Settling an estate or Trust in Pennsylvania? A free role check shows you where you stand.
Start the free role checkWhat is probate?
Probate is the process that settles a deceased person's estate — proving any will, appointing a personal representative, paying valid debts, expenses and taxes, and distributing what remains. In Pennsylvania it begins before the register of wills of the county, who probates the will and grants letters — testamentary to the executor the will names, or of administration in the order the statute sets (20 Pa.C.S. §3155) — and the orphans' court division hears disputes. Assets that pass another way (a funded Trust, beneficiary designations, jointly held property) generally skip probate.
The main types of Pennsylvania probate
Letters from the register of wills
The register probates the will — a will may be offered for probate at any time (20 Pa.C.S. §3133), and a self-proved will is accepted without the witnesses' testimony unless it is contested (§3132.1) — and grants letters testamentary to the named executor, or letters of administration to the persons the statute ranks; a creditor or other fit person receives letters only 30 days after the death unless the family consents (§3155).
The orphans' court division
Contested matters — a will contest, a dispute over who serves, objections to an account — go to the orphans' court division of the county's court of common pleas, which also confirms accounts and decrees distribution when asked. Much of a Pennsylvania administration proceeds without a hearing.
Small estates
Where the decedent's property, apart from real estate and the payments the statute allows without letters, is worth no more than $50,000, the orphans' court division may direct its distribution on a petition, with or without letters (20 Pa.C.S. §3102); an employer may pay up to $10,000 of wages, and a bank a deposit account of no more than $20,000 against a receipted funeral bill or a funeral director's affidavit, to the family members the statute lists (§3101).
What happens in a Pennsylvania probate
- Petition the register of wills of the county for probate and letters; the register grants letters to the executor the will names or, without one, in the order the statute sets (20 Pa.C.S. §3155).
- Advertise 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), and give the notice of estate administration the Orphans' Court Rules require within three months.
- File a verified inventory of the estate with the register by the earlier of the account's filing or the inheritance-tax return's due date (20 Pa.C.S. §3301), and file the inheritance-tax return within nine months after the death (72 P.S. §9136).
- Pay valid claims, taxes and administration expenses — in the order the statute sets when the estate cannot pay them all (20 Pa.C.S. §3392); a representative who distributes at its own risk is protected against claims not known within one year after the first complete advertisement (§3532).
- Distribute what remains and close the estate — by an account the orphans' court division confirms, or by the heirs' receipts and releases — once the claims and taxes are settled.
Can you avoid probate in Pennsylvania?
Often, in part — a funded revocable living Trust, beneficiary or pay-on-death designations, and property held jointly with a right of survivorship generally pass outside probate; Pennsylvania has no transfer-on-death deed for real estate. What works depends on how each asset is titled. This page is general information, not legal advice; a free role check can show you where you stand, and a Pennsylvania attorney can advise on your estate.
General information about Pennsylvania law, not legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
- How does probate start in Pennsylvania?
- With a petition to the register of wills of the county where the decedent lived; the register probates the will and grants letters — testamentary to the named executor, or of administration in the order the statute sets (20 Pa.C.S. §3155).
- Is there a simpler process for small Pennsylvania estates?
- Where the property, apart from real estate and the payments allowed without letters, is worth no more than $50,000, the orphans' court division may direct its distribution on a petition (20 Pa.C.S. §3102); certain wages and deposit accounts may be paid to family without letters (§3101).
General information about Pennsylvania law, not legal advice.