Probate and estate administration in Pennsylvania, including intestacy matters where there was no will.
9 months
to file the Pennsylvania inheritance tax return after death, with a 5% discount if the tax is paid within three.
If you have been named executor, your job is to open the estate with the Register of Wills in the county where the person lived, identify and value the assets, pay debts and taxes, and distribute what remains. The Pennsylvania inheritance tax return is due within nine months of death, with a 5% discount if the tax is paid within three months. Most straightforward estates take somewhere between nine and eighteen months.
The role carries legal duties and personal exposure. You are handling money that belongs to other people, on a timetable set by statute, often while grieving and while relatives ask questions.
With the Register of Wills in the county where the person lived, and obtain letters testamentary. Where there was no will, this is where an administrator is appointed instead.
Including any advertising the county requires.
Real property, accounts, retirement plans, vehicles, personal property, business interests. Valuation dates matter, and moving quickly here is what earns the 5% discount.
Due within nine months of death. This is the deadline that shapes the whole timeline.
Personal, and where applicable fiduciary, income tax returns.
And document every decision you made getting there.
Distributing before taxes and debts are settled. Missing the nine-month deadline. Failing to document decisions. The first one is the one that creates personal liability.
Pennsylvania does not calculate attorney fees on a statutory percentage of the gross estate the way some states do. Fees here are generally based on the work the estate actually requires.
I handle probate on a flat fee wherever the scope allows it, quoted after I understand what the estate involves. Where a matter is genuinely unpredictable, I will tell you that instead of quoting a number I cannot stand behind.
Some executors want the whole thing handled. Others just want the inheritance tax return prepared correctly and the rest left alone. Both are fine, and both get a fixed number before we start.
Intestacy in Pennsylvania has its own procedure and its own surprises. Call before you sign anything or distribute anything.