The day the Register of Wills hands you Letters Testamentary, you've completed the first step of roughly ten. The rest, in order: EIN and estate account → advertise the estate → notify beneficiaries → marshal assets and inventory → evaluate and pay claims in priority order → file the inheritance-tax return → wait out the claims year → account → distribute → close. Every step feeds the next, most run in parallel, and the whole sequence for a cooperative estate takes about a year. Here's the roadmap.
The courthouse part of probate, the qualification appointment we've written county-by-county guides about, takes an hour. What follows takes a year, and it's where executors actually earn the title. This is the working sequence we run for every estate, in the order that keeps each step from tripping the ones behind it.
Step 1: EIN and the Estate Account (Week One)
The estate is a separate legal entity and taxpayer. Get its EIN from the IRS (free, online, ten minutes), then open the estate bank account with it. From this day forward, every dollar in or out flows through that account, with a ledger entry: date, amount, purpose. This single habit is the difference between an accounting that takes an afternoon and one that takes a season, and it's the cleanest protection against the commingling accusations that fuel executor-liability disputes.
Step 2: Advertise the Estate (Immediately)
Publish the estate notice under 20 Pa.C.S. § 3162: once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation and the county legal journal. The first complete advertisement starts the one-year clock that governs when you can distribute safely under § 3532. Every week you delay advertising is a week added to the far end of the estate. (In Armstrong County they'll take the Legal Journal's check right at the probate counter. We noted each county's quirks in the courthouse guides.)
Step 3: Notice to Beneficiaries and Heirs
Pennsylvania requires formal written notice of the estate to beneficiaries and heirs shortly after Letters issue, with certification to the Register. Beyond the legal requirement, this is where good executors set the communication pattern that prevents most estate disputes: a short note at each milestone costs minutes and starves suspicion of oxygen.
Step 4: Marshal the Assets and Build the Inventory
Find, secure, and value everything the estate owns: retitle accounts to the estate, secure and insure the real estate (vacant-house insurance is its own errand: homeowner's policies lapse on vacancy), collect final wages and refunds, and get date-of-death values for everything. This becomes the inventory filed with the Register and the backbone of both the inheritance-tax return and the final accounting: one set of numbers, three uses, worth getting right once.
Two classification cautions from the field: non-probate assets don't belong in the estate account, and selling the house requires checking your authority first.
Step 5: Claims. Evaluate, Then Pay in Order
Creditors present claims; the executor evaluates them (not every bill a collector sends is valid or timely) and pays in the strict priority order of 20 Pa.C.S. § 3392: administration costs, the $3,500 family exemption, funeral expenses, medical expenses of the last illness, and on down. In a solvent estate the order rarely bites; in a tight one it's everything, and paying the loudest creditor first is a personal-liability mistake.
Step 6: The Inheritance-Tax Return
The REV-1500 is due nine months from death, and payment within three months earns a 5% discount, usually worth capturing with an estimated prepayment. The return covers probate and most non-probate transfers, rates turn on each beneficiary's relationship, and the Department of Revenue's acceptance letter is one of the two documents most estates wait on before final distribution.
Step 7: The Waiting Middle
Months four through twelve are quieter: the advertisement year running, the tax return processing, the house perhaps selling. Quiet isn't idle: this is when interim distributions (with a healthy reserve) can relieve family pressure, when the ledger stays current, and when the estate that will close on schedule separates itself from the one that will drift. Here's the full timeline with the why behind each interval.
Steps 8–10: Account, Distribute, Close
With the year run and the tax accepted, the estate ends one of two ways: the family settlement agreement (informal: accounting approved by the beneficiaries, releases signed) or the formal account and audit (court adjudication: slower, but conclusive protection for the executor). Distribution follows (receipts from every beneficiary, deeds done properly for real estate passing in kind) and the estate closes with the Register once every obligation is satisfied.
Then, genuinely: you're done. Keep the file.
If You're Somewhere in the Middle
Most executors who call us aren't at step one. They're at step four or six, six months in, with a stack of paper and a creeping sense that something's been missed. Usually less is wrong than they fear, and the fix is just finishing the sequence in order. We handle full administrations start to finish, and we also step into stalled estates mid-stream. Either way, one free consultation maps exactly where your estate stands and what remains. Call (724) 733-3500 or schedule online.
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Probate in Pennsylvania has strict deadlines, filing requirements, and fiduciary obligations. We guide executors through every step, from opening the estate to final distribution. Transparent fees, no surprises.