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Pennsylvania source record

Every source behind the Pennsylvania guide

3 primary records, quoted verbatim and checked against 10 named presence or absence conditions that must pass against the live government text. Open the record, read the words the publishing body actually used, and confirm the current rule for yourself.

Last full re-fetch September 15, 2026

What each source establishes

The Pennsylvania guide rests on the source-backed rules this site can verify for the state: which simplified procedure exists and what it limits, what the court charges, how the person administering the estate may be paid, and the statutory creditor-deadline clocks the official text states.Every published rule below is quoted in the publisher’s own words rather than summarised.

Simplified-procedure rule

20 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3102

Pennsylvania General Assembly · (Dec. 10, 1974, P.L.867, No.293, eff. imd.; July 11, 1980, P.L.565, No.118, eff. 60 days; Dec. 1, 1994, P.L.655, No.102, eff. 60 days; July 2, 2013, P.L.199, No.35, eff. 60 days) · Verified August 9, 2026

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.

What was published from this source

  • PA 20 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3102

Conditions checked against the live text

Each condition below must be found in the page as the publisher currently serves it. If any one of them stops matching, the build fails and the figure is withheld rather than published from memory.

  • PA small-estate $50,000 personal property
  • PA small-estate excludes real estate
  • PA s3102 section identity
  • section identity

Response digest 6694b1aab28f54b5… · HTTP 200

Executor compensation rule

20 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3537

Pennsylvania General Assembly · Publisher states no currentness signal; manual session review required · Verified August 9, 2026

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.

What was published from this source

  • PA 20 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3537

Conditions checked against the live text

Each condition below must be found in the page as the publisher currently serves it. If any one of them stops matching, the build fails and the figure is withheld rather than published from memory.

  • PA executor reasonable and just compensation
  • PA s3537 section identity
  • section identity

Response digest 734b9bdb9cde9778… · HTTP 200

Creditor deadline rule

20 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3532

Pennsylvania General Assembly · Publisher states no currentness signal; manual session review required · Verified August 9, 2026

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.

What was published from this source

  • PA 20 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3532

Conditions checked against the live text

Each condition below must be found in the page as the publisher currently serves it. If any one of them stops matching, the build fails and the figure is withheld rather than published from memory.

  • PA creditor one-year from advertisement
  • PA s3532 section identity
  • section identity

Response digest 734b9bdb9cde9778… · HTTP 200

Statutes read in full for Pennsylvania

These 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.

CitationWhat reading it establishedRead on
20 Pa.C.S. § 3392When a Pennsylvania estate is short, the statute fixes who goes unpaid — court and filing cost note2026-09-17
20 Pa.C.S. § 3537Pennsylvania leaves the percentage to the court, and says so in one sentence — representative pay note2026-09-17

Pennsylvania source decision map

How the Pennsylvania records fit together

The source record is most useful when each citation has a job. This map links the Pennsylvania procedure, cost, compensation, and deadline records to the decision each one can and cannot answer.

QuestionRecorded Pennsylvania answerCarry 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?$50,000Use 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.

Decision boundary

What the Pennsylvania source set does not silently decide

The Pennsylvania records establish the rules listed above, but they do not turn a source citation into advice about title, family priority, tax filing, contested proceedings, or the exact clerk practice in every county. Those questions stay with the official court or a qualified adviser. The useful next step is to match the question to the citation rather than treating the longest quote as the answer to every estate problem.

Arithmetic illustration

See the Pennsylvania amount screen without mistaking it for a result

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 amountComparison to the Pennsylvania ceilingWhat it does not decide
$37,500Below $50,000Title, liens, waiting period, appointment, or creditor duties
$62,500Above $50,000Whether another statutory route or court process applies

Next evidence to collect

Open the quoted record for the row you rely on and check the publisher's current text before filing.

  1. Record the date of death, the county, and the exact proceeding or affidavit being considered.
  2. Classify each asset by title, beneficiary, trust, real-property status, and the value basis shown above.
  3. Open the official court material below and keep its form or schedule with the estate record.
  4. Do not distribute property until the route, creditor position, and required approvals are resolved.

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

Records used by this Pennsylvania map

What Pennsylvania courts publish

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.

Limits on court 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.

Checking these Pennsylvania records against the publishers

Every citation above links to the body that publishes it, and every quoted sentence is reproduced exactly, so a text search on the publisher’s own page should land on it. Where the publisher’s current wording differs from what is recorded here, the publisher governs and this page is wrong; naming the citation and the language you see maps the difference onto a specific condition rather than a general complaint. The full procedure, including how a source qualifies in the first place and what disqualifies one, is set out once on the methodology page instead of being restated on each of the254 state records.

These records cover the cost and route questions this site answers for Pennsylvania. They do not cover intestate succession shares, spousal and family allowances, creditor priority, tax filing obligations, real-property transfer mechanics, or contested proceedings. Where an answer would require one of those, the site says so rather than estimating.

Return to the Pennsylvania estate guide ·All 254 records ·Dataset overview and citation ·How sources are selected