How Long Does Probate Take? The Probate Timeline, Step by Step

Ask how long probate takes and you will be given a range measured in months or years. The range is wide because the stages are not alike. Some are timed by statute. A court cannot shorten a creditor window because the family is in a hurry, and a representative cannot skip a notice period that the law requires before a hearing. Other stages have no statutory length at all. They take as long as the facts take.

The timed stages are the notice periods, the creditor window, the deadline for filing an inventory, the earliest date a closing can be filed and, in some states, a deadline for asking the court to approve final distribution. The untimed ones are the court’s own calendar, gathering and valuing property, selling real estate, resolving an objection or a contest, finishing tax returns, and working out who every heir is and where each one lives.

The timed steps make the low end of a probate timeline predictable. The untimed ones are why nobody can honestly promise the high end. Of those, the one families most often underestimate is the heir list. A statute can require that every heir be notified, but it cannot say how long it will take to find one who moved away years ago and has not been heard from since.

Each row gives the deadline for creditors to present claims, the event that starts it, and any outside limit measured from the date of death. Where a statute gives creditors who were mailed or handed a copy of the notice a different period, the cell says so. Where the date protects the representative instead of ending the claim, the numbered note explains what it does.

Checked against each state’s own statutory text on September 23, 2026, with the exceptions stated in note 14. The deadline that applies depends on when notice was given and the date of death; the court handling the estate controls.

1. Dates that protect the representative rather than end the claim. In New York, if a claim is not presented within 7 months from the date letters were first issued, the fiduciary is not chargeable for assets paid in good faith on other claims, legacies or distributions before it arrived; a late claim can still be paid from what remains. In New Jersey, claims are presented in writing and under oath within 9 months of death; the representative is not liable for assets already paid or delivered before a late claim is presented, and a late creditor is forever barred only if the estate is adjudged insolvent, subject to exceptions. In Pennsylvania, a representative who distributes at his own risk is not liable to a claimant whose claim was not known within one year after the first complete advertisement of letters; a claimant sent a written demand has 60 days from the demand or that year, whichever is later. A claim against distributed real estate needs a notice filed with the clerk within one year after death and expires five years after death unless an account or a petition to compel one is filed. In West Virginia, a claim not filed within 60 days cannot be recovered from the representative; a claimant who had no actual notice may prove it against any undistributed surplus, and unpaid creditors may sue distributees or legatees within two years after distribution, up to what each received (§§ 44-2-26, 44-2-27). In Virginia, new § 64.2-508.1 (2026 Acts ch. 382, in force from July 1, 2026) lets a representative publish a notice to creditors setting the later of at least six months after first publication or 90 days after a copy is mailed to the claimant. A claim presented after that date is not barred: a good-faith representative’s liability is capped at the estate assets still on hand, the estate stays liable to the extent of what remains, and distributees can be sued for a refund within five years after distribution. Separately, a Virginia representative cannot be compelled to distribute for six months after qualifying (§ 64.2-554).
2. Georgia. The representative publishes notice once a week for four weeks within 60 days of qualifying. A creditor who has not come forward within three months of the last publication loses the right to share equally with creditors of the same priority who have already been paid and cannot hold the representative liable, but is still paid if the assets are enough. It is not a bar (O.C.G.A. § 53-7-41, as amended in 2025).
3. Connecticut. The newspaper notice asks creditors to present claims “promptly”. A claim not presented within 150 days of the first fiduciary’s appointment loses recourse against good-faith payments and distributions already made (§ 45a-356), which protects the fiduciary without ending the claim. A fiduciary may also send optional written notice naming a date at least 90 days away, and that notice does bar a creditor who misses it (§ 45a-357).
4. Massachusetts. There is no notice-to-creditors period; section 3-801 of chapter 190B is reserved. A creditor must commence an action within one year after death and, within that year, serve the representative or file notice with the register. Insured personal-injury and death claims may be brought within three years of accrual, with recovery limited to the insurance or bond.
5. Louisiana. The Code of Civil Procedure sets no deadline for presenting a claim: a creditor “may submit” one to the succession representative (art. 3241), and a formal proof of claim suspends prescription, the ordinary limitation period (art. 3245).
6. Texas. A claim may be presented at any time before the estate is closed, if suit on it is not barred by the general statutes of limitation (Estates Code § 355.001). The notice to claimants published within one month after letters sets no deadline (§ 308.051). Two exceptions: an unsecured creditor for money who is sent the optional notice under § 308.054 is barred unless the claim is presented before the 121st day after receiving it (§ 355.060), and a secured creditor must choose how the claim is treated within the later of six months after letters are granted or four months after receiving notice (§ 355.152). Read on the Texas Legislative Council’s statute site (tcss.legis.texas.gov) and cited by name.
7. Tennessee. Creditors who receive a copy of the published notice must file within 4 months of first publication (or 60 days after receiving the copy, if it arrives late), and every claim is barred 12 months after death, whichever comes first (Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 30-2-306, -307, -310). TennCare estate-recovery claims follow separate deadlines. Tennessee’s official compiled code is not freely published, so this row was checked against the enacting 2012 session law (Pub. Ch. 886), not the current compiled text.
8. Arkansas. Claims are barred unless presented within six months after the first publication of notice to creditors, as the statute is quoted by the Arkansas Supreme Court in Marcum v. Hodge, 2023 Ark. 103. No separate bar measured from death was located; administration must be opened within five years of death (Ark. Code Ann. 28-40-103).
9. North Carolina. Known creditors, and creditors that can reasonably be identified within 75 days after letters are granted, must be mailed or handed a copy of the notice before proof of notice is filed. The 75 days decides which creditors get a copy; it is not the mailing deadline. Such a creditor has until the later of the date in the notice or 90 days after the mailing or delivery.
10. Indiana. A 2026 act (HEA 1277, effective July 1, 2026) changed only the separate deadline for Medicaid estate-recovery claims, from 120 days to nine months. The general creditor periods shown are unchanged.
11. Other starting points. Iowa counts from the second publication, not the first. Oklahoma counts from the date the notice is filed with the court, and its bar covers contract claims. Oregon now publishes once, for proceedings begun on or after January 1, 2024. Wisconsin’s deadline is fixed by the court’s order, with notice published within 15 days of it. In Maryland a mailed notice can only shorten the six months, and South Carolina takes the earlier of its dates rather than the later.
12. Outside limits that apply only without notice. In Alaska, Hawaii, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Vermont and Washington, the outside limit applies where notice to creditors was not given as the statute requires. In Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah it applies whether or not notice was given.
13. Claims outside these periods. Most of these statutes except some claims, for example tort claims covered by insurance, certain tax claims or Medicaid estate recovery, and the list differs from state to state.
14. Sources. Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee publish their official compiled codes only through a commercial service. Those rows were checked against the Arkansas Supreme Court’s quotation of the statute, Georgia’s enacted 2025 amending act, the Mississippi Legislature’s reproduction of the existing section in a 2018 bill, and Tennessee’s 2012 session law. Colorado’s figures are from the 2024 compiled statutes; no later amending act was located. Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas are cited by name because their statute hosts are outside this site’s link list.

Property that never enters probate. Property held in joint tenancy with a right of survivorship, accounts with a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death designation, life insurance and retirement accounts with a named beneficiary, and assets already in a living trust usually pass directly to the survivor or beneficiary. The less that is left in the decedent’s own name, the less there is for probate to handle.

Small-estate procedures. Most states let a modest estate be collected without full administration, usually by an affidavit given to whoever holds the property. Minnesota’s applies when the probate estate, less liens, does not exceed $75,000, 30 days have passed since the death, and no petition for a personal representative is pending or has been granted (§ 524.3-1201). California’s ceiling is indexed, and our page on the California small estate affidavit explains which figure applies by date of death. The ceilings and waiting periods elsewhere are gathered in small estate affidavit limits by state.

Less supervised administration, where it is available. Minnesota’s informal procedure generally requires no bond of the personal representative (§ 524.3-603, with listed exceptions), and allows the closing by sworn statement described above. Some other states offer a less supervised track under their own names, with their own conditions; whether an estate qualifies is for the court to decide.

Heirship shown by affidavit. In Texas and Michigan, for example, a sworn statement of the family’s heirship can be recorded in the county’s real property records; in Texas it does not affect the rights of an heir it leaves out. Our guide to the affidavit of heirship sets out when that route is used and where it stops.

The heir list, started early. The one open-ended step a family can begin before anything is filed is working out who the heirs are and where each one lives now. A petition that names every heir with a current address gives each required notice somewhere to go.