Estate guidance
What Pennsylvania actually requires after a death: the filings, the deadlines, and which county office handles what. We are not a law firm, we give no legal advice, and we will tell you when you need an attorney instead of us.
What this is
Most people arriving here have never done this before and are doing it in the worst month of their life. The job is to make the sequence legible.
Pennsylvania spreads a single estate across three different authorities, which is most of the reason it feels confusing. The Register of Wills in the county where the person lived grants letters, takes the inheritance tax return and handles the filings that open and close an estate. The Orphans’ Court, in the same courthouse, decides the contested things and hears petitions such as the small estate petition. The Department of Revenue sets the tax rates and assesses the return. We work through which of those you are actually dealing with, what each one wants from you, and in what order.
In practice that means going through the will if there is one, working out who inherits if there is not, listing what the person owned and how each asset was titled, identifying which items pass outside the estate, and putting the statutory dates on a calendar. None of that is advice about your particular estate. It is an explanation of what the Commonwealth requires, which is a different thing and a legitimate one.
Three months is the one that costs money. Beneficiaries have to be notified within three months of the grant, with certification filed within ten days after that under Pa. O.C. Rule 10.5, and the same three months from the date of death is the last chance to take 5% off the inheritance tax. The tax itself is delinquent after nine months, and interest for 2026 runs at 7%. The creditor window closes one year from the first complete advertisement under 20 Pa.C.S. § 3532(b.1), not from the date of death, which is the point people most often get wrong.
Those are the deadlines. We will not add to them. Anyone telling you an estate has to be settled by a particular date for any other reason is selling you something.
Some do not. Where the gross estate is $50,000 or less, leaving out real estate and property released under 20 Pa.C.S. § 3101, Pennsylvania allows a petition to the Orphans’ Court under Pa. O.C. Rule 5.50. That is a petition, not the affidavit that out-of-state guides describe, and owning real estate does not disqualify an estate from using it. A surviving spouse or certain family members may also claim the $3,500 family exemption under 20 Pa.C.S. § 3121. Since 23 January 2026 a bank may release up to $20,000 without letters under § 3101, and that limit is per financial institution rather than per estate. Our small estates guide sets out what each route requires.
The estate still goes through the Register of Wills, but 20 Pa.C.S. § 2102 decides who takes what. A surviving spouse does not automatically receive everything: where any of the children are not also the spouse’s children, the spouse takes one half only. Blended families are caught by this constantly. The guide to dying without a will works through each case.
When the will is contested. When the family disagrees about anything that matters. When the estate is large, or holds a business, a farm or property in another state. When the debts may exceed the assets. When someone has already filed something and you do not understand what it was. When you are being asked to sign a release and you are not sure what you are giving up.
In all of those, hire a Pennsylvania probate attorney. We do not take that work, and saying so early is the only honest way to run this.
Checked against PA Department of Revenue and brochure REV-584 on .
How it works
Every estate in Pennsylvania follows the same sequence. Two of these steps carry deadlines set by statute.
5 steps in total
2 deadlines that cost money if missed
First
Who died, which county they lived in, whether there is a will, and roughly what they owned. From that we can usually tell you which office you are dealing with and whether a full estate needs to be opened at all. This conversation is free.
To begin
You apply to the Register of Wills in the county where they lived. With a will you are granted letters testamentary, without one letters of administration. Until then nobody may sell or transfer estate property.
Within about three weeks
Once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation and in the county legal journal. This is what starts the clock for anyone owed money by the estate, and the year runs from the first complete advertisement rather than from the date of death.
20 Pa.C.S. § 3162
By three months
DeadlineEveryone named has to be told, with certification filed within ten days after. The same three months is the last chance to pay the Pennsylvania inheritance tax at a 5% discount, which is the deadline that most often costs a family real money.
Pa. O.C. Rule 10.5
By nine months
DeadlineForm REV-1500 is filed in duplicate with the Register of Wills in the county where they lived. After nine months the tax is delinquent, and interest for 2026 runs at 7%.
After that the estate is closed.
Being straight with you
The boundary, stated plainly rather than buried in the small print.
We explain what Pennsylvania requires
We are not a law firm and we do not give legal, tax or financial advice. Nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship, and nothing you tell us is privileged.
We tell you when you need an attorney
We do not take that work. We do not draft filings as an attorney would, we do not appear before the Orphans’ Court, and we do not represent you anywhere.
We keep the sequence and the dates in front of you
We do not set deadlines. Every date on this page comes from a statute or a court rule, and we will never invent one to hurry you.
We help you get ready to file
We are not the executor. We are not a licensed fiduciary, administrator or trustee, we never act in a fiduciary capacity, and we never hold estate money.
Common questions
Pennsylvania does not require an attorney to probate an estate. Plenty of straightforward estates are handled by the family, and the Register of Wills counter staff will tell you which forms their office expects.
You want an attorney when the will is contested, when the family disagrees, when the estate is large or holds a business or a farm, when there are creditors you cannot pay in full, or when someone has already filed something you do not understand. We are not a law firm and we do not take that work, so when the answer is a probate attorney rather than us, we say so and it costs you nothing to find out.
Yes, and some people should. The statutes are public, the forms are published, and the Register of Wills in every county will tell you what that office requires. Our guide to how probate works is free to read and has no gate on it. If it answers your question, that is a good outcome and you owe us nothing.
Under 20 Pa.C.S. § 3102 the threshold is $50,000 gross, and that figure excludes real estate and property released under § 3101. Owning a house does not disqualify an estate from the small estate procedure, whatever the property is worth.
Pennsylvania uses a petition to the Orphans’ Court under Pa. O.C. Rule 5.50. It is not an affidavit. Out-of-state templates get this wrong constantly, and a form filled in from one of those is simply the wrong document.
Nobody can honestly give you a number, and any site quoting a tidy range has invented it. No Pennsylvania court publishes that figure. What is knowable is the sequence: the grant, the advertisement, the three month notice and discount, the nine month tax deadline, and the creditor window closing one year after the first complete advertisement.
Signed 24 November 2025. The § 3101 threshold for releasing a bank or deposit account without letters rose from $10,000 to $20,000, effective 23 January 2026, and it is per financial institution rather than per estate. The amount of Treasury unclaimed property claimable without letters rose from $11,000 to $20,000, effective 25 May 2026.
The § 3102 small estate figure did not change. It is still $50,000. Expect to see the two conflated elsewhere.
No. We are not an executor, an administrator or a trustee, we do not act in a fiduciary capacity, and estate funds never pass through us.
Tell us who died, which county they lived in, and what is worrying you most. If the answer is that you need a probate attorney rather than us, we will say so.
Free, and there is no obligation afterwards.