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Washington Debt Payment Priority
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Washington Debt Payment Priority

RCW 11.76.110 ranks a Washington estate's debts in six classes. A 2024 rewrite cut three classes the old ladder had and moved the family award into fifth.

By Settled Editorial

Washington pays estate debts in the six classes of RCW 11.76.110. Expenses of administration come first, then funeral expenses, then expenses of the last sickness, then wages due for labor performed within 60 days before the death, then the exemptions and awards of chapter 11.54 RCW, then all other enforceable demands against the estate.

That ladder is newer than most of what is written about it. Section 12 of chapter 20, Laws of 2024 rewrote RCW 11.76.110 effective August 1, 2024, cutting a seven-class list down to six and moving the family award into the middle of it. This guide walks the six classes, the proration rule inside a class, the secured debt that never enters the contest, the federal claim that outranks the whole thing, the two ten-day clocks insolvency starts, and the places where a personal representative's own money is exposed. Read it beside how a claim gets presented first and the rest of the personal representative's job. Anything close to the line belongs with the superior court where the estate is filed or a licensed Washington attorney.

The Six Classes of RCW 11.76.110

The section is titled Order of payment of debts. Read it from the top down.

OrderClass as RCW 11.76.110 prints itWhat lands here
1(1) Expenses of administrationThe court filing fee, the personal representative's compensation and the estate attorney's fee allowed under RCW 11.48.210, the bond premium, appraisal and publication costs, and the cost of holding and insuring estate property
2(2) Funeral expenses in such amount as the court shall order or a personal representative with nonintervention powers shall determine to be reasonableThe funeral home bill, burial or cremation, and a reasonable amount for a monument or tombstone, which RCW 11.76.130 says is paid as funeral expenses are paid
3(3) Expenses of the last sickness, in such amount as the court shall order or a personal representative with nonintervention powers shall determine to be reasonableHospital, physician, hospice and nursing charges from the final illness
4(4) Wages due for labor performed within 60 days immediately preceding the death of decedentUnpaid wages of anyone the decedent employed, limited by the 60-day window rather than by a dollar figure, because the subsection sets no cap
5(5) Exemptions and awards under chapter 11.54 RCWThe basic award to a surviving spouse, surviving registered domestic partner or dependent children, and the property that stays exempt under RCW 11.54.008
6(6) All other enforceable demands against the estateCredit cards, personal loans, medical debt from outside the last illness, money judgments, unsecured tax debt, and an unsecured Medicaid estate recovery claim

Two features of that list decide real dollars.

Classes two and three are amounts somebody sets, not amounts a creditor names. Both subsections say the figure is what the court orders or what a personal representative with nonintervention powers determines to be reasonable. A funeral invoice does not automatically ride in class two at its face value. The reasonable part rides there and the rest falls to class six.

Reasonableness is a judgment a nonintervention personal representative makes alone. The statute grants that call to a personal representative acting without court supervision, and it is the sort of decision an unhappy beneficiary can later put in front of a judge. How the number was reached is the kind of thing that ends up in the record of what you paid.

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The 2024 Rewrite Cut Three Classes

Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5589, chapter 20, Laws of 2024, carries the cover title Probate, Various Provisions and prints an effective date of August 1, 2024 on its own cover page. Section 12 replaced this opening and these classes:

  • The old text began "After payment of costs of administration" and then listed seven classes.
  • Old class (4) was "Debts having preference by the laws of the United States."
  • Old class (5) was "Taxes, or any debts or dues owing to the state."
  • Old class (6) was "Judgments rendered against the deceased in his or her lifetime which are liens upon real estate on which executions might have been issued at the time of his or her death, and debts secured by mortgages in the order of their priority."

All three of those classes are gone. In their place the section now opens "Subject to federal preemption and the privileges and priorities allowed to encumbrances and liens under applicable law," makes expenses of administration a numbered class in its own right, and inserts exemptions and awards under chapter 11.54 RCW at class five.

Two of those three deletions moved a preference rather than removing it. Federal claims and secured claims left their numbered classes for the opening clause, where they now sit above the ladder instead of inside it. The third deletion is a real demotion: state tax debt with no lien behind it dropped to class six with the credit cards. An article, a form packet or a court self-help page that still shows federal debts fourth and state taxes fifth is quoting Washington law as it read before August 2024.

Nothing Reaches a Lower Class Until the One Above It Is Full

RCW 11.76.150 is the other half of the rule. If the estate is insufficient to pay the debts of any class, each creditor is paid in proportion to the claim, and no creditor of any lower class receives any payment until all those of the preceding class have been fully paid.

Take an estate holding $40,000 after administration expenses, facing a $14,000 funeral bill, $9,000 of last-illness charges, no wage claims, a $60,000 basic award petition and $95,000 of credit card and medical debt. Classes two and three take $23,000. The remaining $17,000 goes to the class five award, which is paid in part rather than in full. Class six receives nothing, and so do the heirs. That is the ordinary arithmetic of an insolvent Washington estate.

Proration also settles a question executors ask constantly. A creditor whose bill came due in March gets no head start over one who filed later in the same class. Rank comes from the class, not from the calendar.

Secured Debt Never Enters the Contest

A mortgage follows the house and a car loan follows the car, whatever the ladder says.

The opening clause of RCW 11.76.110 preserves the privileges and priorities allowed to encumbrances and liens under applicable law. RCW 11.76.120, amended by the same 2024 act, then fences that preference in: it extends only to the proceeds of the property subject to the lien. The 2024 amendment also widened the list of instruments the section covers from a mortgage or judgment to a mortgage, deed of trust, perfected security interest, judgment lien, or other lien.

RCW 11.40.135 approaches the same fact from the creditor's side. Where a claim is secured by property of the decedent, chapter 11.40 RCW does not affect the creditor's right to realize on the security, whether or not the creditor presented the claim. RCW 11.54.060(2) says the same thing about the family award: no provision of chapter 11.54 RCW abrogates or diminishes the rights associated with a valid lien.

What competes in the six classes is the unsecured shortfall left after the collateral is exhausted.

A Federal Claim Outranks the Whole Ladder

31 U.S.C. 3713(a)(1)(B) says a claim of the United States Government shall be paid first when the estate of a deceased debtor, in the custody of the executor or administrator, is not enough to pay all debts of the debtor. Washington's own statute concedes the point in its first three words, because RCW 11.76.110 now begins "Subject to federal preemption."

Subsection (b) is the part that reaches the fiduciary personally. A representative of an estate who pays any part of a debt of the estate before paying a claim of the Government is liable to the extent of the payment for unpaid claims of the Government. So an unpaid federal income tax balance on a thin estate is not a class six line item. It sits ahead of the ladder, and paying anything else first exposes the personal representative individually.

The Family Award Moved Down in 2024

Before August 2024, RCW 11.54.060 opened with a sentence saying the award had priority over all other claims made in the estate. Section 10 of chapter 20, Laws of 2024 struck that sentence. What replaced it runs the other way. RCW 11.54.060(1) says that none of the decedent's separate property and none of the community property is exempt from the duty to pay the costs of administration, funeral expenses, expenses of the last sickness, and wages due for labor performed within 60 days immediately preceding the death, as those terms are used in RCW 11.76.110.

RCW 11.54.015(1) points the same direction from the procedural side. The court may not make an award to a claimant until those same four categories have been paid or provided for. Read the two beside class five of the ladder and the design is consistent: the award beats the general creditors and yields to the first four classes.

Two things survive the demotion. RCW 11.54.008(1) keeps any homestead or other property exempt under Title 6 RCW immediately before the death exempt from attachment, execution and forced sale for the decedent's pre-death debts, up to the amount specified in RCW 11.54.020(1). And RCW 11.54.001(2) applies the chapter to probate and nonprobate assets alike, so the exemption is not confined to what passes through the estate. The interaction with what stays exempt after death is worked through in the Washington exempt property guide, and the Washington surviving spouse rights guide covers what a survivor can claim. Because Washington is a community property state, half the community usually belongs to the survivor before any of this begins, which the Washington community property guide explains.

Insolvency Puts the Court Back Into a Nonintervention Estate

Washington's ordinary track is settlement under nonintervention powers, and RCW 11.68.011(2) grants those powers only where the court determines the estate is solvent, counting probate and nonprobate assets. Insolvency undercuts the finding the grant rests on, so the statute has a repair mechanism.

RCW 11.68.080 runs two ten-day clocks:

  1. Within ten days after the personal representative receives claims whose aggregate face value, added to the other debts and to the taxes and expenses of greater priority under applicable law, would appear to cause the estate to be insolvent, the personal representative shall notify in writing all beneficiaries under the will, all heirs if any property will pass by intestate succession, and any unpaid creditors other than one whose claim is already barred, that the estate might be insolvent. A copy of that written notice goes to the court.
  2. Within ten days after an estate becomes insolvent, the personal representative shall petition under RCW 11.96A.080 for a determination of whether the court should reaffirm, rescind or restrict in whole or in part any prior grant of nonintervention powers, with notice under RCW 11.96A.110.

The first clock starts on an appearance of insolvency and the second on the fact of it, which is why the calendar in the Washington probate deadlines guide treats them separately. A beneficiary, an heir or an unpaid creditor with an accepted or judicially determined claim may bring the same petition. Where the court rescinds or restricts the powers, RCW 11.68.080(4) directs it to endorse the words "powers rescinded" or "powers restricted" on the prior order along with the date, so the change is visible on the face of the file to anyone who later checks the personal representative's authority.

The Order Binds a Nonintervention Personal Representative

Executors sometimes read nonintervention powers as freedom from the ladder. The statute says otherwise, and it says so three times.

RCW 11.68.090(2)(b) excuses a personal representative with nonintervention powers from the procedures of RCW 11.76.010 through 11.76.080 and from chapter 11.56 RCW. RCW 11.76.110 and RCW 11.76.150 are outside that range. Subsections (2) and (3) of RCW 11.76.110 name a personal representative with nonintervention powers in terms, which only makes sense if the section reaches them. And RCW 11.68.090(4) provides that no testamentary provision may limit the effect of RCW 11.76.110, 11.76.150, 11.76.160 or 11.76.170, or of chapters 11.36, 11.44, 11.54 and 11.108 RCW. A will can hand a personal representative wide powers in Washington. It cannot rewrite who gets paid first.

What the exemption from chapter 11.56 RCW does buy is speed. RCW 11.56.010 requires a court order before an estate sells, leases or mortgages property unless the law provides otherwise, and RCW 11.68.090(1)(c) is that other provision: a nonintervention personal representative may sell, mortgage, encumber, lease, exchange, convey or assign estate property without one.

Raising the Money Without Breaking the Order

An estate that owns a house and holds no cash still owes class one. Three sections cover the gap.

  • RCW 11.44.015 requires a verified inventory and appraisement within three months of appointment, stating all encumbrances, liens and other secured charges against each item and the fair net value of each item as of the date of death after deducting them. That document is how a personal representative learns whether the estate is insolvent, and it is dated early enough to matter.
  • RCW 11.56.010 supplies the court-ordered sale, lease or mortgage for a supervised estate, and RCW 11.68.090(1)(c) supplies the same authority without an order for a nonintervention estate.
  • RCW 11.56.280 lets the court authorize borrowing on the general credit of the estate where money is needed to pay debts, expenses of administration or estate taxes. The money borrowed is an obligation of the estate repayable with the same priority as unsecured claims filed against the estate, which places it in class six rather than ahead of anyone.

Claims That Are Contingent, Disputed or Not Yet Due

A creditor whose claim has not matured does not lose a place in the ladder. RCW 11.76.180 lets the court, in its discretion and after whatever notice it sets, mature a claim that is not due and direct that it be paid in the due course of administration.

RCW 11.76.190 handles the contingent or disputed claim. The amount the holder would be entitled to if the claim were established or absolute is paid into the court, where it stays until the party becomes entitled to it, or is paid over or distributed as the circumstances require if the claim fails. Money set aside that way is not money the personal representative may distribute to the heirs in the meantime.

A personal representative who is also a creditor has a separate route. RCW 11.40.140 requires that claim to be presented like any other and resolved under chapter 11.96A RCW, and it says the section applies whether or not the personal representative is acting under nonintervention powers.

Where the Personal Representative's Own Money Is at Risk

Four provisions decide whether a payment-order mistake stays with the estate or follows the fiduciary home.

  • RCW 11.76.160 makes a personal representative personally liable to each creditor for the claim or the dividend on it once the court has decreed payment of creditors, except where the inability to pay out of estate property arises without fault. The same section attaches liability on the bond.
  • RCW 11.76.170 reaches the case where the accounts have been settled and the property distributed and a duly filed claim was never paid or disallowed. That claim is not a lien on the distributed property, but the creditor has a cause of action against the personal representative and the bond for what the creditor would have received, plus an action against the distributees and creditors for contribution in proportion to what they took. A personal representative or surety who pays has a right of action back against those distributees.
  • 31 U.S.C. 3713(b) attaches liability for the amount paid whenever another debt is paid ahead of a claim of the United States out of an estate that cannot cover everything.
  • RCW 11.68.080 exposes a nonintervention personal representative who lets either ten-day clock run out, because the powers themselves can be rescinded or restricted under subsection (3), and RCW 11.68.070 separately covers removal and surcharge.

Three points in the sequence are where that exposure gets decided. The first is the RCW 11.44.015 inventory, which is where solvency is measured, counting nonprobate assets the way RCW 11.68.011(2) does, so a discretionary payment made ahead of it is made without that measurement. The second is the creditor window, which governs whether a class two or class three bill arriving late still finds money in the estate; the creditor claim deadlines set its length. The third is distribution, which sits last in the statutory sequence, because class six and the heirs both lose where it does not.

Medicaid Files as a Creditor, Not as a Class

RCW 43.20B.080(3) directs the department to seek adjustment or recovery from the estate of an individual who was 55 or older when medical assistance was received, and from nonprobate assets of that individual as defined by RCW 11.02.005, for nursing facility services, home and community-based services, other services the department determines to be appropriate, and related hospital and prescription drug services.

Nothing in that section creates a class in RCW 11.76.110, and the class that once covered debts or dues owing to the state was deleted in 2024. So an unsecured recovery claim competes in class six alongside the credit cards. Where the department holds a lien, subsections (6) and (7) let it reach real property the decedent owned immediately before death, and RCW 11.76.120 then limits the preference to the proceeds of that property.

Washington also puts a notice duty on the estate that most states do not. RCW 11.40.020(1)(d) requires a personal representative giving notice to creditors to mail a copy, including the decedent's social security number, to the state Office of Financial Recovery. The Washington small estate guide covers the parallel mailing duty that rides with the successor affidavit.

If the Gifts in the Will Have to Shrink

Once the creditors are settled, a second ordering question can open. Where what remains cannot fund every gift the will makes, RCW 11.10.010 sets the abatement sequence: intestate property, then residuary gifts, then general gifts, then specific gifts, with a demonstrative gift treated as specific to the extent of the fund it is charged on. Abatement inside a classification is proportional to what each beneficiary would have received on full distribution.

Three qualifications ride along. Subsection (2) gives way to the will's own order of abatement, or to the testamentary plan where the default sequence would defeat it. Subsection (3) requires adjustment or contribution from other interests where a preferred gift is sold, diminished or exhausted incident to administration. Subsection (4) abates the decedent's share and the surviving spouse's or surviving domestic partner's share of community property equally.

RCW 11.54.071, added by the 2024 act, runs a variation for the family award. Property abates for awards under chapter 11.54 RCW in accordance with chapter 11.10 RCW, except that gifts containing a homestead or other nonfungible property exempt from attachment, execution and forced sale abate to the extent the property is awarded to a claimant, regardless of whether the gift would be classified as intestate, residuary, general, demonstrative or specific.

Abatement is a rule among beneficiaries rather than a creditor rule. The two are easy to conflate and they answer different questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What order does Washington pay estate debts in?

RCW 11.76.110 sets six classes. First, expenses of administration. Second, funeral expenses in such amount as the court orders or a personal representative with nonintervention powers determines to be reasonable. Third, expenses of the last sickness, measured the same way. Fourth, wages due for labor performed within 60 days immediately preceding the death. Fifth, exemptions and awards under chapter 11.54 RCW. Sixth, all other enforceable demands against the estate.

Did Washington change the order estate debts are paid in?

Yes, on August 1, 2024. Section 12 of chapter 20, Laws of 2024 replaced a seven-class ladder with the current six. It deleted the class for debts having preference by the laws of the United States, the class for taxes and debts or dues owing to the state, and the class for lifetime judgment liens and mortgage debt, and it added exemptions and awards under chapter 11.54 RCW as class five. Any page printing a seven-class Washington ladder is quoting the repealed text.

What happens when the money runs out partway through a class?

It is split proportionally. RCW 11.76.150 says that if the estate is insufficient to pay the debts of any class, each creditor is paid in proportion to the claim, and no creditor of any lower class receives any payment until all those of the preceding class have been fully paid. A class four wage claim gets paid in full before a class six credit card sees a dollar.

Does the payment order apply to a personal representative with nonintervention powers?

Yes. RCW 11.68.090(2)(b) excuses a nonintervention personal representative only from RCW 11.76.010 through 11.76.080 and from chapter 11.56 RCW. RCW 11.76.110 and RCW 11.76.150 sit outside that range, subsections (2) and (3) of RCW 11.76.110 name a personal representative with nonintervention powers by title, and RCW 11.68.090(4) says no testamentary provision may limit the effect of RCW 11.76.110, 11.76.150, 11.76.160 or 11.76.170.

Where does a mortgage or a car loan fit in the Washington classes?

Outside them. RCW 11.76.110 opens subject to federal preemption and to the privileges and priorities allowed to encumbrances and liens under applicable law, and RCW 11.76.120 limits that preference to the proceeds of the property subject to the lien. RCW 11.40.135 separately preserves a secured creditor's right to realize on the security whether or not a claim was presented.

Does the surviving spouse's award still come ahead of Washington creditors?

No longer. Chapter 20, Laws of 2024 struck the sentence in RCW 11.54.060 that gave the award priority over all other claims made in the estate and put exemptions and awards under chapter 11.54 RCW at class five instead. RCW 11.54.015(1) bars the court from making an award until the expenses of administration, funeral expenses, expenses of the last sickness and 60-day wages have been paid or provided for.

What must a Washington personal representative do when the estate looks insolvent?

RCW 11.68.080 runs two ten-day clocks. Within ten days after receiving claims whose aggregate face value, added to the other debts and to the taxes and expenses of greater priority, would appear to cause insolvency, the personal representative must notify beneficiaries, any intestate heirs and unpaid creditors in writing and file a copy with the court. Within ten days after the estate becomes insolvent, the personal representative must petition under RCW 11.96A.080 for a determination of whether the court should reaffirm, rescind or restrict any prior grant of nonintervention powers.

Does Washington Medicaid get paid ahead of credit cards?

Not by rank. RCW 43.20B.080 gives the Health Care Authority a recovery right and a lien mechanism, but nothing in it creates a class in RCW 11.76.110, and the old class for debts or dues owing to the state was deleted in 2024. An unsecured recovery claim competes in class six with the credit cards. Where the department has a perfected lien, the preference reaches only the proceeds of the property subject to it under RCW 11.76.120.

Related Guides

This page describes RCW 11.76.110 and the sections around it as they read on the date above, and it is general information rather than advice about one estate. Whether an estate is insolvent once nonprobate assets are counted, which class a particular bill belongs in, what counts as a reasonable funeral or last-sickness charge, and what a personal representative may safely pay before the creditor window closes all turn on figures and dates the statute cannot settle from a distance. Those questions belong with a Washington attorney or with the superior court in the county where the estate is filed.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Information current as of August 8, 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 Washington can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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