Ou pèdi yon moun ki chè — epi yo nonmen ou kòm administratè (Trustee).

The first week: decide, secure, and find the documents

Before anything else, find the trust instrument and every amendment, read who is named and how a successor takes over, and decide whether you will serve. A named trustee may act to preserve the trust property before deciding, so long as a written rejection follows within a reasonable time if the answer is no (20 Pa.C.S. §7761(c)). Once you accept, the duty to take reasonable steps to take control of and protect the trust property applies (20 Pa.C.S. §7779).

Record two dates from the start: the date of death, and the date you learned of it. Pennsylvania counts the trustee's notice from the second (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.3(c)); where the knowledge date is not recorded, the file counts from the date of death and says so.

The notice within 30 days of learning of the death

No later than 30 days after the trustee of a revocable trust learns that the settlor has died, the trustee sends a written notice to the settlor's personal representative, the settlor's spouse (or the spouse's guardian), each of the settlor's children who is sui juris (and the guardian of any who is not), and the trust's current beneficiaries (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.3(c)). The notice states the trust's existence, the settlor's identity, the trustee's name, address and telephone number, the recipient's right to a copy of the trust instrument on request, each current beneficiary's right to periodic written financial reports at least annually on request, and each trust director's name, address and telephone number (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.3(i)).

The notice matters beyond information: a contest of a trust that was revocable must be filed no later than one year after the trustee gave it, and on petition the court may shorten the period to six months (20 Pa.C.S. §7754). If a personal representative is appointed after you sent your notice, the trustee sends the representative the same notice no later than 30 days after learning of the appointment (20 Pa.C.S. §3384.1). A beneficiary may waive the notice in writing and later rescind the waiver (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.3(j)).

Dat limit administratè Pennsylvania: sa lwa yo prevwa

Verifye ak Pennsylvania Statutes yo nan dat 2026-10-09. Enfòmasyon jeneral, pa konsèy legal; tèks ofisyèl la ki kòmande.

Taking control and listing the assets

Take reasonable steps to take control of and protect the trust property (20 Pa.C.S. §7779): secure real estate and its insurance, change mailing addresses, collect statements, and list each asset with its value at death. Keep the trust's property separate from your own and designated as the trust's where feasible (20 Pa.C.S. §7780). A Pennsylvania trustee has, without court approval, the powers over trust property an unmarried competent owner has over individually owned property, exercised under the fiduciary duties (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.5).

The asset list also shows what passes outside the trust — accounts with a named beneficiary, property owned jointly with survivorship, and anything left in the settlor's own name, which passes through the probate estate. Pennsylvania has no transfer-on-death deed for real estate.

Creditors, the estate, and the trustee's advertisement

After the settlor's death, a revocable trust's property answers for the settlor's creditors as the estate does, the estate's own assets applied first; a creditor's claim goes to the personal representative, who notifies the trustee within 20 days (20 Pa.C.S. §7755). The personal representative advertises the grant of letters once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation and the court's legal periodical (20 Pa.C.S. §3162).

If the personal representative's first advertisement of letters does not occur within 90 days after the settlor's death — for example, because no estate was opened — the trustee of a revocable trust advertises the trust's existence and the trustee's name and address in the same manner, in the county of the settlor's domicile; a trustee may also advertise at any time after the death (20 Pa.C.S. §7755(c)).

Distribution is where timing matters most. A trustee who gave the notice and distributes at its own risk does so without liability to a creditor whose claim was not known to the trustee within 13 months after the first complete advertisement of letters — or, where no personal representative was appointed, within one year after the trustee's own advertisement — with a separate rule for real property (20 Pa.C.S. §7755(e), (f)).

The surviving spouse

A surviving spouse of a married settlor domiciled in Pennsylvania may elect one-third of property that includes property the decedent conveyed during life while keeping a power to revoke — which can reach a revocable trust (20 Pa.C.S. §2203). The election is a signed writing filed with the clerk of the orphans' court division within six months after the death or six months after probate, whichever is later (20 Pa.C.S. §2210). The spouse — or, without one, the children, then the parents, who lived in the household — may also claim the family exemption of $3,500 (20 Pa.C.S. §3121), and a revocable trust's property can answer for it to the extent the statute states (20 Pa.C.S. §7745).

Taxes

Pennsylvania taxes transfers at death by the transferee's relationship to the decedent: zero to a surviving spouse and between a child 21 or younger and a parent, 4.5% to lineal heirs, 12% to siblings and 15% to others (72 P.S. §9116). The personal representative files the return; a transferee — including a trustee of property transferred in trust — files for property the representative's return does not include, within nine months after the death (72 P.S. §9136). The tax is due at the death and delinquent nine months after it, and tax paid within three months after the death earns a five percent discount (72 P.S. §9142). These are calendar months; the plan states them without a computed date.

The trust needs its own taxpayer identification number once it is irrevocable, and files federal and Pennsylvania fiduciary income tax returns for its tax years. A federal estate tax return is due nine months after death where the gross estate exceeds the filing threshold or a surviving spouse's portability election is made.

Reports, distributions and the time limits

Each current beneficiary may ask for written financial reports at least annually (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.3(i)(5)); keeping the ledger current makes every report a printout rather than a project. Where a trustee sends reports at least annually, each with a conspicuous written statement, a beneficiary who does not object in writing to a disclosed transaction within 30 months after the report is barred from challenging it (20 Pa.C.S. §7785(a)).

When the time comes to distribute, the trustee distributes within a reasonable time to the persons entitled, keeping a reasonable reserve for debts, expenses and taxes (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.7). A trustee may settle its account without the court by sending the notice and statements the statute describes; a recipient may object in writing within 60 days (20 Pa.C.S. §7785.1).

When a licensed Pennsylvania attorney is the right next call

TrusteeClear organizes the record and computes the possible dates from the facts you record; it does not decide who is a current beneficiary, whether a claim is barred, or whether an asset is taxable. Many trustees bring the record to a licensed Pennsylvania attorney of their choosing before paying a creditor, distributing before the protections run, responding to a spouse's election, or settling an account — the points where the answer turns on the trust's words and the facts.