Utah Probate Accounting

Utah gives a personal representative three months to prepare an inventory, and no duty to file it. Utah Code 75-3-705 sets the deadline, requires a fair market value as of the date of death for every item, and says you send a copy to interested persons who request it. Filing the original with the court is something you may do, not something you must.

The account itself comes later, at closing, and it goes to the people who inherit rather than to a judge in most Utah estates. Every Utah probate is heard in the district court of the county where the decedent lived, in all 29 counties, so there is no separate probate court with its own accounting rules to track down. Use this page beside the inventory and closing dates and the full duties list. This is general information about Utah law rather than advice about one estate, so confirm your own dates with the district court holding the file or with a licensed Utah attorney.

The Inventory Is Due Three Months After Appointment

Utah Code 75-3-705 asks for four things about each item of property the decedent owned at death: the item, listed in reasonable detail, its fair market value as of the date of death, and the type and amount of any encumbrance on it. A house appears at its date-of-death value with the mortgage named and quantified beside it, not at what is left after the mortgage.

Two people are excused. A special administrator does not owe the inventory. Neither does a successor representative whose predecessor already discharged the duty. Everyone else appointed as a general personal representative owes it inside three months, counted from appointment rather than from the death.

Date of death is the measuring day for the whole list. Later movement in a bank balance or a share price belongs in the account of receipts and disbursements, not in a rewritten inventory.

Filing the Inventory With the Court Is Optional in Utah

This is the sentence most out-of-state checklists get wrong. Utah Code 75-3-705 says the personal representative shall send a copy of the inventory to interested persons who request it, and may also file the original with the court. Sending on request is the duty. Filing is a choice.

There is a reason to make that choice deliberately rather than by default. Filing puts every value in the public court file. Sending on request keeps the numbers with the family and the creditors who ask. Utah Code 75-3-707 also ties the two together: a supplementary inventory goes to the court if the original was filed, and otherwise goes to the people interested in the new information. The route you pick at the start decides how corrections travel later.

Read this alongside the full duties list, because the inventory is the document the rest of the administration is measured against.

Appraisers, and Where Their Names Go

Utah Code 75-3-706 lets the personal representative employ a qualified and disinterested appraiser for any asset whose value is open to reasonable doubt. Different people may appraise different kinds of assets, so a real estate appraiser and a firearms or livestock appraiser can both work the same estate.

One detail of that section is easy to skip and easy to be caught on. The names and addresses of any appraiser go on the inventory, next to the items that person appraised. The inventory is meant to show its own sourcing.

Utah sets no appraisal fee, no court-approved rate, and no requirement to appraise at all. Judgment about which assets are genuinely doubtful is left with the representative.

When Something Turns Up Later

A forgotten annuity, a mineral interest, a valuation that was simply wrong. Utah Code 75-3-707 covers each of them. If property not in the original inventory comes to your knowledge, or you learn that a value or a description in the original is erroneous or misleading, you prepare a supplementary inventory or appraisement showing the date-of-death market value of the new item, or the revised value or description, along with the appraisers or other data you relied on.

Then it travels the same road the original took: filed with the court if the original was filed, or furnished to the persons interested in the new information.

The Standard Utah Holds You To

Utah Code 75-3-703(1)(a) makes the personal representative a fiduciary who observes the standard of care that applies to trustees under Section 75B-2-902. That cross-reference changed in 2025, when Chapter 310 of the General Session renumbered and amended the trustee standard, so an older Utah article may point at a section number that has moved. Section 75B-2-902 is the prudent investor rule: invest and manage the assets as a prudent investor would, considering the purposes, terms, distribution requirements and other circumstances, with reasonable care, skill and caution.

Two more sections set the frame around the account. Utah Code 75-3-703(1)(b) requires you to settle and distribute as expeditiously and efficiently as is consistent with the best interests of the estate. Utah Code 75-3-711 makes you liable to interested persons for damage or loss from a breach of that duty to the same extent as a trustee of an express trust. Utah Code 75-3-708 adds the housekeeping: take possession or control of the property, pay taxes on it, and take all steps reasonably necessary for its management, protection and preservation.

The account is how you show you did those things. Records are the evidence, and the fiduciary standard is the reason they matter.

What the Account Has to Show

Utah Code 75-3-1003(1)(c) requires a full account in writing of your administration, furnished to the distributees whose interests are affected. Title 75 does not prescribe a form or a line-item layout for it. Four parts satisfy the word full, and Utah estates are commonly built this way:

Beginning value. The inventory total, or the closing balance of the previous account if you are producing more than one.

Receipts. Money and property the estate took in: cash pulled from bank and investment accounts, income earned after the death such as interest, dividends and rent, sale proceeds, insurance paid to the estate, and tax refunds.

Disbursements. Money the estate paid out: funeral and last-illness expenses, allowed creditor claims with the class each fell into, attorney fees and personal representative compensation, publication and appraisal costs, the court fees you paid, taxes, and any partial distribution made along the way.

Distributions and ending balance. What each beneficiary received, and what is still on hand. The account should reconcile, so that everything the estate received is shown as paid out, distributed, or still held.

Write it so a reader who was not there can follow one dollar from the inventory to a named recipient. Line-item detail is cheaper than a dispute.

Unsupervised Estates Answer to the Distributees

Most Utah probates open informally in front of the registrar and run without supervision. Utah Code 75-3-704 tells you what that means day to day: proceed expeditiously with settlement and distribution, and do it without adjudication, order, or direction of the court, though you may invoke the court's jurisdiction to resolve a question when you need to.

So in an ordinary Utah estate there is no periodic accounting filed with a judge. The duty runs to the heirs, devisees and creditors. Utah Code 75-3-310(2) puts them on notice at the front end: the clerk mails written notice of the appointment application to the heirs and devisees who have not waived notice, with the applicant's name, the court, the filing date, and a statement that the appointment will be made after 10 days elapse. From that point they know who is holding the estate, and they can ask for the inventory under 75-3-705.

Supervised Estates Answer to the Judge

Supervised administration is the escalation. Utah Code 75-3-501 makes it a single in rem proceeding under the continuing authority of the court, running until an order approves distribution and discharges the personal representative. A supervised representative is responsible to the court as well as to the interested parties, and is subject to directions the court makes on its own motion or on the motion of any interested party.

The change that bites is in Utah Code 75-3-504(1). A supervised personal representative keeps all the ordinary powers, and may not distribute any part of the estate without a prior order of the court. Distribution stops being your call.

How an estate lands there is set by Utah Code 75-3-502. A will that directs supervised administration gets it, unless the court finds circumstances have changed since the will was signed and supervision is unnecessary. A will that directs unsupervised administration is overridden only on a finding that supervision protects persons interested in the estate. Otherwise the court orders it where it finds supervision necessary under the circumstances. Utah Code 75-3-505 then ends the proceeding by an order on the Section 75-3-1001 timetable, with interim orders available at any point for a partial distribution or other relief.

Closing by Sworn Statement, No Earlier Than Four Months

The ordinary Utah ending is the verified closing statement in Utah Code 75-3-1003(1). You may file it no earlier than four months after the date of original appointment of a general personal representative. Two conditions sit in front of the route: the court can prohibit it by order, and an estate being administered in supervised administration reaches it only where all of the distributees consent in writing.

The statement verifies three things. First, that you determined the time limitation for presenting creditors' claims has expired. Second, that you fully administered the estate by paying, settling or otherwise disposing of all claims presented, the expenses of administration, and estate, inheritance and other death taxes, except as the statement specifies, and that assets went to the persons entitled. If claims are still undischarged, the statement says whether you distributed subject to possible liability with the agreement of the distributees, or details the other arrangements you made. Third, that you sent a copy of the statement to all distributees and to every creditor or claimant you know of whose claim is neither paid nor barred, and furnished the full written account to the distributees whose interests are affected.

After that, Utah Code 75-3-1003(2) does the rest quietly. If no proceeding involving the personal representative is pending in the court one year after the closing statement is filed, the appointment terminates.

Utah Lets Every Distributee Waive the Accounting

The catchline of Utah Code 75-3-1003 ends with the words Waiver of accountings, and subsection (3) delivers them. Any accounting required under Section 75-3-1003, 75-3-1001 or 75-3-1002 may be waived when all of the distributees of the estate consent in writing.

Three things follow. The consent has to be written, so a phone call from a sibling does not count. It has to come from all of the distributees, so one holdout keeps the duty alive for the whole estate. And it reaches the accounting only. The rest of the closing statement stays exactly as 75-3-1003(1) writes it, including the copy that goes to unpaid and unbarred creditors.

Waiving is common in a small family estate where everyone has watched the money move. Where a beneficiary is distant, a minor, represented, or already unhappy, producing the account is the cheaper option even when a waiver is available.

Closing by Court Order Instead

Where you want a binding order, or the estate is supervised or contested, closing runs through Utah Code 75-3-1001. The personal representative may petition for an order of complete settlement at any time. Any other interested person has to wait one year from the appointment of the original personal representative, and no petition under the section can be entertained until the time for presenting pre-death claims has expired.

The petition can ask the court to determine testacy if that has not happened, to consider the final account or to compel or approve an accounting and distribution, to construe the will or determine heirs, and to adjudicate final settlement. After notice to all interested persons and a hearing, the court may determine who is entitled to distribution, approve settlement, direct or approve distribution, and discharge the personal representative from further claim or demand of any interested person.

That discharge is what the extra work buys.

The $15 to $175 Fee Is for an Accounting, Not for Probate

Utah has one number that gets quoted wrongly more than any other, and this page is where it belongs. Utah Code 78A-2-301(1)(r) opens with the words the fee for filing any accounting required by law is, then sets five bands.

The Utah Courts publish the same five bands under the heading Accountings on their own filing fee page, matching the statute digit for digit.

Read what the lead-in says. The ladder prices the act of filing an accounting that some other law requires, which in a decedent's estate is the court-facing route: a supervised administration, or a final account the court considers under Utah Code 75-3-1001. It is not the cost of opening probate. That is the flat $375 in Utah Code 78A-2-301(1)(a), the fee for any civil complaint or petition invoking the jurisdiction of a court of record not governed by another subsection, and it is the same figure in all 29 counties. Anyone quoting $15 as the cost of Utah probate has read the wrong subsection.

Utah Code 78A-2-301(2) closes the set: there is no fee for services or the filing of documents not listed in that section or otherwise provided by law. Utah also publishes a successor version of Section 78A-2-301 effective January 1, 2027, so confirm the figure with the clerk before you pay if you are filing after that date. For complete guidance on probate fees and costs, consult with a Utah probate clerk or attorney, as filing fees vary by county and service type.

Who Can Force an Account, and When

Utah gives an unhappy beneficiary three routes, and all three run through the district court.

Compel the account. Utah Code 75-3-1001(1) lets a petition for complete settlement ask the court to compel or approve an accounting and distribution. Any interested person can bring it one year after the original appointment.

Review the fees. Utah Code 75-3-720 lets the court examine whether it was proper to employ any attorney, auditor, investment advisor or other specialized agent, whether that person's compensation was reasonable, and whether the compensation the representative set for their own services was reasonable. Anyone who received excessive compensation from an estate may be ordered to make a refund.

Object to compensation directly. Utah Code 75-3-718(1) pays a personal representative and an attorney reasonable compensation, and where a petition seeks approval and no interested person objects, reasonable compensation is the amount sought. Once someone objects, the court sets the figure on the quality, quantity and value of the services and the circumstances in which they were rendered, including what other fiduciaries in similar situations do. Utah sets no percentage schedule of any kind. Utah Code 75-3-718(2) requires the petition to reach all interested persons at least 10 days before the hearing, by certified, registered or first class mail, or by hand delivery.

Six Months After Closing, the Window Shuts

Utah Code 75-3-1005 bars the rights of successors, and of creditors whose claims are not otherwise barred, against the personal representative for breach of fiduciary duty unless a proceeding starts within six months after the closing statement is filed.

The exception is the part worth reading twice. Rights to recover for fraud, misrepresentation, or inadequate disclosure related to the settlement of the estate survive that bar. A thin account is the kind of thing that gets argued about later as inadequate disclosure. Disclosing more is how the six-month clock actually protects you.

Records That Hold Up

Open one estate bank account in week one and run every receipt and payment through it. Estate money never touches a personal account.

Value everything as of the date of death and write down where the number came from. A bank letter, a broker statement, an appraisal, a county assessor page. The source is half the record.

Date the file, not just the ledger. When a claim arrived, when you mailed a notice, when you paid, when you distributed. Utah's deadlines are counted from events, and the account is where you prove which day each event happened.

Keep the inventory current. A supplementary inventory under 75-3-707 costs an afternoon. Explaining an asset that appeared from nowhere at closing costs much more.

Write down the hard calls when you make them. Why a claim was disallowed, why an asset was not pursued, why a house sold at that price. A note written the same week reads very differently from an explanation constructed two years later.

Get the waiver in writing if you plan to use it. Utah Code 75-3-1003(3) wants written consent from all distributees, and collecting it before you distribute is far easier than collecting it after.

When to Call a Utah Attorney

Some estates are past the point where a well-kept spreadsheet is enough. Talk to a licensed Utah attorney when a beneficiary has objected to your account or your fee, when the court has ordered supervised administration and you now need an order before every distribution, when the estate is insolvent and the payment order in Utah Code 75-3-805 decides who goes unpaid, when a business interest or mineral or water rights need valuing, or when a distributee will not sign a waiver and will not respond to the account either. The Utah probate guide covers how the case moves through the district court, and Utah probate deadlines collects the dated duties in one place.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the inventory due in a Utah probate?

Within three months after appointment, under Utah Code 75-3-705. The personal representative lists the property the decedent owned at death in reasonable detail, and shows for each item its fair market value as of the date of death plus the type and amount of any encumbrance on it. A special administrator does not owe the inventory, and neither does a successor representative if the representative before them already did it.

Does a Utah personal representative have to file the inventory with the court?

No. Utah Code 75-3-705 says the personal representative shall send a copy of the inventory to interested persons who request it, and may also file the original with the court. Sending is the duty and filing is the option. Utah differs here from states that make the filing mandatory, so an out-of-state checklist will tell you to file something Utah does not ask for.

Can Utah beneficiaries waive the accounting?

Yes, and it is written into the statute. Utah Code 75-3-1003(3) says any accounting required under Section 75-3-1003, 75-3-1001 or 75-3-1002 may be waived when all of the distributees of the estate consent in writing. The word is all. One distributee who does not sign keeps the accounting duty alive for the whole estate, and the waiver covers the accounting rather than the rest of the closing statement.

How soon can a Utah estate be closed?

No earlier than four months after the date of original appointment of a general personal representative, under Utah Code 75-3-1003(1). That is a floor and not a schedule. The same subsection makes you state that the time limitation for presenting creditors' claims has expired, so an estate that never published a notice to creditors waits out the one-year bar before the statement can honestly be signed.

What does the $15 to $175 Utah accounting fee cover?

Filing an accounting, and nothing else. Utah Code 78A-2-301(1)(r) opens with the words the fee for filing any accounting required by law is, then sets five bands by estate value: $15 at $50,000 or less, $30 above $50,000 through $75,000, $50 above $75,000 through $112,000, $90 above $112,000 through $168,000, and $175 above $168,000. It is not the price of probate. Opening a Utah probate costs the flat $375 in 78A-2-301(1)(a).

What happens if the personal representative never accounts?

An interested person can take it to the district court. Utah Code 75-3-1001(1) lets the court compel or approve an accounting on a petition for complete settlement, and any interested person may petition one year after the original appointment. Utah Code 75-3-720 lets the court review what the personal representative paid an attorney, auditor or investment advisor and what the representative set for their own services, and order a refund of excessive compensation.

How long can a beneficiary sue a Utah personal representative after closing?

Six months. Utah Code 75-3-1005 bars claims of successors and unbarred creditors against the personal representative for breach of fiduciary duty unless a proceeding starts within six months after the closing statement is filed. Fraud, misrepresentation and inadequate disclosure related to the settlement of the estate stay outside that bar, which is the practical reason to disclose fully rather than thinly.

Related Guides

• Utah Executor Duties
• Utah Probate Deadlines
• Utah Probate Guide
• Utah Probate Timeline
• Utah Creditor Claims
• Utah Letters Testamentary
• Utah Probate Courts by County

Sources:

• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-703, General duties -- Relation and liability to persons interested in estate -- Standing to sue. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/7/2025, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S703_2025050720250507.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-704, Personal representative to proceed without court order -- Exception. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/7/2025, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S704_2025050720250507.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-705, Duty of personal representative -- Inventory and appraisement. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S705_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-706, Employment of appraisers. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S706_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-707, Duty of personal representative -- Supplementary inventory. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S707_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-708, Duty of personal representative -- Possession of estate. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S708_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-711, Improper exercise of power -- Breach of fiduciary duty. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S711_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-718, Compensation of personal representative and attorney. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S718_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-720, Proceedings for review of employment of agents and compensation of personal representatives and employees of estate. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S720_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-501, Nature of proceeding. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S501_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-502, Petition -- Order. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S502_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-504, Powers of personal representative. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/7/2025, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S504_2025050720250507.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-505, Interim orders -- Distribution and closing orders. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S505_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-1001, Formal proceedings terminating administration -- Testate or intestate -- Order of general protection. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S1001_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-1003, Closing estates -- By sworn statement of personal representative -- Waiver of accountings. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S1003_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-1005, Limitations on proceedings against personal representative. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S1005_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-310, Informal appointment proceedings -- Notice requirements. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S310_1800010118000101.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-805, Classification of claims. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/3/2023, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S805_2023050320230503.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 75B-2-902, Standard of care -- Portfolio strategy -- Risk and return objectives. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/7/2025, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75B/Chapter2/C75B-2-S902_2025050720250507.html
• Title: Utah Code Section 78A-2-301, Civil fees of the courts of record -- Courts complex design. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/6/2026, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title78A/Chapter2/C78A-2-S301_2026050620260506.html
• Title: Filing/Record Fees (Court Filing, Transcript, and Record Fees). Publisher: Utah State Courts, Administrative Office of the Courts. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://www.utcourts.gov/en/self-help/legal-help/procedures/fees.html
• Title: Informal Probate, Utah Courts self-help. Publisher: Utah State Courts, Administrative Office of the Courts. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://www.utcourts.gov/en/self-help/case-categories/probate/informal-probate.html

It is not legal advice.