate records appear
District Court No statewide public case search. Succession records are held by the clerk of court in each parish and are searched through that clerk's own records system.
Ways property can avoid ordinary probate
The small succession affidavit under La. C.C.P. arts. 3431 to 3434, recorded in the parish conveyance records, which moves Louisiana immovable property without a judicial succession. Also the judgment of possession without administration under La. C.C.P. art. 3001, revocable living trusts under the Louisiana Trust Code, survivorship and community property arrangements, and beneficiary designations on life insurance and retirement accounts.
Small-estate route
Small succession affidavit under La. C.C.P. arts. 3421 and 3431 to 3434. Article 3421, as amended by Acts 2026, No. 293, sets the gross value limit at $200,000 or less at the date of death for a person domiciled in Louisiana, which replaced the previous $125,000; $125,000 or less for the ancillary succession of a person domiciled outside Louisiana; and no limit at all where the death occurred at least 20 years before the affidavit is executed. Article 3431 makes judicial opening unnecessary for a Louisiana domiciliary who died intestate, for a Louisiana domiciliary who died testate leaving no Louisiana immovable property where the surviving spouse and everyone who would inherit agree to waive probate of the testament, and for a person domiciled elsewhere who died intestate or whose testament was probated in another state. Under article 3434 the affidavit is recorded in the conveyance records of the parish where the immovable property is situated.
Timing investors should understand
Louisiana sets no publication based creditor claim window of the kind common law states use, so there is no fixed months long floor. Under La. C.C.P. art. 3001 the heirs of an intestate decedent are recognised and sent into possession without any administration where all are competent and accept, and the succession is relatively free of debt, which that article defines as owing only administration expenses, mortgages not in arrears, and debts small in comparison with the assets. The small succession affidavit under La. C.C.P. art. 3432 carries no waiting period after death. The lasting constraint is on title rather than on time: under La. C.C.P. art. 3434, a person claiming to be a successor who was not recognised in the affidavit has two years from the recording of that affidavit to attack a third party who acquired the immovable property by onerous title.
Louisiana inheritance volume
Updated monthly · September 2026 edition.Newly inherited residential properties recorded in Louisiana, from the same database that builds the lists. Published nationally in the Inheritance Property Index.
Biggest Louisiana counties by volume
- East Baton Rouge 1,746
- Jefferson 1,729
- Saint Tammany 1,217
- Caddo 1,130
- Orleans 1,082
- Lafayette 936
- Calcasieu 934
- Ouachita 673
Free to cite with attribution: USLeadList Inheritance Property Index, September 2026 edition. See every state and download the data.
See pricing for your Louisiana county.
Choose a county, review the available options, and request a quote.