Probate Timeline Calculator
Probate estate administration timeline.
Written and maintained by Paul Clark, Redmoon Software · Rules last verified
These calculators are for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal, financial, or professional advice.
How the Probate Timeline Calculator works
The Probate Timeline Calculator projects the administration milestones of an estate: when the inventory is due, when creditor claims close, when a will contest must be brought, and roughly when a final accounting can be filed. It takes the date of death and, crucially, the date letters were issued and the personal representative appointed.
That second date is the fix at the heart of this tool. Most of these clocks do not run from death — they run from appointment. The creditor claim period and the inventory deadline are triggered by the issuance of letters, which typically comes weeks or months after the death once the petition has been filed and heard. This calculator previously measured everything from the date of death, which pulled every downstream date earlier than reality and made a routine estate look overdue before the representative had even been appointed. Enter the letters date and the timeline is anchored correctly; leave it blank and the tool tells you it is assuming appointment on the date of death, which is almost never true.
The durations used are the common ones — three months to inventory, four months for creditor claims, twelve to a final accounting — and they are not any single state’s rule. Probate is governed state by state and the variation is wide: creditor periods run from three to six months or longer, and several states require separate, shorter direct notice to known creditors on top of the general publication period. There is no state selector here, so read these as the shape of a typical administration rather than as your jurisdiction’s deadlines.
Worked example
A decedent dies on Saturday, 10 January 2026 and letters issue on Monday, 2 March 2026 after the petition is heard. Counting from appointment, the inventory is due 2 June, creditor claims close on Thursday, 2 July, and a final accounting becomes realistic around March 2027. Counted from the date of death — as the calculator used to — the creditor deadline would have shown as 10 May, nearly two months early, which is the kind of error that has a representative chasing a deadline that has not started.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the letters date matter more than the date of death?
Because it is what most of these clocks actually run from. The creditor claim window and the inventory deadline are triggered by the appointment of the personal representative, and the gap between death and appointment is routinely one to three months. Anchoring to the date of death compresses the whole timeline and produces deadlines that appear to have passed before the estate was even opened.
Are these the deadlines in my state?
Not necessarily. These are common durations, and probate is entirely a matter of state law. Creditor claim periods range from around three months to a year, inventory deadlines vary, and will-contest windows differ in both length and trigger. Use this to understand the shape and sequence of an administration and get the actual figures from your state’s probate code or the court’s local rules.
Do known creditors get the same deadline as everyone else?
Usually not. Many states require direct written notice to creditors the representative knows about or could reasonably discover, and that notice starts its own shorter period for those creditors, running separately from the general period opened by publication. Missing the direct-notice requirement can leave the estate exposed to a claim long after the general window has closed.
What this calculator does not do
A limitation you know about costs far less than one you find after the deadline. These are the specific things this tool cannot work out for you.
- Probate is governed state by state and the intervals differ widely. Treat these as a planning shape rather than as jurisdictional deadlines.
- Creditor-claim periods in particular are set by statute and are frequently the binding constraint on how quickly an estate can close.