Utah Probate Guide

Utah probate filing fees vary by county and type of administration. Typical costs include the court filing fee plus certified copy fees, publication notice fees where notice is required, and potential bond premiums. Use our free Utah fee calculator for county-specific estimates.

Utah probate timelines vary by route. An uncontested informal administration usually runs 6 to 12 months, and a formal testacy proceeding usually runs 9 to 18 months. The small estate affidavit under Utah Code 75-3-1201 usually finishes in 1 to 2 months and cannot be used at all until 30 days after the death. The summary administrative procedure under 75-3-1203 usually runs 4 to 8 months, faster than an ordinary administration because it lets the personal representative distribute without giving notice to creditors at all. Utah fixes a FLOOR rather than a ceiling on a full administration: a sworn closing statement may not be filed earlier than four months after the personal representative was appointed (75-3-1003(1)). The creditor clock is the fact most national guidance gets wrong for Utah, because publication is PERMISSIVE. Section 75-3-801(1)(a) says the personal representative MAY publish a notice to creditors, and 75-3-801(3) says the representative is not liable to any creditor or successor for giving or failing to give it. Publishing is what buys the short bar: creditors then have three months from the first publication, and a creditor given written notice by mail gets the later of 90 days from the published notice and 60 days from the mailing. Independently, 75-3-803(1) bars claims arising before the death unless presented within the EARLIER of one year after the death and the 75-3-801 periods, so one year after death is the outer limit and publishing shortens it rather than extending it. Two other dates shape the front of the case: the registrar acts on an informal application 10 days after the clerk mails notice to the heirs and devisees, and an inventory is due within three months of appointment (75-3-705), which Utah lets the personal representative send to interested persons who ask rather than file with the court. Probate generally may not be commenced more than three years after the death (75-3-107(1)).

Utah requires no attorney for any probate route. Utah Code 78A-9-103(9) protects the right to represent yourself, and nothing in Title 75 conditions an informal appointment on having counsel. Utah is one of the more manageable states to handle alone: the registrar grants an informal appointment on an application without a hearing, the Utah State Courts publish a fifteen-form self-help packet for it, and one statewide Self-Help Center serves every district rather than leaving it to each court. Two boundaries are worth knowing before deciding. The Self-Help Center's own words are that its attorney is not your lawyer, so it explains procedure and helps with forms and cannot tell you what to do. And Utah licenses Licensed Paralegal Practitioners, but the subject-matter list in Supreme Court Rules of Professional Practice Rule 4-802(c) is closed and does not include probate, so an LPP cannot take a Utah estate case. Five situations change the answer. The informal track ends the moment anyone files a written objection: the case becomes a formal proceeding and the courts say in their own words that it is then past what their self-help pages can carry. A will contest, a dispute about capacity or undue influence, or a request for supervised administration all belong in front of a judge, and Utah Code 75-3-504(1) forbids a supervised personal representative from making any distribution without a prior court order, which is a personal liability problem rather than a paperwork one. A surviving spouse thinking about the elective share faces a deadline with a trap inside it: filing more than nine months after the death keeps the right to elect and drops the decedent's nonprobate transfers out of the pool unless an extension was petitioned for inside the nine months. And where the estate cannot pay everything it owes, Utah Code 75-3-805 puts reasonable funeral expenses AHEAD of the costs and expenses of administration, which inverts the order most national guidance repeats, and a personal representative who pays a lower class while a higher class goes unpaid answers for the difference. Utah sets no percentage for a personal representative or an estate attorney: 75-3-718 allows reasonable compensation, and an unopposed petition fixes the reasonable amount at what the petition asks for.

No. This map shows state-level source links from Settled data. Use it with the Utah county page and the county office handling the estate before filing.

Start with the official court, form, or agency source for the task, then confirm local requirements with the county filing office, clerk, register, or office that accepts the filing.

No. The map is source navigation. It helps families find current public sources, but it does not decide eligibility, prepare filings, or replace advice from counsel.