Settling an estate in Alabama
An executor in Alabama has to work through the Probate Court and a long list of tasks that have nothing to do with the court. This page sets out what Alabama law actually requires at each step, with the section it comes from and the date we last read it.
- Probate court
- Probate Court
- Small-estate shortcut
- Estates of $47,000 or less may qualify for a simplified small-estate procedure (personal property only — it will not transfer real estate).
- Creditor claim period
- 6 months
- Typical timeline
- 6–12 months
- State death tax
- None — no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax
Immediate
Obtain certified death certificates
Alabama names the funeral director in the statute, which is why the funeral home can order on your behalf. Under Ala. Code § 22-9A-21(b)(1) the registrant, a member of their immediate family, their guardian, and their respective legal representatives acting on their behalf and for their benefit may in any event obtain copies. Subsection (b)(2) then defines legal representative broadly: an attorney at law, an attorney in fact, a physician, a funeral director, or any other designated agent acting for the benefit of the registrant or the family. The State Registrar may require written authorization showing the representative is acting for the principal, so put that in writing before sending someone in your place. Anyone outside those categories must demonstrate under (b)(4) that the copy is needed for the determination or protection of their personal or property right. Commercial firms requesting listings are excluded outright. Two practical notes. The funeral director usually orders the first batch as part of their service, so ask them how many they have already requested before you order more — families routinely pay twice. And order more than you think: banks, insurers and transfer agents often keep the copy you give them rather than returning it. Confirm the current fee on the state’s own page at the moment you order, because fees change without notice.
Ala. Code § 22-9A-21·last read 2026-08-25
Locate the will (or confirm there is none)
In Alabama nothing is late until an interested person asks. Under Ala. Code § 43-8-270 the custodian’s duty arises after the death and on request of an interested person: they must then deliver the will with reasonable promptness to a person able to secure its probate, and if none is known, to an appropriate court. There is no deadline running from the death itself and no automatic trigger, so a will can sit in a drawer or a safe deposit box indefinitely while everyone waits for someone else to move. If you are an heir, the request is yours to make and it is worth making in writing. A person who wilfully fails to deliver a will is liable to any person aggrieved for the damages sustained by the failure. A person who wilfully refuses or fails to deliver after being ordered by the court in a proceeding brought to compel delivery is subject to the penalty for contempt of court. The section is Alabama’s enactment of the Uniform Probate Code custody provision. Check whether the clock is even running: until you ask, nothing is late. Put the request in writing and keep a dated copy — it is what turns a delay into a breach of duty.
Ala. Code § 43-8-270·last read 2026-08-25
Short-term
Claim the family allowances you are entitled to
Alabama’s homestead allowance is $15,000, and there is one offset to check before relying on it. Under Ala. Code § 43-8-110 a surviving spouse of someone domiciled in Alabama takes a homestead allowance of $15,000; where there is no surviving spouse, each minor child and each dependent child takes a share of that figure. It is in addition to any share passing by the will, unless the will provides otherwise, or by intestate succession. Now the offset. Where a surviving spouse or child receives the constitutional right of homestead in the family home, and the home forms part of the estate, the value of that right is charged against their homestead allowance, so the two do not simply stack. Alabama provides exempt property and a family allowance as well, in the same article at §§ 43-8-111 and 43-8-112. We have confirmed the homestead allowance figure against the statute but not yet the other two, so ask the probate court about all three together.
Ala. Code § 43-8-110·last read 2026-08-21
Notify beneficiaries and keep them informed
Alabama measures the notice from the hearing rather than from your appointment. Under Ala. Code § 43-8-164, whenever an application is made to prove a will in this state, at least ten days’ notice must be given to the surviving spouse and next of kin, or either of them, residing and being within the state, before the application is heard. For anyone living outside Alabama, § 43-8-166 takes over. Notice is by publication once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper published in the county where the application is made, or, if no paper is published there, by posting at the courthouse three weeks before the hearing. In lieu of that, notice may be had on those persons as the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure provide, which is usually faster and easier to prove. Getting this wrong rarely costs money directly — it stalls the case. An estate that cannot show notice was properly given can be held open, and the appointment itself can be reopened, so keep proof of what you sent, to whom, and on what date.
Ala. Code §§ 43-8-164, 43-8-166·last read 2026-08-25
Determine if probate is required
Alabama’s summary distribution is closed to an estate that includes real property, and the limit sits in the definitions rather than where you would look for it. Under Ala. Code § 43-2-691(2), as rewritten by Act 2025-431, an “estate” for this division means all the personal property of a decedent who owns no real property at the time of death for which title does not pass by operation of law. Read that last clause carefully, because it is the part that helps. Real property that passes automatically — a joint tenancy with right of survivorship, for instance — does not put the estate outside the definition. It is solely owned real property that closes the door, whatever it is worth and however far under the cap the rest of the estate falls. Two more Alabama-specific traps. First, the figure shown above is not in the statute. Section 43-2-698 says the small estate amount shall at all times equal the combined maximum of the homestead allowance, exempt property and family allowance under §§ 43-8-110 through 43-8-113, as adjusted under § 43-8-116. It is republished as the index moves, so ask the probate court for the current number rather than relying on any figure you read anywhere, including here. Second, there are two thirty-day clocks and neither runs from the date of death. One runs from publication of notice of the filing of your petition; the other runs from the day the Alabama Medicaid Agency received notice of that filing. You file first, then publish and notify, then wait. ALABAMA WILL NOT OPEN THIS ROUTE UNTIL THE FUNERAL IS PAID FOR. Summary distribution requires that all funeral expenses have been paid, or that the surviving spouse or another distributee has arranged for them to be paid out of the estate. It is a condition of using the procedure, not a bill to settle later.
Ala. Code §§ 43-2-691, 43-2-692, 43-2-698 (Act 2025-431)·last read 2026-09-14
Legal Process
File a petition with the probate court
Alabama sends you to a probate court chosen by where the person lived and where the assets are. Under Ala. Code § 43-8-162 a will is proved in the probate court of the county where the testator lived at the time of death. Where they were not an inhabitant of the state but died in a county leaving assets there, it is that county’s probate court; and where they were not an inhabitant and died outside the county leaving assets in it, the court of the county in which those assets, or any part of them, are found. Section 43-8-164 then requires at least ten days’ notice to the surviving spouse and next of kin within the state before the application is heard, so the filing sets a hearing rather than producing letters over the counter. Section 43-8-163 removes one worry: where the attesting witnesses were competent when they signed, their later incompetency, from whatever cause, does not prevent probate if the will is otherwise satisfactorily proved. One practical point: the word your state uses for this office is not decoration — asking for the wrong one wastes a trip and a phone call. And where a registrar or clerk can grant it, no judge is involved and no hearing is set, so nothing in the system will prompt you: the case moves only when you file.
Ala. Code §§ 43-8-162, 43-8-163, 43-8-164·last read 2026-08-25
Inventory all assets and debts
Alabama lets the will switch this off, so the first thing to check is the will itself. Under Ala. Code § 43-2-311 a testator may, by express provision in the will, exempt an executor from filing an inventory or from making any report or final settlement, and where that provision is made none of those is required. Many Alabama wills carry exactly such a clause, so an heir asking where the inventory is may find there lawfully is not one. There are two ways back in. The exemption does not hold where any executor, heir, legatee or other person interested in the estate makes an affidavit showing their interest and alleging that it is or will be endangered for want of security. Nor does it hold where, in the opinion of the judge of the court having jurisdiction, the estate is likely to be wasted to the prejudice of anyone interested in it. Two things that apply everywhere. Values are as of the date of death, not today — a house that has risen since is still listed at what it was worth then. And the inventory is the document everything else is measured against: fees, bond, and every later distribution. It is also what beneficiaries most often challenge, so take the time to get it right rather than filing a rough figure you intend to fix later.
Ala. Code § 43-2-311·last read 2026-08-25
Publish notice to creditors
Alabama takes the later of two periods, and then hands a late-noticed creditor thirty more days. Under Ala. Code § 43-2-350 claims must be presented within six months after the grant of letters, or within five months from the date of the first publication of notice, whichever is the later to occur. Any creditor entitled to actual notice under § 43-2-61 must be allowed thirty days after that notice in which to present. Claims not so presented and filed are forever barred, and payment or allowance of them is prohibited. Presentation means filing a verified claim, or a verified statement of it, in the office of the judge of probate for the county where letters were granted — telling the executor is not enough. The bar does not reach the representative’s own compensation, sums properly disbursed in the course of administration, or heirs and devisees claiming as such. Two things to hold on to. Publication is what starts the clock in most states, so an estate where nobody published can stay exposed to claims far longer than the family expects. And a known creditor usually has to be told directly — publication alone does not bind someone whose name and address you could reasonably have found.
Ala. Code § 43-2-350·last read 2026-08-25
Administration
Identify and close digital accounts
Alabama asks for plain copies, which is a real saving when every certified copy costs a fee. Under Ala. Code § 19-1A-7, in force since 1 January 2018, the content of electronic communications is disclosed where the deceased person consented or a court directs it. The personal representative gives the custodian a written request, a copy of the death certificate, and a copy of letters testamentary, letters of administration, or a court order — copies throughout, not the certified copies most states demand. Unless the person used the provider’s online tool you must also produce the will, trust or power of attorney evidencing consent. Note what is not on that list: Alabama names no small-estate affidavit, so a family that never had letters issued is looking at a court order or the online tool. The act sits in Title 19, on fiduciaries and trusts, rather than in the probate code. The rule to hold on to everywhere: without consent you generally get only the catalogue — who was contacted, when, and at what address — not what was actually said. “The executor can get into the accounts” is not what these laws do. And if you are advising someone still living, the provider’s own online tool is where this should be set, because it beats the will.
Ala. Code § 19-1A-7·last read 2026-08-25
Financial Settlement
Pay valid debts and expenses
Alabama puts the funeral first — ahead of the costs of administration, which is the reverse of the federal-style order most guidance assumes. Ala. Code § 43-2-371 ranks. (1) Funeral expenses. (2) Fees and charges of administration. (3) Expenses of the last sickness. (4) Taxes assessed on the estate before death. (5) Debts due to employees for services rendered in the year of the death. (6) All other debts. Note this list is not conditioned on the estate being insolvent — it reads as the order of payment generally. The section dates from 1867 and has no medical or Medicaid class beyond “last sickness“, so confirm how the probate court treats a Medicaid recovery claim. Paying a lower-ranked debt before a higher-ranked one can leave you personally liable for the difference. So where the estate may not cover everything, stop before paying anything beyond the funeral and administration costs, and take advice.
Ala. Code § 43-2-371·last read 2026-08-27
File required tax returns
Alabama’s estate tax is written to switch itself off, and it has. Ala. Code § 40-15-2 levies a tax on net estates equal to the full amount of state tax permissible as a credit or deduction in computing the federal estate tax under the act of Congress in effect on the date of death. It then says the tax shall not exceed in the aggregate what federal law allows to be credited or deducted. And it says the tax shall be levied only so long as and during the time an inheritance or estate tax is enforced by the United States against Alabama estates, and then only to the extent of absorbing that credit or deduction. Congress replaced the state death tax credit with a deduction, so there is nothing to absorb and no Alabama estate tax is due. Alabama has no inheritance tax. It does tax income, so an estate that earns income during administration will have an Alabama fiduciary return to file. None of that removes the federal returns: the deceased’s final income tax return, and Form 1041 for income the estate itself earns during administration. And it does not help with property in another state, which may carry that state’s own death tax and its own filing.
Ala. Code § 40-15-2·last read 2026-08-25
Distribution
Distribute assets to heirs
Alabama is one of the states where a child from another relationship cuts the spouse’s share, and the dollar figures are low and not inflation-adjusted. Ala. Code § 43-8-41 sets four shares. With no issue and no parent, the spouse takes the entire estate. With no issue but a surviving parent, they take the first $100,000 plus half the balance. Where all children are also the spouse’s, they take the first $50,000 plus half the balance. And where one or more children are not the spouse’s, they take a flat one half with no dollar cushion at all. Those figures were set decades ago and have not moved, so on a modest estate the “first $50,000“ can be most of it while on a larger one it is nearly nothing. One disqualification to check before distributing. Under Ala. Code § 43-8-253 a surviving spouse, heir or devisee who feloniously and intentionally kills the deceased takes no benefit under the will or under articles 3 through 10 of the chapter, and the estate passes as if the killer had predeceased. The section also deals with joint assets, life insurance and beneficiary designations, and protects a bona fide purchaser or an obligor who pays in good faith. Beyond that, Alabama has no bar on a deserting spouse and none on an absent parent. These shares apply only where there is no valid will — a will overrides all of it. And do not distribute anything until the creditor period has run and the debts are settled: a representative who pays the family early can be personally liable for what is still owing. Alabama words its stepparent exception differently from most, and the difference favours the child. Under § 43-8-48 an adopted person is the child of the adopting parent and not of the natural parents, “except that adoption of a child by the spouse of a natural parent has no effect on the right of the child to inherit from or through EITHER natural parent”. Not only the parent married to the adopter — both of them. It runs one way, though: the clause protects the child’s right to inherit and says nothing about the natural parents inheriting from the child. A person born out of wedlock is a child of the mother, and of the father where the parents went through a marriage ceremony even a void one, or where paternity was adjudicated before the father’s death or is established afterwards by clear and convincing proof. That last route is ineffective to let the father or his kindred inherit from or through the child unless he openly treated the child as his and did not refuse to support them. No deadline appears anywhere in the section.
Ala. Code §§ 43-8-41, 43-8-48, 43-8-253·last read 2026-09-09
Close Estate
File a final accounting and close the estate
Alabama’s rule is a single sentence, and it is permissive rather than a deadline. Under Ala. Code § 43-2-501 final settlement may be made at any time after six months from the grant of letters, if the debts are all paid and the condition of the estate in other respects will admit of it. So six months is a floor, not a due date: nothing in that section compels settlement at any particular point, and the real gate is the state of the estate rather than the calendar. What makes the six months matter is what sits on the other side of it. Under § 43-2-350 the creditor period runs to the later of six months from the grant of letters or five months from the first publication of notice, so the settlement gate opens at about the point the creditor window closes. Do not settle while a presented claim is still unresolved. Closing is what ends your exposure, so do not simply stop when the money runs out — an estate left open leaves the representative personally on the hook. And filing a closing statement is not the same as being discharged. In several states the appointment only terminates some months later, if nobody objects. Keep the file, the receipts and the proof of what you sent until then.
Ala. Code § 43-2-501·last read 2026-08-25
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EstateMate is not a law firm and this is not legal advice. Every note above cites the section it came from and the date it was last read, so you can check it yourself. Statutes change, and the right answer can turn on facts specific to your family — when something looks close to the line, talk to a Alabama probate attorney.