You have the Letters. This is when the legal duties begin, and several of them carry personal liability if they are missed or done in the wrong order. This page follows the year after the grant, duty by duty, for estates in Lehigh and Northampton counties, and explains how Leeson & Co. represents executors and administrators through it. If you have not opened the estate yet, start with our guides to the Lehigh County Register of Wills and the Northampton County Register of Wills. Bethlehem sits in both counties, so check which county the estate belongs in first.
What changes the day you receive Letters
Letters Testamentary (where there is a will) and Letters of Administration (where there is not) put you in the same position. You are now the personal representative, a fiduciary acting for the estate and everyone entitled to share in it.
You have the right, and the duty, to take possession of, maintain and administer all of the decedent’s real and personal estate (20 Pa.C.S. § 3311(a)). That includes collecting rents and income until assets are sold or distributed, and spending what is reasonable to preserve them. There is one exception: real estate that an heir or devisee was occupying with the decedent’s consent at death, although the court can still direct you to take possession of it.
Everything else is a sequence of deadlines, most running from the grant, not the date of death. For a general overview of the process, see how probate works in Pennsylvania.
The first weeks: advertise and secure
Immediately after the grant, the personal representative must advertise it once a week for three successive weeks (20 Pa.C.S. § 3162(a)). The notice runs in a newspaper of general circulation published at or near where the decedent lived, and in the legal periodical the county designates. It gives your name and address, asks anyone with a claim against the estate to make it known, and asks anyone who owes the decedent money to pay. The date of the first complete advertisement starts two clocks: the one-year window for creditor claims against distributions you make at your own risk (§ 3532), and the timetable for filing an account (§ 3501.1).
At the same time, the assets need securing: insurance kept in force on property, accounts retitled into the estate’s name, rents and income collected. For online accounts, the request for access goes to the provider. An affidavit filed with the Register under Pa. O.C. Rule 10.7 can support a request for access to digital assets or a catalog of electronic communications, though not their content (20 Pa.C.S. § 3908(b)).
What we do: place the advertisements, set up the estate account, and collect and secure the assets.
Notice to beneficiaries and heirs (Pa. O.C. Rule 10.5)
Within three months after the grant of Letters, the personal representative or counsel must send a written notice of estate administration on the form approved by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (Pa. O.C. Rule 10.5(a)). It goes to:
- the decedent’s spouse and children, even if the will leaves them nothing;
- every beneficiary named in the will;
- the intestate heirs, where all or part of the estate passes without a will;
- the guardian or custodian of any minor or incapacitated beneficiary;
- the fiduciary of any beneficiary that is itself an estate or trust; and
- in certain cases involving charitable or governmental beneficiaries, the Attorney General.
The notice is served personally or sent by first-class prepaid mail to everyone whose address is known or reasonably available (Rule 10.5(c)). Within ten days after giving it, you or your lawyer must file a certification with the Register that notice was given (Rule 10.5(d)). If that filing is late, the Register notifies the court of the delinquency after giving ten days’ written notice (Rule 10.5(e)).
What we do: identify everyone entitled to notice, serve the notice, and file the certification on time.
The inventory
Every personal representative must file a verified inventory with the Register listing all of the decedent’s real and personal estate (20 Pa.C.S. § 3301(a)). Real estate outside Pennsylvania is left out of the total and listed in a memorandum at the end (§ 3301(b)).
The inventory is due no later than the earlier of two dates: the date you file the account, or the due date of the inheritance tax return, including any extension (§ 3301(c)). Any party in interest can demand it sooner in writing. The inventory is then due within three months after your appointment or 30 days after the request, whichever is later. The court can order one at any time.
The hard part is the values. Real estate, a closely held business and out-of-state property all need defensible numbers, and those numbers carry through to the inheritance tax return.
What we do: gather the valuations and prepare the inventory with a tax-trained eye. Joseph F. Leeson III trained and practiced as a CPA before practicing law.
Creditor claims and the one-year window
Creditors do not have to sue to preserve a claim. Written notice of a claim given to the personal representative or their attorney before the claim is barred tolls the statute of limitations (20 Pa.C.S. § 3384). Among other things, a lawsuit, a petition to compel an account, or a written acknowledgment of the claim also counts.
This is where executors expose themselves personally. You may distribute to beneficiaries at your own risk without a court-confirmed account. You are not liable to a claimant unless the claim became known within one year after the first complete advertisement of the grant, or later but before the distribution (§ 3532(a)). Distribute early, and a claim that surfaces inside that year can come back to you.
For creditors who have not yet come forward, you may send a written demand by mail or delivery. If the demand asks for written notice of the claim within 60 days of mailing or delivery, or within one year of the first complete advertisement, whichever is later, and the creditor misses that date, they can no longer hold you liable for risk distributions, they have no claim against personal property already distributed, and they lose the right to notice of your account (20 Pa.C.S. § 3532(b.1)).
If the estate cannot pay everyone in full, claims are paid in a fixed statutory order, not first come, first served (20 Pa.C.S. § 3392). Our post on which debts the estate pays explains what that means in practice.
What we do: review each claim, negotiate or contest the doubtful ones, send demands where they help, and time distributions to limit your personal exposure.
Pennsylvania inheritance tax: two dates from the date of death
Pennsylvania inheritance tax is due at death and becomes delinquent nine months after it (72 P.S. § 9142). A discount applies to tax paid within three months of death.
The rates, the discount and interest on late payment are explained in our guides to the Pennsylvania inheritance tax and filing the REV-1500 and the three-month discount. For an executor, the problem is sequencing: the three-month date usually arrives before the inventory is finished.
What we do: prepare the REV-1500, advise on whether and how much to prepay, and coordinate the inheritance tax with the estate’s income tax filings.
Accounting: formal or informal
An account is the record of everything you received, spent and distributed. You may file one any time after four months from the first complete advertisement of the original grant, but not earlier unless the court directs it. You can be cited to file one any time after six months from that advertisement, and the court can order an account at any time (20 Pa.C.S. § 3501.1).
There are two routes. A formal account is filed with the Orphans’ Court for the court to review and confirm. An informal account is given to the beneficiaries, who sign receipts, releases and refunding agreements. Those papers may be filed with the clerk under the estate’s name, but filing them does not mean the court has approved the administration (§ 3532(c)).
What we do: prepare the account in accounting-grade detail, recommend the right route, and answer any objections a beneficiary raises.
Closing the estate
If administration is not complete within two years of the date of death, the personal representative or counsel must file a status report with the Register at that point, and every year after, giving the expected completion date (Pa. O.C. Rule 10.6). On completion, a closing report tells the Register how the estate was accounted for and whether distribution is complete. For a sense of the usual timeline, see how long probate takes in Pennsylvania.
When an executor or administrator should have their own lawyer
It is worth having counsel when any of these apply:
- real estate has to be sold, or someone is living in it;
- the estate includes a business interest;
- there is property in another state;
- the family is blended, or someone was left out of the will;
- a beneficiary is pushing for early distribution;
- a creditor claim looks doubtful or too large;
- co-executors disagree; or
- the inheritance tax is large enough that getting it right matters.
We cannot promise any particular result. Our job is to see that each duty is handled on time, in order, and on paper.
How fees work
Before any work begins, you receive a written fee proposal that sets out what we will do and how we will charge for it. Nothing starts until you have agreed to it.
What drives the scope, and so the cost:
- the number and type of assets;
- whether real estate has to be sold;
- whether there is a business interest to value or wind up;
- how many beneficiaries there are;
- disputes, or creditor claims that need contesting;
- whether a formal court account is needed or an informal account will do; and
- property outside Pennsylvania.
Common questions
When can I distribute to beneficiaries?
You can distribute before the account is confirmed, but at your own risk. Claims that become known within one year after the first complete advertisement, or later but before you distribute, can still reach you (20 Pa.C.S. § 3532(a)).
What happens if I miss the Rule 10.5 notice?
If the certification is not filed, the Register gives you ten days’ written notice and then reports the delinquency to the court (Rule 10.5(e)). Serve the notice and file the certification as soon as you can.
Am I personally liable for estate debts?
Debts are paid from estate assets. The personal exposure executors run into comes from how they administer: distributing before a timely claim surfaces (§ 3532(a)), paying claims out of the statutory order when the estate cannot pay everyone (§ 3392), or failing to protect estate assets (§ 3311).
Do I file in Lehigh or Northampton if the decedent lived in Bethlehem?
It depends on which side of the county line they lived on, because Bethlehem sits in both counties. Our post on Bethlehem and the two counties explains how to check.
Talk to us about the estate you are administering
If you already hold Letters, the first conversation is usually short: which deadlines have started, which are close, and what can wait.
Joseph F. Leeson III trained and practiced as a CPA before he practiced law, spending four years in tax accounting at an international public accounting firm and a large financial corporation. He holds a JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law and an MBA in accounting from DeSales University, and was named to MSN’s Legal Powerlist: 2026’s Most Respected Lawyers. He was born and raised in Bethlehem. Leeson & Co. is at 70 E Broad St, Bethlehem, PA 18018, and serves estates in both Lehigh and Northampton counties.
This page explains general principles of Pennsylvania law and is not legal advice for your situation. Rules, deadlines and procedures change. Please speak to us before acting on anything here.