Notice to Heirs and Beneficiaries

Who must be given notice of the probate hearing and when. Missing a required notice delays the appointment; work the list.

Official Judicial Council notice (Rev. January 1, 2020), adopted for mandatory use under Probate Code sections 1211, 1215, 1220, 1230, 12201 and others: it gives notice of a petition, application, report or account and…

A status report shows the estate's condition, why it cannot be distributed and closed, and the estimated time needed to close;

Proof of mailing may be made in the manner prescribed by Code of Civil Procedure section 1013a. Forms DE-120, DE-121 and DE-157 carry a proof of service by mail for this purpose.

The hearing on the petition is set not less than 15 nor more than 30 days after filing or, at the petitioner's request made when filing, not less than 30 nor more than 45 days after filing, and the court may not shorten…

The notice of hearing on a petition for administration, whether delivered or published, must state substantially the statutory form: addressed to heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors and other…

In addition to service under section 8110, notice of hearing of a petition for administration must also be published before the hearing as the article provides.

A petition for administration will not be heard unless an affidavit showing due publication of the notice has been filed, containing a copy of the notice and stating the date of publication.

Within 120 days after a will is admitted to probate, an interested person (other than a party to a will contest or a person with actual notice of the contest in time to join it) may petition to revoke the probate, with…

Connecticut rule that before proving or disapproving a will or codicil the Probate Court holds a hearing on public or personal notice, or both, to all parties known to be interested in the estate, unless all interested…

Connecticut rule that the Probate Court of the district of domicile grants letters of administration for a Connecticut intestate (with § 45a-287 venue for nondomiciliaries), after a hearing on public or personal notice…

Official Connecticut Probate Courts petition to probate a will and appoint an executor, or for administration, with each proposed fiduciary's signed acceptance.

Connecticut procedure letting a person interested in an estate, or in a future application to probate a will or grant administration, file a written request for special notice;

Connecticut rule that before approving the final account of an executor or administrator the Probate Court holds a hearing, on notice as the court directs, unless all parties interested in the estate sign and file a…

Connecticut rule that when an application to settle an estate is made and the estate may escheat to the state, the Probate Court mails the Commissioner of Revenue Services, at least seven days before the hearing, a copy…

Official guide published by the Office of the Probate Court Administrator describing Connecticut estate administration step by step: filing PC-200 in the district of domicile with copies to heirs and beneficiaries and…

Connecticut rule that an order of notice of a hearing, or notice of the right to request a hearing, that the law requires be given to interested persons in a probate matter may be made by the judge, clerk or assistant…

Connecticut rule that Probate Courts may make any proper order for notice to a person residing out of or absent from the state and, unless otherwise provided, to any person within the state entitled by law to particular…

Connecticut rule that where public notice is required in a probate matter it is given by publication in a newspaper circulating in the district for the time the court directs, with such further notice as the court…

Court of Chancery rule that after an accounting is filed with the beneficiary statement required by 12 Del. C.

Official waiver form of the Sussex County Register of Wills under 12 Del. C. § 2302(c): the beneficiary certifies entitlement to share in distribution, waives further notice of the filing of this and later accountings,…

Delaware procedure letting the executor, administrator or any person claiming an interest, after any account is filed, petition the Court of Chancery in the county of the letters for a decree of distribution.

Official notice form the Sussex County Register of Wills mails to beneficiaries when a personal representative files an account: it encloses the account, states that it is open for exceptions for three months from…

Delaware rule that an interested person who did not voluntarily appear at the proof of a will, and was not served with citation or notice under § 1303, has a right of review within 6 months after the order of probate,…

Delaware rule that on a petition for a decree of distribution the Court of Chancery sets a hearing and orders written notice with a copy of the petition by certified mail to every named or known claimant and the…

Delaware rule that proof of a will may be taken without notice to interested persons unless one of them petitions the Court of Chancery.

Delaware rule that each account must be accompanied by a statement of every beneficiary's name and mailing address (with guardians or parents of incapacitated beneficiaries), after which the Register of Wills mails each…

What passes by intestacy, including a partial intestacy where the will does not dispose of everything. The reason a residuary clause matters.

The order of succession after the spouse: issue, then parents, then brothers and sisters and their issue, then the section's remaining classes. Check where the line stops.

A petitioner for formal probate must promptly give notice to all known interested persons and publish notice once a week for two successive weeks in a legal periodical or newspaper of general circulation in the District…

Within 20 days after appointment, the personal representative publishes notice of appointment once a week for two successive weeks, stating whether administration is supervised and notifying creditors;

Defines Title 20 terms. The Court is the Probate Division of the Superior Court; an interested person includes a nominated personal representative until appointment, the personal representative, legatees until paid,…

Unless personal service or publication is required, a first notice is sufficient if sent by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, restricted delivery, to the last known address;

Except as § 20-353(b) provides, any person may file a verified complaint contesting a will within six months after notice by publication of the appointment or reappointment of a personal representative under § 20-704,…

An abbreviated probate is set aside if an interested person requests formal probate within six months after notice of the appointment under § 20-704.

Undevised District real estate descends in fee simple, and the undisposed surplus of a District resident's personal estate is distributed, to the surviving spouse or domestic partner, children and others as Chapter 3…

D.C. text setting the intestate share of a surviving spouse or domestic partner: the entire intestate estate if no descendant or parent survives;

Gives a surviving spouse or domestic partner the right to renounce testamentary gifts and take an intestate share instead, by filing a written renunciation in Probate Court within six months of the will's admission to…

Florida court rule providing that no notice of the petition for administration or issuance of letters is needed when the petitioner is entitled to preference of appointment, but that before letters issue to a person not…

Florida court rule requiring the personal representative to promptly serve the notice of administration on the surviving spouse, all beneficiaries, trustees and qualified beneficiaries of a section 733.707(3) trust when…

The notice of administration served on interested persons, and the deadlines it starts, including the elective share and will-contest clocks. A first-week item for the personal representative.

Florida court rule defining formal notice: a copy of the pleading is served with a notice requiring written defenses within 20 days after service and warning that failure may result in the relief demanded without…

Florida text requiring notice to an interested person of a petition or proceeding to be given to that person or the person's attorney as the code or the Florida Probate Rules provide.

Florida text allowing a petitioner to serve formal notice of the petition for administration on interested persons;

Florida court rule requiring, unless the court orders otherwise, every petition or motion for an order determining an interested person's rights, and every other document filed in that proceeding (except witness…

Florida court rule requiring a waiver or consent authorized by law to be in writing, signed and filed, and to state the person's interest, any fiduciary or representative capacity, and expressly what is waived or…

Florida text allowing an interested person apprehensive that an estate will be administered or a will admitted without that person's knowledge to file a caveat, before or after death (a creditor only after death);

Florida text allowing an interested person, after a petition for administration is filed, including a guardian ad litem, administrator ad litem, guardian of the property, personal representative, trustee or other…

Official published notice (rev. 10/01/2025), to be published three times, announcing the appointment, stating the six-month deadlines from appointment for objections to the appointment and to probate, and the creditor…

Within 20 days after appointment, the personal representative delivers to the register the text of the first published notice and the names and addresses of the heirs and legatees known to the representative, so the…

Official affidavit listing persons believed to be interested persons and describing the good-faith efforts made to contact, locate or identify them, signed under penalties of perjury. Read with § 1-103(c).

Within five days after receiving the text of the first published notice of appointment under § 7-103 and the personal representative's list of heirs and legatees under § 7-104, the register mails each of them a copy of…

Official waiver by which an interested person gives up specified notices (for example judicial probate, the register's notice, account filings, proposed payments to the representative or attorney, resignation or…

Official consent by a residuary legatee, heir or trustee acknowledging the § 5-706 notices: final report within 10 months instead of an inventory and account, the right to request them, the right to revoke by written…

Register of Wills form for the verification of an account under Md. Rule 6-417(b)(9) and the certificate of service under Rule 6-417(d), certifying notice to interested persons that the account was filed, that…

Defines terms for the Estates and Trusts Article. An heir is a person entitled under §§ 3-101 through 3-110;

Unless personal service or another method is required, a first notice is sufficient if sent by first-class mail to the last known address;

The register must promptly notify all interested persons shown in the file that judicial probate has been requested, the petitioner must supply names and addresses learned before judicial probate, and the register…

Massachusetts probate procedure for estate recovery: a petition to probate a will or for administration must include a sworn statement that the petition and death certificate were sent to the division by certified mail,…

Massachusetts notice for a formal testacy proceeding, given by the petitioner in the § 1-401 manner to the surviving spouse, children and other heirs, the devisees and executors named in any will probated or offered in…

Official Probate and Family Court procedural guide chapter on formal testacy and appointment proceedings, described as actions to establish a will or determine intestacy conducted before a judge with notice by citation…

Official Probate and Family Court procedural guide chapter on informal probate and appointment.

Massachusetts default notice rule: where notice is required by reference to this section, the court fixes a return date and issues a citation, and the petitioner gives notice to interested persons (or their attorneys)…

Massachusetts rules for formal proceedings involving decedents' estates: interests affected must be described in the pleadings by name, class or reference, and persons may be bound by orders binding holders of powers,…

The outer time limit for probate and appointment proceedings, generally three years from death, with the exceptions the section lists. Tell a family holding an unprobated will that delay has a hard stop.

Massachusetts notice for informal probate or appointment: 7 days before petitioning, the petitioner delivers or mails written notice to all heirs and devisees, anyone with a prior or equal right to appointment who has…

Massachusetts rule that no license to sell real estate is granted to an executor or administrator until notice of the petition and hearing is served personally on all persons interested in the estate at least fourteen…

Massachusetts rule that a person, including a guardian ad litem, conservator or other fiduciary, may waive notice by a signed writing filed in the proceeding, but a person for whom a guardianship or protective order is…

After the probable charges against the estate are known, the personal representative may mail or deliver a proposal for distribution to all persons with a right to object;

A resident's will is probated in the surrogate's court of the county of residence at death or in the Superior Court;

Once 7 years have elapsed after a surrogate's court or Superior Court judgment admitting a will to probate, whether or not the testator was a resident, the judgment, unless set aside, is conclusive on the title to real…

The surviving spouse or domestic partner seeking an elective share must give notice of the time and place set for the hearing to persons interested in the estate and to the distributees and recipients of portions of the…

No will may be admitted to probate until ten days after the testator's death, although the probate papers may be filed, witness depositions taken and the executor qualified in the meantime.

Without a will the surviving spouse, civil union partner or domestic partner takes the entire estate when no descendant or parent survives, or when all surviving descendants are also the spouse's and the spouse has no…

New Jersey text on who takes the part of an intestate estate that does not pass to the surviving spouse or partner under 3B:5-3, or the whole estate where there is none: descendants by representation, then parents, then…

Before granting letters of administration the court may require the petitioner to mail written notice of the application to every distributee who was not required to be served and has not appeared or waived.

Before letters issue, a notice of probate must be filed stating the testator's name, the proponent's name and address and that the will has been offered for probate or probated, and naming, with post-office addresses…

Intestacy text: a spouse who survives with issue takes fifty thousand dollars and one-half of the residue, a spouse with no issue takes the whole, and the section then lists the shares of issue, parents, issue of…

Any person whose interest in property or in the estate would be adversely affected by probate may file objections to the will or any part of it, except that a person whose only interest is commissions lost under a later…

A party other than an infant, incompetent or conservatee may appear in person or by attorney (a corporation only by attorney), by pleading, by waiver, by a filed notice of appearance or by appearance noted in open…

A surviving spouse of a decedent dying on or after September 1, 1992 may elect against the will and take the greater of fifty thousand dollars (or the net estate if smaller) or one third of the net estate, computed by…

In an administration proceeding, every eligible person with a right to administration prior or equal to the petitioner's who has not renounced must be served;

Text listing who must be cited in a probate proceeding when they are not petitioners: the testator's distributees;

Text listing who must be cited on a voluntary judicial settlement of a fiduciary's account: unpaid and claimed creditors, the bond surety, co-fiduciaries who do not join, a successor fiduciary, the Attorney General in…

Official Ohio standard probate form under R.C. 2113.06 and 2113.07 notifying persons entitled to administer the estate that an applicant has asked to be appointed, giving the hearing date, time and court address, and…

What the application for appointment must contain and the bond that accompanies it, including when a will excuses surety. If the client wants no bond, the will should say so expressly.

Official Ohio standard probate form under R.C. 2109.33 notifying recipients that an account for a stated period has been filed and of the hearing date, time and court location, requiring them to examine the account and…

Official Ohio standard probate form under R.C. 2107.19(A)(3) certifying that all persons entitled to notice have waived notice of admission (waivers filed), received notice of admission, been notified of the hearing on…

Ohio text requiring the fiduciary or another listed person, within two weeks after a will is admitted, to give notice in the manner of Civil Rule 73(E) to the surviving spouse, everyone who would inherit under Chapter…

Ohio text allowing the fiduciary to serve, and the court to order served, notice of the account hearing on interested persons, including creditors as directed, by mail in addition to publication, at least 15 days before…

Official Ohio standard probate form under R.C. 2107.19(A)(2) by which persons entitled to notice of the probate of a will waive it, stating that after a certificate evidencing waivers and notices is filed, a will…

Official Ohio standard probate form for the R.C. 2107.19(A) notice that the decedent died and the will was admitted to probate by the named court on a stated date, given to persons who would inherit in intestacy and…

A surviving spouse elects to take under the will or under section 2105.06. A spouse electing under 2105.06 takes the intestate share but SHALL TAKE NOT TO EXCEED ONE-HALF OF THE NET ESTATE, OR ONE-THIRD IF TWO OR MORE…

Ohio text barring a person who received or waived the section 2107.19 notice from bringing a will contest under section 2107.71 more than three months after the certificate of notice was filed, and barring all others…

The personal representative must give written notice of the filing of the account and of its call for audit or confirmation to every person known to have or assert an interest in the estate as beneficiary, heir, next of…

Official Supreme Court statewide form RW-07 (Notice of Estate Administration under Pa. O.C.

Rule text (Pa. O.C. Rule 10.1): the forms the Supreme Court has approved for statewide practice before the Register, set out in the Appendix, must be used exclusively and accepted for filing by all Registers, and…

Rule text (Pa. O.C. Rule 4.4): in every court proceeding involving or affecting a charitable interest, at least 20 days' advance written notice must be given to the Attorney General (at the Harrisburg principal office…

There is no deadline to offer a will for probate, but a will probated more than a year after death is void against a bona fide purchaser or lienholder of the decedent's real estate in the circumstances the section sets…

The personal representative must advertise the grant of letters IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE GRANT, in a local newspaper of general circulation and any court-designated legal periodical, ONCE A WEEK FOR THREE SUCCESSIVE WEEKS,…

A personal representative to whom original letters are granted must send, within three months after the grant, written notice to each corporation or association named as a beneficiary in the will, stating the date of…

Rule text (Pa. O.C. Rule 2.5): no account is confirmed unless written notice of its filing went to unpaid claimants who gave notice under 20 Pa.C.S.

Texas text requiring the personal representative, including an independent executor or administrator, to give notice complying with section 308.003 by a qualified delivery method to each will beneficiary whose identity…

Texas text requiring an applicant who offers a will for probate under section 256.003(a) (after the four-year period) to give notice by service of process, before the will is probated, to each heir whose address can be…

Texas text requiring the personal representative, no later than the 90th day after the order admitting the will, to file a sworn affidavit, or a certificate signed by the representative's attorney, naming each…

Texas text listing the contents of the section 308.002 notice: the beneficiary's (and any substitute recipient's) name and address, the decedent's name, a statement that the will was admitted to probate and that the…

Texas text requiring the clerk, when an application for letters of administration is filed, to issue a citation to all parties interested in the estate, served by posting.

Texas text allowing an independent executor, instead of a closing report, to file a notice of closing estate verified by affidavit stating that known debts have been paid or paid as far as assets allow, that remaining…

Texas text on serving probate citations and notices by regular mail or a qualified delivery method: a personal representative issues and sends notices the representative must give, restricted to the addressee with a…

Texas text requiring proof of service to be filed before the hearing and describing it: the officer's return, a private server's affidavit, the clerk's certificate or the representative's affidavit of mailing or…

Texas text allowing a legally competent person interested in a probate hearing to waive notice in writing, in person or through an attorney;

The period to contest a Texas will after it is admitted, generally two years with the exceptions the section states. Diary it for a beneficiary who may face a challenge.

The commissioner files the report in the circuit court and, on or before filing a report on a personal representative's account, mails a copy of the report (without the account) to each person entitled to request copies…

The surplus of the personal estate, after funeral expenses, charges of administration and debts, and subject to the family allowance, exempt property and homestead provisions of Article 2 of Chapter 3, passes to the…

Official affidavit for recording under § 64.2-508(F), stating either that no notice was required or listing each person to whom notice was mailed or delivered within 30 days and when, and identifying persons whose…

The personal representative, or the proponent where no one qualifies, must give written notice of qualification or probate, and of the right to copies of the will, inventories, accounts and reports, to the surviving…

Official notice form for § 64.2-508 telling a spouse, heir or beneficiary that a personal representative qualified or the will was probated, stating that the notice does not mean the recipient will receive money or…

Official waiver by which a person entitled to § 64.2-508 notice releases the proponent or personal representative from giving it;

A personal representative filing an inventory, account or statement of intent under § 64.2-1314 must mail a copy (without vouchers) on or before filing to each person notified under § 64.2-508 who requested copies in…

Real estate not effectively disposed of by will passes to the surviving spouse, unless the decedent left children or descendants one or more of whom are not the surviving spouse's, in which case two-thirds passes to the…

A person offering a will may ask the clerk to summon all persons interested in the probate of the will to show cause why it should not be admitted;

Enacted 2026 (c. 475): any person interested in the administration of an estate, including a person entitled to notice under § 64.2-508, may without bond appeal a clerk's order under § 64.2-454, 64.2-500 or 64.2-502…