Most families do not need a lecture on what probate is. They need a map of the next 90 days in Pennsylvania: what to secure this week, which office actually opens the estate, and which dates are real.
This page is general information for a Pennsylvania decedent, written for the person who just became the named executor or the relative everyone is looking at. It is not legal advice, and it is not a promise that an estate will be closed in 90 days. County Register of Wills practice differs. New Jersey is a different system.
What you should be able to do after two minutes on this page
You should know three things. First, banks and title companies will usually refuse to deal with you until the county Register of Wills has issued letters. Second, letters testamentary (there is a will and you qualify) are not the same paper as letters of administration (there is no will, or the named executor cannot serve). Third, Pennsylvania inheritance tax is due at death, becomes delinquent nine months later, and the Department of Revenue allows a 5 percent discount if the tax is paid within three months of death.
Those tax dates come from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, not from a marketing blog. Confirm current rules on the Department's inheritance-tax page before you calendar a payment.
Days 1 to 14: lock down the practical world
Before anyone files a petition, someone has to keep the house from becoming a second problem. Secure the residence. Stop mail theft. Cover insurance if you can. Find pets. Do not start handing out furniture or emptying accounts because a sibling is anxious.
Order more certified death certificates than feels polite. Banks, life insurers, the Register of Wills, and the tax filing will each want one. Ten is a common working number. You can usually order extras later, but it is slower than people expect.
Find the original will, not a scan. Pennsylvania practice still wants the original at the Register of Wills in the county where the decedent was domiciled. If you cannot find it, stop guessing and get counsel before you invent a story for the clerk.
Identify that county. Domicile is not always the vacation house, the hospital, or the child's address in another state. Getting this wrong wastes a filing fee and a week.
Opening the estate at the Register of Wills
Pennsylvania does not generally require a courtroom hearing just to prove a routine will. You (or counsel) take a packet to the Register of Wills: petition, original will if there is one, death certificate, heir information, and the county's fee. The clerk's packet is county-specific. Pull Montgomery County's packet if that is the domicile. Do not reuse a Bucks or Philadelphia checklist and hope.
If there is a valid will and the named executor qualifies, the Register issues letters testamentary. If there is no will, or the named executor cannot or will not serve, the office may issue letters of administration to an administrator. Until one of those issues, you usually cannot collect accounts, sell property, or speak for the estate.
After letters issue, buy short certificates. Those one-page certified copies are what banks, brokerages, and title companies actually stamp. You will use more of them than you budgeted.
Days 15 to 90: the calendar that actually moves
Once letters are granted, several clocks start. Pennsylvania requires notice of the grant of letters to be advertised, typically once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county and in the legal periodical if the county has one. That publication is how creditors get a fair chance to appear. Skipping it to save a newspaper bill is a common way to create a later problem.
You will also need an employer identification number for the estate, an estate checking account, and a working list of assets. Inventory timing is tied to the inheritance-tax return and to any written request from an interested party. Do not treat inventory as optional paperwork you can ignore until someone sues.
The three-month inheritance-tax discount window is the date families miss while they are still looking for the will. Payment within three months of death can qualify for a 5 percent discount. Waiting until month eight because the house is not sold yet can forfeit that discount and still leave you short of the nine-month delinquency date. Whether an early payment makes sense depends on liquidity and on what is actually taxable. That is a counsel question, not a blog formula.
Do not distribute residue in the first 90 days just to make an heir stop calling. Debts, tax, and later-appearing assets are why premature distributions come back as personal problems for the executor.
How long does probate take in PA?
Longer than 90 days, and the law sets several of the dates. Letters must be advertised once a week for three successive weeks (20 Pa.C.S. § 3162). Heirs and beneficiaries get written notice within three months after letters are granted, under the Orphans' Court rules. The inheritance tax becomes delinquent nine months after death.
The date that sets the pace is the creditor year. Under 20 Pa.C.S. § 3532, a personal representative who distributes the estate before one year has passed since the first complete advertisement of letters can still answer for creditor claims that surface inside that year. That is why a simple Pennsylvania estate commonly takes about a year, and why a house to sell, a dispute between heirs, or an open tax question pushes it past that.
Very small estates may not need the full process at all. Pennsylvania allows certain payments to family without letters, and a court petition for estates with $50,000 or less in personal property. Whether that fits is a facts question, so ask before you skip the Register of Wills.
What this page will not pretend
It would be dishonest to say every Pennsylvania estate finishes in 90 days. Many do not. It would be dishonest to quote a statewide filing fee. Counties set their own. It would be dishonest to treat a jointly titled account, a payable-on-death designation, or a funded trust as if they automatically go through this same petition. Some assets pass outside probate. Some still create tax. Mixing those piles is how families overfile or underfile.
This is also not a tax-minimization article and not a Virginia or Maryland walkthrough. If the decedent lived in New Jersey, stop using this page as the map.
When to call counsel instead of the clerk
Call before you file if the original will is missing, if someone is already fighting over who should serve, if there is real property in more than one state, if a beneficiary is a minor or a trust, or if the decedent had a business you are tempted to keep running on the old checking account. The clerk can take a clean packet. The clerk cannot fix a fight you walked in with.
Ravenell Law handles Pennsylvania estate administration from Elkins Park, including Montgomery County filings. If you want a review of the packet before you stand in line, request a consultation. Bring the death certificate, the original will if you have it, and a list of what you already promised other relatives. Promises made in the funeral home are not a substitute for letters.
