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Rhode Island Debt Payment Priority
Support GuideRhode Island29 min read

Rhode Island Debt Payment Priority

Rhode Island ranks estate debts in nine classes under R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-12-11, after the charges of administration and the family allowance come off the top.

By Settled Editorial

Rhode Island ranks estate debts in nine classes under R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-12-11, and the ranking starts only after two subtractions: the charges of administration, and any property set off and allowed to the widow and family. Necessary funeral charges lead the nine. Debts due the United States rank third, behind the expenses of the last sickness.

Two features of that sentence catch people who read a national article first. Rhode Island does not put administration costs in the ranking at all, so pages that tell you probate fees and fiduciary fees are class one are describing a different statute. And the section applies by its own terms when the estate is insufficient to pay the debts, which makes solvency the question a fiduciary has to keep answering month by month. This guide works through the nine classes in the statute's own wording, the two deductions that come off first, which property pays and in what order, how a personal representative represents the estate insolvent, and the places where a fiduciary's own money is exposed. Read it with the Rhode Island creditor claims guide, the Rhode Island executor duties guide, and the Rhode Island probate timeline. Confirm any figure that touches your estate with the Probate Court for the decedent's city or town or a licensed Rhode Island attorney.

Two Deductions Come Off the Top

Section 33-12-11(a) opens with a condition and two subtractions. If the estate of a decedent is insufficient to pay the debts, the estate, after deducting the charges of administration and any property as is set off and allowed to the widow and family, is applied to the payment of the debts and charges in the order the section then lists.

Administration charges never enter the ladder. They come out of the estate before the nine classes apply to anything. Section 33-12-1 says what the estate answers for: the expenses of administration, including allowances to widow and family, the funeral charges of the deceased including the cost of a place of burial if necessary, and the payment of the debts, all paid by the executor or administrator out of the estate so far as it is sufficient. Section 33-12-3 folds two further items into the expenses of administration: the expenses of the division and assignment of real estate, and the expenses of appointing guardians of minors and others incapacitated to take care of their interests, whether they are heirs or legatees, unless someone appeals the order making the appointment. The court's filing fee under § 33-22-21 sits in the same bucket.

The family share drops out for a different reason. Section 33-10-2 says the part of the decedent's personal property the court allows to the surviving spouse or family, although inventoried, is not assets in the hands of the personal representative. It appears on the inventory and it is still not money a creditor can reach. Section 33-10-1 sets out what that property is: the wearing apparel of the surviving spouse and minor children belongs to them, and the surviving spouse is entitled, individually and for the family under her or his care, to the furniture, furnishings, household effects, supplies and other exempt personal property of the decedent the probate court deems necessary having regard to all the circumstances. Where there is no surviving spouse, the minor children take the furniture, furnishings and household effects, or the use of them, as the court directs. Our guide to what the family keeps before creditors works through the allowance itself.

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The Nine Classes Under Section 33-12-11

Class§ 33-12-11(a) wordingWhat lands here
1The necessary funeral charges of the deceasedThe funeral home bill, burial or cremation, and the cost of a place of burial if needed under § 33-12-1
2The necessary expenses of the last sicknessMedical and hospital bills from the final illness
3Debts due to the United StatesFederal tax balances and other federal debts
4Debts due to this state, and all state and town taxesRhode Island tax balances, city and town taxes, and money owed to a state agency
5Past and future child support obligations under § 33-11-51Arrears to the date of death plus prospective support, both determined by the court
6Wages of labor performed within six months before the death, not exceeding $1,000 to any one personA narrow wage preference with a hard per-person cap
7Proceeds due the Rhode Island state lottery under § 42-61-6.2Lottery sales proceeds held by a deceased sales agent
8Other debts filed within six months of the first noticeCredit cards, loans, utility balances and other general debt presented inside the claim window
9All other debtsEverything else, including general debt that missed the window

Class 5 carries a whole section behind it. Section 33-11-51 declares it the public policy of the state that dependent children be maintained from the resources of their parents, and it says a parent's legally enforceable child support obligation survives the parent's death, is enforceable as a priority creditor's claim from the probate estate, takes precedence over any distribution by will or intestacy, and cannot be nullified by disinheriting the child. Where the probate estate falls short, the section allows an equity petition in the superior court to impose a constructive trust over non-probate assets for the deficiency. The court may award delinquent support to the date of death with statutory interest, plus future support to the child's eighteenth birthday or the later date the family court decree names, offset by social security benefits paid to the child by reason of the parent's death and discounted to present value.

Class 7 reads oddly until you open the cross-reference. Section 42-61-6.2 is titled "Insolvency of sales agent" and gives the state lottery a preference over other debts when a lottery ticket sales agent dies insolvent, subject to the same funeral, last sickness, federal, state and wage carve-outs § 33-12-11 lists. The class exists for the corner store owner who died holding lottery money, and it sits above general creditors in every insolvent estate.

Class 8 and Class 9 Split on One Fact

Rhode Island writes timeliness into the ranking itself. Class 8 covers other debts filed within six months of the first notice. Class 9 covers all other debts. Under § 33-12-11(b) no creditor in class 9 sees a dollar until every class 8 creditor is paid in full, so filing on time moves a general creditor an entire class up the ladder.

The six months has a specific anchor. Section 33-11-5(a) requires claims to be presented within six months from the first publication or be forever barred, and that publication is the probate clerk's notice of the qualification of the original personal representative, not the date of death. Our guide to how a claim gets presented covers that window, where the written statement goes, and the notice the fiduciary mails.

A late claim carries a second limit on top of the class demotion. Under § 33-11-5(b), a creditor who missed the window through accident, mistake, excusable neglect or lack of adequate notice may petition the probate court before distribution for leave to present out of time, and a claim allowed on that petition is paid out of the assets remaining in the personal representative's hands when notice of the petition was received. A creditor who arrives after most of the money went out collects from what is left on that date.

Nothing Skips a Class, and Ties Share Ratably

Section 33-12-11(b) supplies the arithmetic in one sentence. If there is not sufficient property to pay all the debts of any class, the creditors of that class are paid ratably upon their respective claims, and no payment is made to creditors of any class until all of those of the preceding class or classes have been paid in full.

Two consequences follow. A class that runs out of money stops the process cold, so every lower class takes nothing. And within the class where the money runs out, no creditor negotiates a better share by being louder or by suing first. Say the estate has $40,000 after administration charges and the family allowance, the funeral bill is $12,000, last sickness bills total $30,000, and a hospital and a physician group hold $20,000 and $10,000 of that. Class 1 takes $12,000. The $28,000 left goes ratably across the two class 2 claimants at roughly 93 cents on the dollar. Classes 3 through 9 receive nothing.

Which Property Pays, and in What Order

Personal property answers first. Section 33-12-2 makes the personal estate first chargeable for expenses, charges and debts, and the real estate chargeable only so far as the personal estate is insufficient, except as otherwise provided by law or will. That is the point at which a Rhode Island house comes into the conversation, and not before.

Real estate then has an internal order of its own. Section 33-12-5 says that unless a different intention appears by the will, real estate not devised is subjected to the payment of debts and legacies before real estate devised. A property the will hands to a named person is reached after the property the will left unmentioned.

Section 33-12-4 is the mechanism. Where the personal property is insufficient to pay the debts, funeral expenses, charges of administration, the expense of supporting the family as prescribed by law, and the legacies expressly or impliedly charged upon the real estate, the executor or administrator sells or mortgages, for an amount decreed and in the manner the chapter provides, so much of the real estate or of any interest in it as is subject to and required for those payments. Selling estate real estate to pay debts is a petition to the Probate Court for the city or town, not a decision the fiduciary makes alone.

One family right reaches real estate as well. Section 33-10-3 directs the probate court to make a reasonable allowance out of the probate estate for the support of the family for a period not exceeding six months from the date of death, fixed on an application filed within six months after the first publication of notice of the qualification of the personal representative, with a discretionary second period of up to six months where no final account has been allowed. After exhausting the personal property, the section allows real estate to be sold for the amount of the allowance decreed, in the same manner as for the payment of debts.

When the Fiduciary Starts Writing Checks

Section 33-11-19(a) sets the starting line. After the six months expire and the statement of disallowed claims is filed under § 33-11-14, the personal representative pays the claims allowed or proved in the order of priority prescribed, after making provision for five things: the costs and expenses of administration, taxes, allowances, claims presented but pending determination or appeal, and claims not barred that may yet be presented.

That reserve list is the working answer to a question fiduciaries ask constantly, which is why the money cannot go out in month four. Paying before the window closes means paying without knowing the size of the class that has not finished forming.

Claims that arrive later and are not disallowed, or that are disallowed and afterwards proved, are payable only out of the assets remaining in the personal representative's hands under § 33-11-19(b).

Representing the Estate Insolvent

Rhode Island's insolvency track runs through the Probate Court for the decedent's city or town, and the fiduciary opens it. Under § 33-11-24, a personal representative may at any time during administration represent the insolvent estate to the probate court and apply for the court to examine and determine claims. If the court finds the estate is probably insolvent, it hears and determines all disallowed claims and the priority of payment among all presented claims. Section 33-11-23 confirms that every disallowed claim against an insolvent estate is heard and decided by the probate court.

The hearings run on published and mailed notice. Section 33-11-28 requires the court to advertise notice of its hearings in one or more newspapers published in Rhode Island, as the court orders, at least once each week for two successive weeks before the hearing, and to give every creditor whose claim is disallowed at least seven days written notice of the times and places. Section 33-11-29 puts a deadline on the fiduciary: at least 14 days before that first scheduled hearing date, file with the probate clerk a statement disallowing the claims not previously disallowed that the fiduciary intends to contest, then file like statements as further claims arrive. Section 33-11-30 requires written notice to the claimant, personally or by registered or certified mail, as soon as a disallowance is filed.

An estate can turn insolvent late. Section 33-11-22 covers the fiduciary who paid out under § 33-11-19 and finds the remainder insufficient to satisfy claims presented after the six months, where some of those late claims are disallowed. The personal representative may represent the estate insolvent and, under a decree of the probate court, divide and pay over the remaining estate among the creditors entitled to payment.

Section 33-11-21 runs the other way and protects the fiduciary who finished. A personal representative who paid out the whole estate in accordance with law is not required to represent the estate insolvent because further claims showed up, and that payment, once the account is allowed, bars any action against the fiduciary.

What Changes Once a Rhode Island Estate Is Insolvent

Four rules switch on, and each one changes what a creditor collects.

  • Secured creditors take a dividend on the shortfall. Under § 33-11-32, the probate court inquires into the cash value of the security. If the court allows the claim, the fiduciary gives the creditor personal notice of the amount allowed and the court's reported value of the security, and unless the creditor lodges a certificate electing to relinquish the security with the court within 15 days after receiving that notice, the creditor takes a dividend only on the excess of the claim above the court's valuation.
  • Interest stops at the death. Section 33-11-34 has the court allow interest to the death of the testator or intestate on claims that draw interest, and value claims not due at the death as of the date of death.
  • Mutual debts net out. Section 33-11-35 has the court reduce the claim to present value, consider any mutual claims subject to offset, and allow the claimant only the balance justly due.
  • Contingent claims get a proportionate deposit. Under § 33-11-9, where the court determines after a hearing that a contingent claim may become due, it orders the fiduciary to deposit assets in the registry of the court sufficient to satisfy the claim, or its proportionate share in case of insolvency.

The Distribution Decree, and a Cross-Reference That Outlived Its Sections

Section 33-12-12 closes the insolvency track. Once the time for claiming an appeal from the decree on the report of the commissioners on an insolvent estate has run, the probate court decrees distribution of the estate among the creditors whose claims are allowed. Where an appeal is claimed or a suit is pending against the estate, the court may suspend the decree until that is determined, or order a distribution among the allowed creditors while leaving in the fiduciary's hands an amount sufficient to pay the pending claimants a proportion equal to that of the other creditors. If further assets reach the fiduciary after the decree, the court makes further decrees of distribution from time to time.

The commissioners in that sentence no longer exist. Sections 33-11-25 through 33-11-27 are repealed, by P.L. 2000, ch. 427, § 3, effective July 20, 2000, and the same public law amended § 33-11-24 into the form that has the probate court itself hear the claims and set the priority of payment. The wording in § 33-12-12 survived the repeal of the sections it points at. Read the decree step against § 33-11-24 and § 33-11-23, which describe who decides today.

Where the State Medicaid Claim Sits

Rhode Island writes no separate priority ladder for Medicaid, so the question runs through two statutes rather than one. Section 40-8-15(c) makes the amount of reimbursement for Medicaid benefits a debt to the state from the person or entity liable to pay it, and § 33-12-11(a)(4) is the class for debts due to this state.

Three other parts of § 40-8-15 matter more to the money than the ranking does. Subsection (a)(1) makes the total sum paid on behalf of a beneficiary who was 55 or older a lien on the estate in favor of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and it says the lien does not attach against the estate of a beneficiary survived by a spouse, by a child under 21, or by a child who is blind or permanently and totally disabled. Subsection (e) makes the lien effective against real property only once a statement of claim naming the debtor and owner of record is recorded in the land evidence records of the city or town where the property sits, describing the property by tax assessor's plat and lot and street address. Subsection (g) is the one that stops an administration: on filing a petition to admit a will or for administration where the decedent was 55 or older, a copy of the petition and a copy of the death certificate go to the office, and where a petitioner skips that and recoverable benefits were paid, no distribution or payment, including administration fees, may be disbursed. Anyone who received a distribution is liable to the office to the extent of it.

A Nonresident Decedent Changes the Arithmetic

Rhode Island keeps a preference most executors never encounter. Section 33-12-15 says that where a person dies insolvent, the estate found in Rhode Island is disposed of as far as practicable so that all creditors here and elsewhere receive an equal share in proportion to their respective debts. To reach that result, the estate is not transmitted to the foreign executor or administrator until every creditor who is a citizen of Rhode Island, filing and proving claims according to law, has received the just proportion that would be due if the whole estate wherever found were divided among all creditors in proportion to their debts, without preferring any one species of debt to another except those preferred by Rhode Island statute. No creditor who is not a citizen of the state is paid out of the assets found here until the citizens have received that proportion.

Section 33-12-16 handles the residue. Anything left after the Rhode Island citizens are paid may go to creditors who duly filed and proved their debts here, in proportion to what each is owed, with no one taking more than a ratable share of the whole estate. The balance may be transmitted to the foreign executor or administrator, and where there is none, it is distributed ratably among all creditors who proved their debts in Rhode Island after four years from the qualification of the Rhode Island administrator. Section 33-12-13 covers what happens to the rest of a nonresident's Rhode Island estate after the debts are paid: real estate descends under Rhode Island law and personal estate is distributed under the law of the state or country where the decedent lived.

Where a Rhode Island Fiduciary's Own Money Is Exposed

Section 33-11-19(c) is the trap, and it names the two ways to fall in. A personal representative may pay any just claim that has not been barred at any time, with or without formal presentation. Doing that creates personal liability to another claimant whose claim is allowed and who is injured by the payment in two situations: the payment went out within the claim period and the fiduciary failed to require the payee to indemnify the estate for a refund needed to pay other claimants, or the payment was made, through negligence or willful fault of the fiduciary, in a manner that deprived the injured claimant of priority. Paying the creditor who called the most is the exact behavior the subsection punishes, and the executor's duty to pay debts runs through this section.

The fiduciary's own claim goes to the court. Section 33-11-8 has the probate court examine and determine a claim the personal representative held against the decedent in the decedent's lifetime. A co-executor or co-administrator may represent the estate at that hearing if the court permits, and otherwise the court may appoint a disinterested person to stand in for the estate. Reimbursement for a funeral the fiduciary paid for is still a claim, and it runs through the same review.

One outer limit closes the file. Under § 33-11-50, no personal representative answers a creditor's suit, except a suit on the fiduciary's bond or as otherwise provided, unless the suit is commenced within two years from the date of the first publication and before any order of distribution has been made.

Seven Things the Rhode Island Order Decides

  1. Administration charges are subtracted, never ranked. Section 33-12-11(a) deducts them before class 1 exists, so a Rhode Island estate does not pay probate fees "first" in the ranking sense.
  2. Funeral charges lead the nine classes, and the last sickness follows, both ahead of debts due the United States.
  3. Child support sits at class 5, above wages, above the lottery, and above every general creditor, because § 33-11-51 says the obligation survives the death.
  4. Timeliness is written into the ladder. Class 8 is general debt filed inside the six months. Class 9 is everything else.
  5. The family share leaves the estate. Section 33-10-2 takes allowed property out of the fiduciary's hands even though it was inventoried, so it never reaches the ranking.
  6. Personal property pays before real estate, and undevised real estate is reached before devised real estate.
  7. Distribution is the last step. Property handed to heirs before the debts are resolved is the most common route to a fiduciary paying a creditor out of pocket.

A small estate does not escape the ladder. Section 33-24-1(e) has a voluntary administrator first discharge the necessary funeral and last sickness expenses and the necessary expenses of administration, without a fee for that service, then pay the debts of the deceased in the order specified in § 33-12-11, and only then distribute the balance. Subsection (f) makes that administrator liable as an executor in his or her own wrong to everyone aggrieved by the administration.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the order of paying debts in a Rhode Island estate?

R.I. Gen. Laws § 33-12-11(a) sets nine classes, applied after the charges of administration and any property set off and allowed to the widow and family are deducted. In order: (1) necessary funeral charges; (2) necessary expenses of the last sickness; (3) debts due to the United States; (4) debts due to Rhode Island and all state and town taxes; (5) past and future child support obligations under § 33-11-51; (6) wages of labor performed within six months before the death, capped at $1,000 to any one person; (7) proceeds due the Rhode Island state lottery under § 42-61-6.2; (8) other debts filed within six months of the first notice; and (9) all other debts.

Do administration expenses rank first in a Rhode Island estate?

They do not rank at all. Section 33-12-11(a) deducts the charges of administration before the nine classes are applied, so administration costs are subtracted rather than ranked. Necessary funeral charges lead the nine classes that follow. Section 33-12-1 makes the estate chargeable with those administration expenses, and § 33-12-3 folds in the expenses of dividing and assigning real estate and of appointing guardians for minors and others who cannot look after their own interests.

How does a Rhode Island estate get declared insolvent?

The personal representative represents the estate insolvent to the Probate Court for the decedent's city or town. Under § 33-11-24 the fiduciary may do that at any time during administration and ask the court to examine and determine the claims. If the court finds the estate probably insolvent, it hears and determines all disallowed claims and the priority of payment among all presented claims. Section 33-11-28 then has the court advertise notice of its hearings once a week for two successive weeks and give creditors whose claims are disallowed at least seven days written notice.

What happens to a late claim in the Rhode Island order of preference?

Section 33-12-11(a) separates class 8 from class 9 on one fact, whether the debt was filed within six months of the first notice. Class 8 covers other debts filed inside that window and class 9 covers all other debts, so a general debt that arrives outside the six months does not share with the timely ones. Section 33-11-5(b) adds a second limit: a claim allowed out of time is paid only from the assets still in the personal representative's hands when notice of the late-claim petition was received.

Where does the state Medicaid claim sit in a Rhode Island estate?

Rhode Island writes no separate priority ladder for Medicaid the way some states do. Section 40-8-15(c) makes the reimbursement amount a debt to the state, and § 33-12-11(a)(4) covers debts due to this state. Two other parts of § 40-8-15 do more work than the ranking: subsection (e) makes the lien effective against real property only once a statement of claim is recorded in the land evidence records, and subsection (g) blocks every distribution and every administration fee where the petitioner never sent the probate petition and death certificate to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

What does a Rhode Island family keep when the estate cannot pay its debts?

Section 33-10-1 gives the surviving spouse and minor children their wearing apparel and entitles the surviving spouse to the furniture, furnishings, household effects, supplies and other exempt personal property the probate court deems necessary. Section 33-10-2 then takes that property out of the calculation, because property the court allows to the spouse or family, although inventoried, is not assets in the hands of the personal representative. Section 33-10-3 adds a reasonable support allowance for a period not exceeding six months from the date of death, with a possible second six-month period.

Related Guides

Claims that are large, disputed, or close to the line are the ones a licensed Rhode Island attorney reviews before a fiduciary pays or rejects them. Under R.I. Gen. Laws § 8-9-9 the Probate Court for the city or town where the decedent lived is the court that answers procedural questions about your case. Start at the Rhode Island probate hub for the rest of the series.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Information current as of August 2, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Rhode Island can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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