Executor Duties in Pennsylvania

Main duties of a Pennsylvania personal representative: take the oath and file any required bond; immediately after letters are granted, advertise the grant once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation and in the county's designated legal periodical, with the representative's name and address, asking creditors to present claims; give notice of the estate administration to beneficiaries and heirs (statewide form RW-07, under Orphans' Court Rule 10.5); file a verified inventory of the decedent's real and personal estate with the Register of Wills (by the earlier of the date the account is filed or the inheritance tax return due date, or sooner if a party in interest asks in writing); pay debts and Pennsylvania inheritance tax; and distribute the estate either at the representative's own risk or after filing an account with the orphans' court division for audit or confirmation.

Letters are granted by the Register of Wills of the county where the decedent had his or her last family or principal residence. With a will, the named executor petitions to probate the will and receives letters testamentary; without one (or with no available executor), letters of administration go, in order, to residuary beneficiaries, the surviving spouse, heirs, principal creditors and other fit persons. Applicants use the statewide Petition for Grant of Letters (RW-02), and subscribing witnesses may need to prove the will (RW-03). The personal representative takes an oath and files a bond unless excused (for example, a named Pennsylvania-resident executor or one excused by the will). The Register issues short certificates as evidence of appointment, which institutions such as PennDOT require.

Pennsylvania does not set a single claim-filing deadline. Creditors present claims by written notice to the personal representative or the representative's attorney. A representative who distributes at his or her own risk is protected from claims not known within one year after the first complete advertisement of the grant of letters (or before the distribution). The representative may also send a written demand requiring a potential claimant to give notice within 60 days or within that one-year period, whichever is later. For real estate distributed at the representative's risk, a claimant must file written notice of the claim with the clerk within one year after death.