Small Estate Affidavit in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has no general small estate affidavit. Instead, certain assets may be paid directly to family without letters: an employer may pay up to $10,000 in wages or employee benefits; a bank or credit union must pay deposits of up to $20,000 per institution to the spouse, a child, a parent or a sibling (in that order of preference) when a receipted funeral bill or a funeral director's affidavit is presented; a facility may pay up to $10,000 from a medical-assistance patient's care account; an insurer may pay up to $11,000 owed to the estate after 60 days; and the State Treasurer may release unclaimed property of $20,000 or less to the spouse or close relatives on a sworn affidavit if no personal representative has been appointed (or five years have passed since appointment). Real estate cannot pass this way.

Two simplified options exist. (1) Petition for settlement of a small estate: if the decedent died domiciled in Pennsylvania owning personal property (not counting real estate or the direct payments allowed under § 3101, but including property claimed as the family exemption) worth no more than $50,000 gross, any interested party may petition the orphans' court division of the county of domicile, which may order distribution without full administration, whether or not letters were issued; owning real estate does not prevent use of this procedure for the personal property. A decree may be revoked within one year for improper distribution. (2) Where letters have been granted and the gross real and personal estate is $50,000 or less, the personal representative may, one year after the first complete advertisement of letters, petition with an annexed account for approval of distribution and discharge without a formal accounting. A family exemption of $3,500 in real or personal property may also be claimed by the surviving spouse (or, if none, children or then parents living in the decedent's household).

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.