Utah Probate Deadlines | Settled Estate

Utah probate deadlines hang off three events: the decedent's death, the appointment of the personal representative, and the first publication of a notice to creditors. Three months bars claims after a published notice, one year is the outer bar on claims that arose before the death, three months from the appointment is the inventory, and three years after the death is the last day to open the case at all.

One date printed on most deadline lists does not exist in Utah. Nothing in Utah law sets a number of days to get the will to the courthouse. Utah Code 75-2-902 asks the person holding the will to deliver it with reasonable promptness after the death and on the request of an interested person, and Part 9 of Title 75 Chapter 2 contains that single section. This page 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 a licensed Utah attorney.

Every Utah Probate Deadline in One Table

Duty or right	Deadline	Runs from	Utah Code
Collect personal property by affidavit	30 days	the death	75-3-1201(1)(b)
Registrar may appoint informally	10 days, or 120 hours where everyone entitled to notice has waived it in writing	the clerk's notice, or the death	75-3-307(1)
Registrar appoints where the decedent was a nonresident	30 days	the death	75-3-307(1)
Court notifies State Debt Collection and Recovery Services	30 days	filing of the application or petition	75-3-104.5
Inventory prepared	3 months	the appointment	75-3-705
Claims barred by a published notice	3 months	the first publication	75-3-801(1)(a)
Claim barred by a mailed notice	90 days, or 60 days from the mailing, whichever is later	the published notice, or the mailing	75-3-801(2)
Bond given after a written demand	30 days	receipt of the notice	75-3-605
Claimant challenges a disallowed claim	60 days	mailing of the disallowance	75-3-806(1)
Silence by the personal representative allows a claim	60 days	expiry of the time for original presentation	75-3-806(1)
Allowed claims begin to bear interest	6 months	the death	75-3-806(4)
Estate reaches property that passed by a transfer on death deed	12 months	the death	75-6-415(3)
Federal estate tax return, where one is required	9 months	the death	26 U.S.C. 6075(a)
Surviving spouse petitions for the elective share	9 months, or 6 months after the will is probated, whichever expires later	the death, or probate of the will	75-2-211(1)
Earliest sworn closing statement	4 months	the original appointment	75-3-1003(1)
An interested person other than the personal representative petitions for complete settlement	1 year	the original appointment	75-3-1001(1)
Outer bar on claims that arose before the death	1 year	the death	75-3-803(1)(a)
Suit against the personal representative for breach of fiduciary duty	6 months	filing of the closing statement	75-3-1005
Appointment terminates where nothing is pending	1 year	filing of the closing statement	75-3-1003(2)
Contest of an informally probated will	12 months, or 3 years from the death, whichever is later	the informal probate	75-3-107(1)(c)
Open an informal probate or a formal testacy proceeding	3 years	the death	75-3-107(1)
Recover from someone who already received a distribution	1 year for a creditor of the decedent, and for anyone else the later of 3 years or 1 year after the distribution	the death, or the distribution	75-3-1006(1)

Each group below explains the rows that share a starting event. How long a Utah estate takes covers the durations these dates add up to.

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The Dates That Start at the Death

Thirty days for the small estate affidavit. Utah Code 75-3-1201(1) lets a successor collect personal property 30 days after the death by presenting an affidavit stating that the entire estate subject to administration, wherever located and less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $100,000, that 30 days have passed, that no application or petition for appointment of a personal representative is pending or granted in any jurisdiction, and that the successor is entitled to the property. The Utah small estate affidavit covers who signs it and what it reaches.

Six months before interest starts. Under 75-3-806(4), allowed claims bear interest at the legal rate for the period beginning six months after the date of death, unless a contract sets its own rate. A slow estate pays for the delay.

Twelve months on the decedent's own lawsuits. Utah Code 75-3-108 says a limitation period running on a cause of action that belonged to the decedent, and that had not already expired at the death, cannot bar that action sooner than 12 months after the death. A claim that would otherwise have run out inside those 12 months is barred at the 12-month mark unless something tolls it.

Twelve months on property that passed by a transfer on death deed. Where the probate estate cannot cover an allowed claim or a statutory allowance to a surviving spouse or child, Utah Code 75-6-415(1) lets the estate, and only the estate, enforce that shortfall against property a transfer on death deed moved at the death. Subsection (2) spreads the liability across several deeded properties in proportion to their net values, subsection (4) lets the estate waive the claim, and subsection (3) requires the probate proceeding to enforce it to be commenced no later than 12 months after the transferor's death. Deadline lists built from Title 75 Chapter 3 alone miss this one, because it sits in the Chapter 6 nonprobate transfer rules. The 12-month claw-back on TOD property covers how the deed itself is recorded and revoked.

One year as the outer creditor bar. Utah Code 75-3-803(1) bars claims that arose before the death unless presented within the earlier of one year after the death or the window opened by 75-3-801. Read the word "earlier" closely. Publishing a notice pulls the bar forward from twelve months to about three, and it never pushes the one-year date back.

Three years to open the estate. Utah Code 75-3-107(1) blocks an informal probate proceeding or a formal testacy proceeding commenced more than three years after the death, other than a proceeding to probate a will already probated at the testator's domicile. After three years with no will probated, 75-3-107(3) makes the presumption of intestacy final on a proper petition. The court keeps jurisdiction under 75-3-107(4) to decide what the decedent owned and to appoint a representative, while shutting out the homestead allowance, exempt property, the family allowance, a support allowance, the elective share and every claim other than expenses of administration. Late probate turns into a title-clearing exercise. Who inherits when there is no will sets out the shares that then apply.

The Dates That Start at the Appointment

Three months for the inventory. Utah Code 75-3-705 gives the personal representative three months after the appointment to prepare an inventory listing the property the decedent owned at death, with each item's fair market value as of the date of death and the type and amount of any encumbrance. The copy goes to interested persons who request one. Filing the original with the court is optional in Utah, which means an empty docket proves nothing about whether the duty was done. What a Utah personal representative has to do covers the rest of the office.

Thirty days on a bond demand. Where bond is excused under 75-3-603, a person with an apparent interest in the estate worth more than $5,000, or an unsecured creditor with a claim above $5,000, may file a written demand with the registrar under 75-3-605. Bond then becomes a requirement. From the moment the personal representative receives notice until the bond is filed, that representative has to refrain from exercising the powers of the office except as needed to preserve the estate, and failing to give suitable bond within 30 days is cause for removal.

Four months before the estate can close on paper. Utah Code 75-3-1003(1) allows a sworn closing statement no earlier than four months after the date of the original appointment of a general personal representative. The statement has to say the time for presenting creditors' claims has expired, so an estate that never published cannot honestly file it until the one-year bar in 75-3-803(1)(a) has run.

One year before another interested person can force a settlement. Under 75-3-1001(1) the personal representative may petition for an order of complete settlement at any time, while any other interested person waits one year from the appointment of the original personal representative. No petition under that section is entertained until the time for presenting claims that arose before the death has expired.

Thirty days for a notice the court sends. Utah Code 75-3-104.5 requires the court, within 30 days after an application or petition for probate is filed, to notify the Office of State Debt Collection where the decedent was at least 18, and the Office of Recovery Services where the decedent was at least 55. Nobody has to contact the state for a Medicaid recovery claim to reach the file.

The Creditor Dates Start at Publication or at the Mailbox

Publishing a notice to creditors is optional in Utah. Utah Code 75-3-801(1)(a) says the personal representative may publish a notice announcing the appointment and telling creditors to present claims within three months after the date of first publication. Subsection (1)(b) sets the mechanics: once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, and in accordance with Section 45-1-101 for three weeks.

Written notice runs on its own pair of numbers. Under 75-3-801(2) the personal representative may mail or deliver a notice to a particular creditor, who then has the later of 90 days from the published notice or 60 days from the mailing or delivery.

Two more 60-day rules sit inside 75-3-806(1), and they cut in opposite directions. A claimant whose claim is disallowed has 60 days after the disallowance notice was mailed to file a petition for allowance or start a proceeding, provided the notice warned of the coming bar. A personal representative who fails to mail notice of action on a claim within 60 days after the time for original presentation has expired is treated as having allowed it. When Utah creditor claims expire works through presenting, allowing and paying a claim.

The Surviving Spouse's Dates

The elective share carries the deadline that estates miss most often, and it is a floor rather than a ceiling. Utah Code 75-2-211(1) requires the petition to be filed in the court and mailed or delivered to the personal representative within nine months after the death, or within six months after the will is probated, whichever limitation expires later. One catch sits in the same subsection: where the petition arrives more than nine months after the death, the decedent's nonprobate transfers to others drop out of the augmented estate the share is measured against. Under 75-2-211(2) the spouse may petition inside the nine months for an extension, and where the court grants it those transfers stay in. The spouse may withdraw the demand at any time before the court makes a final determination, under 75-2-211(3). Electing against the will covers what a Utah spouse can claim once that petition is in.

The allowances work differently, and no statute puts a countdown on claiming them. The homestead allowance (75-2-402), exempt property (75-2-403) and the family allowance (75-2-404) arrive as entitlements, and no clerk date-stamps them. Utah Code 75-2-405(1) lets the surviving spouse, the adult children or the guardians of minor children select property as homestead allowance and exempt property, and lets the personal representative make the selection where they are unable to do so or fail to do so within a reasonable time. Two dated limits do exist. The family allowance may not continue longer than one year where the estate is inadequate to discharge allowed claims, under 75-2-404(1), and the personal representative may set a family allowance covering one year without going to the court, under 75-2-405(1).

The dollar figures printed in those sections are the amounts for a decedent who died in 2010. Utah Code 75-1-110 indexes the amounts in 75-2-102, 75-2-202(2), 75-2-402, 75-2-403 and 75-2-405 to the Consumer Price Index by the year of the decedent's death, and 75-1-110(3) requires the Administrative Office of the Courts to publish a cumulative list before February 1 each year. That published table, headed "Estate Consumer Price Index" on the Utah Courts site, is the figure to use. Reading the amount off the face of the statute understates it by fifteen years of inflation.

What Utah Puts No Deadline On

Delivering the will. Utah Code 75-2-902 asks for reasonable promptness after the death, on the request of an interested person. A custodian who wilfully fails to deliver is liable to an aggrieved person for damages, and one who refuses after a court order faces contempt, so the duty has teeth without having a date. Part 9 of Title 75 Chapter 2 holds that one section, so Utah has no lifetime will-deposit procedure either. What makes a Utah will valid covers execution and self-proving.
Publishing notice to creditors. Utah Code 75-3-801(1)(a) says "may". The trade is a longer estate, because 75-3-803(1)(a) then keeps the one-year bar standing.
Filing the inventory. Utah Code 75-3-705 says the personal representative may file the original with the court, so no date attaches to a filing the statute leaves optional.
A Utah death-tax return. Utah levies no estate tax and no inheritance tax, so nothing state-level is due on any schedule. The estate still files the decedent's final income tax returns and a Utah fiduciary return for any year the estate has income.

The Federal Return at Nine Months

The one federal date that reaches a Utah estate is the estate tax return. Under 26 U.S.C. 6075(a), a return made under section 6018(a) is filed within nine months after the date of the decedent's death. Only estates above the federal exclusion amount for the year of death have to file at all, and that figure moves, so check the year rather than carrying a number over from an earlier estate.

Form 4768 gives an automatic six-month extension of time to file Form 706. An extension of time to pay is a separate request under section 6161, made in Part III of the same form, so an estate that extends the filing date can still owe the tax on the original nine-month date. Ways Utah families keep assets out of probate covers the transfers that never enter the estate in the first place.

The Dates That Outlive the Estate

Filing the closing statement does not end everyone's exposure at once. Three separate clocks keep running.

Six months on the personal representative. Utah Code 75-3-1005 bars claims by successors and by creditors whose claims are not otherwise barred against the personal representative for breach of fiduciary duty six months after the closing statement is filed. Fraud, misrepresentation and inadequate disclosure about the settlement of the estate stay outside that bar.
One year on the office itself. Under 75-3-1003(2), where no proceeding involving the personal representative is pending in the court one year after the closing statement is filed, the appointment terminates. Closing the estate and ending the office are separate events set a year apart.
One year, or three, on the people who received property. Utah Code 75-3-1006(1) bars recovery from a distributee at one year after the death for a creditor of the decedent, and for any other claimant, heir or devisee at the later of three years after the death or one year after the distribution. An action to recover property received as the result of fraud sits outside all of it under 75-3-1006(2).

A will contest has its own window. Under 75-3-107(1)(c), a proceeding to contest an informally probated will and to secure appointment of the person with legal priority may be commenced within the later of 12 months from the informal probate or three years from the death. That is why an informal probate does not put a will beyond challenge on the day the registrar signs. How Utah probate works start to finish walks the proceeding those dates belong to.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the deadline to open probate in Utah?

Three years after the death. Utah Code 75-3-107(1) blocks an informal probate proceeding or a formal testacy proceeding commenced later than that, apart from a proceeding to probate a will already probated at the testator's domicile. Two exceptions survive: a case dismissed because the fact of death was in doubt, and the estate of an absent or missing person who had a conservator, which gets three years from the point the conservator can establish the death. After three years with no will probated, 75-3-107(3) makes the presumption of intestacy final on a proper petition.

How long do creditors have to file a claim against a Utah estate?

Three months from the date of the first published notice under Utah Code 75-3-801(1)(a), and for a creditor who gets a written notice, the later of 90 days from the published notice or 60 days from the mailing under 75-3-801(2). Utah Code 75-3-803(1) then bars a claim that arose before the death at the earlier of one year after the death or those windows. Publishing is optional in Utah, and skipping it leaves the one-year date as the only bar.

Is there a deadline to file a will with the court in Utah?

Utah sets no fixed number of days. Utah Code 75-2-902 asks a person holding the will to deliver it with reasonable promptness after the death, on the request of an interested person, and Part 9 of Title 75 Chapter 2 contains that one section and nothing else. A custodian who wilfully fails to deliver is liable to an aggrieved person for damages, and one who refuses after a court order faces contempt. A ten-day or thirty-day lodging rule copied in from another state is a date Utah never set.

When is the inventory due in a Utah probate?

Within three months after the appointment. Utah Code 75-3-705 requires the personal representative to prepare an inventory of the property the decedent owned at death, in reasonable detail, with each item's fair market value as of the date of death and any encumbrance on it. A special administrator is excused, and so is a successor whose predecessor already did it. The personal representative sends a copy to interested persons who request one and may file the original with the court, so filing it is optional.

How long does a surviving spouse have to claim the elective share in Utah?

Nine months after the death, or six months after the will is probated, whichever limitation expires later, under Utah Code 75-2-211(1). The petition is filed in the court and mailed or delivered to the personal representative. Filing more than nine months after the death leaves the decedent's nonprobate transfers to others out of the augmented estate, so the later date does not preserve everything. Under 75-2-211(2) the spouse may petition for an extension inside the nine months.

When is the federal estate tax return due after a Utah death?

Nine months after the date of death, under 26 U.S.C. 6075(a). Form 4768 buys an automatic six-month extension of time to file, and an extension of time to pay is a separate request under section 6161, so the money can still be due on the original date. Utah imposes no estate tax and no inheritance tax, so there is no state death-tax return waiting behind that one.

Sources:

Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-107, Probate and testacy proceedings -- Ultimate time limit -- Presumption and order of intestacy. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/8/2018, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S107_2018050820180508.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-104.5, Notice to state agencies. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/7/2025, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S104.5_2025050720250507.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-307, Informal appointment proceedings -- Delay in order -- Duty of registrar -- Effect of appointment. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S307_1800010118000101.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-605, Demand for bond by interested person. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S605_1800010118000101.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 75-3-801, Notice to creditors. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S801_1800010118000101.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-803, Limitations on presentation of claims. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/7/2025, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S803_2025050720250507.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-806, Allowance of claims. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S806_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 75-3-1006, Limitations on actions and proceedings against distributees. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S1006_1800010118000101.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-3-1201, Collection of personal property by affidavit -- Vehicles -- Water shares excluded. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/7/2025, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter3/C75-3-S1201_2025050720250507.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-2-211, Proceeding for elective share -- Time limit. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter2/C75-2-S211_1800010118000101.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-2-404, Family allowance. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter2/C75-2-S404_1800010118000101.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-2-405, Source, determination, and documentation. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter2/C75-2-S405_1800010118000101.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-6-415, Liability for creditor claims and statutory allowances. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/8/2018, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter6/C75-6-S415_2018050820180508.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-2-902, Duty of custodian of will -- Liability. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Effective 5/9/2017, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter2/C75-2-S902_2017050920170509.html
Title: Utah Code Section 75-1-110, Cost of living adjustment of certain dollar amounts. Publisher: Utah State Legislature. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter1/C75-1-S110_1800010118000101.html
Title: Estate Consumer Price Index. Publisher: Utah State Courts, Administrative Office of the Courts. Publication Date: Updated 2026-01-15, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://www.utcourts.gov/en/about/miscellaneous/legal-community/price.html
Title: 26 U.S.C. 6075, Time for filing estate and gift tax returns. Publisher: Office of the Law Revision Counsel, United States House of Representatives. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title26-section6075&num=0&edition=prelim
Title: About Form 4768, Application for Extension of Time To File a Return and/or Pay U.S. Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Taxes. Publisher: Internal Revenue Service. Publication Date: Not listed, accessed 2026-08-28. URL: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-4768

It is not legal advice.