Pennsylvania estate administration
Small-estate limit: $50,000
This guide explains probate in Pennsylvania: In Pennsylvania, a will is probated and letters are granted by the county Register of Wills, with the Orphans' Court Division of the Court of Common Pleas handling disputes and small-estate petitions. Estates of $50,000 or less in personal property may be settled on petition; filing fees are set by each county.
Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch September 15, 2026.
On petition, the Orphans' Court Division may settle a small estate where the property (exclusive of real estate and of § 3101 property payable to family/funeral directors, but including personal property claimed as the family exemption) has a gross value not exceeding $50,000. Real property is excluded.
Settlement of small estates on petition (20 Pa.C.S. § 3102)Simplified route
On petition, the Orphans' Court Division may settle a small estate where the property (exclusive of real estate and of § 3101 property payable to family/funeral directors, but including personal property claimed as the family exemption) has a gross value not exceeding $50,000. Real property is excluded.
Eligibility and caveatsCourt cost
Pennsylvania has no statewide probate filing fee. Each county's Register of Wills sets its own fee schedule (commonly graduated by estate value), so the opening cost varies by county.
Filing-cost detailExecutor compensation
20 Pa.C.S. § 3537 provides that the court shall allow the personal representative such compensation as is, in the circumstances, reasonable and just, and may calculate it on a graduated percentage. There is NO statutory percentage schedule; courts commonly reference informal fee guides (e.g., the Johnson estate schedule) but the statute states only a reasonableness standard.
Compensation detailCreditor deadline
The Pennsylvania framework combines the personal representative's one-year at-risk period after the first complete advertisement of the grant of letters (20 Pa.C.S. § 3532) with separate provisions on claims against distributed property; there is no single statutory day count that safely summarizes creditor exposure.
20 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3532 (Pennsylvania General Assembly; reviewed August 9, 2026)
Timeline and creditor detailsThese are the Pennsylvania provisions read end to end on the enacting state’s own site, rather than summarised from a secondary source. The middle column is what reading each one actually established for Pennsylvania — not a restatement of the topic — and the last column records the date the wording was read, so a later amendment can be spotted by comparing dates.
| Citation | What reading it established | Read on |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Pa.C.S. § 3392 | When a Pennsylvania estate is short, the statute fixes who goes unpaid — court and filing cost note | 2026-09-17 |
| 20 Pa.C.S. § 3537 | Pennsylvania leaves the percentage to the court, and says so in one sentence — representative pay note | 2026-09-17 |
Pennsylvania decision map
Use this map before opening a form or entering a number. It keeps the Pennsylvania amount test, time gate, court cost, and creditor record separate so one easy figure does not stand in for the whole administration.
| Question | Recorded Pennsylvania answer | Carry into the case |
|---|---|---|
| What route is being screened? | Settlement of small estates on petition (20 Pa.C.S. § 3102) | Confirm that the will, prior appointment, family facts, and asset titles fit this route. |
| What property and basis count? | personal probate property only; gross value with statutory exemptions not classified by this worksheet. | Keep real property, liens, beneficiary transfers, and survivorship transfers classified separately. |
| What is the amount screen? | $50,000 | Use the counted property, not a bank-balance shortcut. |
| What is the time or deadline record? | No waiting-period number verified; The Pennsylvania framework combines the personal representative's one-year at-risk period after the first complete advertisement of the grant of letters (20 Pa.C.S. § 3532) with separate provisions on claims against distributed property; there is no single statutory day count that safely summarizes creditor exposure. | Keep the event that starts each clock with the date; do not combine separate periods into one number. |
| What does the cost record establish? | No single statewide amount is published here; confirm the receiving court's current schedule. | Ask the Orphans' Court Division (Register of Wills) about local surcharges, copies, publication, bond, and later filings. |
| What does compensation use? | 20 Pa.C.S. § 3537 provides that the court shall allow the personal representative such compensation as is, in the circumstances, reasonable and just, and may calculate it on a graduated percentage. There is NO statutory percentage schedule; courts commonly reference informal fee guides (e.g., the Johnson estate schedule) but the statute states only a reasonableness standard. The relevant base is the estate accounting. | Keep the will, task log, receipts, and accounting base together; extraordinary work is separate. |
Arithmetic illustration
The recorded Pennsylvania ceiling is $50,000, and it is tested against personal probate property only, on a basis this site records as gross value with statutory exemptions not classified by this worksheet. Counted that way, $37,500 sits below the Pennsylvania figure and $62,500 sits above it. Both are comparisons to a published number rather than legal outcomes: two estates holding the same total can land on opposite sides of this line, because what Pennsylvania counts and how it values it are decided before the comparison is made.
| Illustrative counted amount | Comparison to the Pennsylvania ceiling | What it does not decide |
|---|---|---|
| $37,500 | Below $50,000 | Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties |
| $62,500 | Above $50,000 | Whether another statutory route or court process applies |
Next evidence to collect
Official material
Pennsylvania probate is opened at the county Register of Wills; contested matters go to the Orphans' Court Division of the Court of Common Pleas. Filing fees and many forms are county-specific and not published statewide.
Source trail
This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Probate law varies by state and county and changes over time. Verify the current rule with the court or a licensed attorney in the relevant state.
The statutes on this page state the rule. These are the documents the court itself publishes. Every link is probed before release, and any link that stops resolving fails the build rather than staying on the page.
Official self-help portal; probate is handled by the county Register of Wills / Orphans' Court Division.
Each legal input links to the government source reviewed for this page. Source text can change; confirm the current rule before acting.
Reviewed source note: owning property (exclusive of real estate and of property payable under section 3101 (relating to payments to family and funeral directors), but including personal property claimed as the family exemption) of a gross value not exceeding $50,000, the orphans' court division
What this means: palegis.us (the newer official domain) renders client-side and its HTML has no server-side statute text; this text comes from the General Assembly's legacy HTML server (legis.state.pa.us), which serves the consolidated statute over a plain GET. The $50,000 ceiling was set by Act 35 of 2013.
Reviewed source note: The court shall allow such compensation to the personal representative as shall in the circumstances be reasonable and just, and may calculate such compensation on a graduated percentage.
What this means: Section 3537 as printed on the legacy PA server carries no per-section amendment-history parenthetical, so no publisher currentness signal is pinned for this source (disclose-limitation pattern). It states a reasonable-compensation standard with no statutory percentage schedule.
Reviewed source note: unless the claim of such claimant is known to the personal representative within one year after the first complete advertisement of the grant of letters
What this means: Substantiates the PA creditor-claim framework (one-year at-risk period from the first complete advertisement of the grant of letters). creditorClaims stays unknown because multiple provisions (advertisement, at-risk period, distributed-property claims) apply and the period is measured in years/months, not a fixed day count. Shares the chapter-35 harvest with pa-executor-fee.