Executor Duties in Utah

Main duties and deadlines for a Utah personal representative: qualify by filing any required bond and a statement accepting the duties before receiving letters; optionally publish a notice to creditors once a week for three successive weeks in a county newspaper (and on the state public legal notice website), requiring claims within three months after the first publication, and mail notice to known creditors; within three months after appointment, prepare an inventory of the decedent's property at date-of-death fair market value, with encumbrances, and send a copy to interested persons who request it; pay allowed claims, expenses and taxes; distribute the estate; and close it, for example by filing a verified closing statement no earlier than four months after the original appointment, once the creditor claim period has expired.

Letters are issued in the district court of the county where the decedent was domiciled (or, for a nonresident, where property was located). In informal probate, the applicant files an application for informal probate and appointment with the registrar; formal probate is by petition to the court. Informal probate or formal testacy proceedings generally must begin within three years after death. Priority goes to the person named in a probated will, then a surviving spouse who is a devisee, other devisees, the surviving spouse, other heirs, and 45 days after death any creditor; a person under 21 may not serve. Before receiving letters, the personal representative files any required bond and a statement of acceptance; bond usually is not required unless the will requires it, an interested person asks, or the court orders it. The Utah courts' self-help pages describe the process and forms.

If the personal representative publishes a notice to creditors (once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, and as required by Utah Code § 45-1-101), claims arising before death must be presented within three months after the first publication. A creditor who is mailed or given written notice has until the later of 90 days after the published notice or 60 days after the mailing or delivery. In any event, claims are barred if not presented within one year after death.