Settling an estate in Delaware
An executor in Delaware has to work through the Court of Chancery and a long list of tasks that have nothing to do with the court. This page sets out what Delaware law actually requires at each step, with the section it comes from and the date we last read it.
- Probate court
- Court of Chancery
- Small-estate shortcut
- Estates of $50,000 or less may qualify for a simplified small-estate procedure (personal property only — it will not transfer real estate).
- Creditor claim period
- 8 months
- Typical timeline
- 9–18 months
- State death tax
- None — no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax
Immediate
Obtain certified death certificates
Delaware is one of the few states that writes genealogy into the statute as a qualifying reason. Under 16 Del. C. § 3110(b) the State Registrar shall, on receipt of an application, issue a certified copy of a vital record to the registrant, the registrant’s spouse, children, parents or guardian, or their respective authorized representative. Others may be authorized to obtain certified copies when they demonstrate that the record is needed for the determination or protection of their personal or property rights, or for genealogical purposes. The Department is directed to adopt regulations further defining who may obtain copies, so the working list is wider than the sentence in the code and the office is where to check it. Subsection (a) otherwise treats the records and files of the Office of Vital Statistics as confidential and closed to inspection except as the chapter, the regulations, or a court order allow. 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.
16 Del. C. § 3110·last read 2026-08-25
Locate the will (or confirm there is none)
Delaware gives you ten days and names the office precisely. Under 12 Del. C. § 1301 any person having custody or possession of an instrument purporting to be a last will must produce and deliver it to the Register of Wills for the county in which that person resides, within 10 days from the time they receive information of the death. Note whose county it is: the county where the custodian lives, not necessarily where the deceased lived. A person who wilfully fails to deliver is liable to anyone aggrieved for the damages sustained, and a person who wilfully fails after being ordered by the Court of Chancery in a proceeding brought to compel delivery is in contempt. Ten days is short, so if you are holding the will, deliver first and work the rest out afterwards.
12 Del. C. § 1301·last read 2026-08-18
Short-term
Claim the family allowances you are entitled to
Delaware pays cash, but it puts a hard deadline on asking and that is the part which catches people. Under 12 Del. C. § 2308 the surviving spouse of any decedent is entitled to receive, and the executor or administrator must pay as soon as convenient, cash of up to $7,500. To get it the surviving spouse has to notify the Register of Wills for the county where the letters were granted, and the executor or administrator, in writing, demanding that a specific sum not exceeding $7,500 be set aside. That demand must be made within the shorter of nine months from the date of death or six months from the granting of letters, so where letters issue promptly it is the six-month clock that binds. Note the scope as well: § 2308 provides for the surviving spouse. It does not give a separate allowance to children.
12 Del. C. § 2308·last read 2026-08-21
Notify beneficiaries and keep them informed
Delaware is the reverse of most states here, and beneficiaries should know it. Under 12 Del. C. § 1303 proof of a will may be taken without notice to interested persons — nobody has to tell the family before the will is proved — Unless an interested person requests notice by filing a petition with the Court of Chancery. On receiving such a petition the Court appoints a time for taking the proof and issues subpoenas requiring people to attend, and for persons outside Delaware it may order whatever service or publication it thinks proper. So in Delaware the burden is on you: if you want a say in whether the will is proved, you must ask for it in advance rather than waiting to be told.
12 Del. C. § 1303·last read 2026-08-18
Determine if probate is required
Delaware’s affidavit has six conditions and the real-property one is absolute: the person must not have owned real estate in Delaware “either solely or as tenants in common“. Tenancy in common closes this route just as sole ownership does — only survivorship property, which passes outside the estate anyway, is safe. The $50,000 measures the personal estate, excluding jointly owned property and the categories in § 1901(b) and (c). Two conditions people miss: all known debts must be paid or provided for, and the surviving spouse’s allowance under § 2308 must be paid, waived, or lapsed by time. Thirty days must have passed. Note the figure is new — it rose from $30,000 to $50,000 effective June 10, 2026, so anything written before then understates it. SEPARATELY, AND THIS ONE EXPIRES: the same section gives you rights from the moment of death that end 30 days later. Under 12 Del. C. 2306(c) the executor named in the will, and the next of kin, may take possession of the vehicles, enter any premises for the sole purpose of removing clothing to be used for the burial or viewing, and enter a rented home where the person lived alone to take possession, though not ownership, of what is inside. Access happens in business hours at times agreed with the other parties, and all of it must be completed within 30 days of the death or the rights expire. Once an executor is appointed they have preference over the next of kin in exercising any of it. If you need to clear a rented home or fetch something for the burial, do it now rather than after the paperwork.
12 Del. C. § 2306·last read 2026-09-14
Legal Process
File a petition with the probate court
In Delaware a will is proved before the Register of Wills — not before a judge — in the county where the person was domiciled at death. Under 12 Del. C. § 1302, if the person was not domiciled in Delaware, the will may instead be proved before the Register of any Delaware county where they had goods, chattels, rights, credits, lands or tenements. The second half of that section is the part people underestimate: to be effective to prove a transfer of any property or to nominate an executor, a will must be declared valid by admission to probate. Holding the original document proves nothing on its own — until it is admitted, the named executor has no authority and no asset can be moved on the strength of it.
12 Del. C. § 1302·last read 2026-08-18
Inventory all assets and debts
Delaware gives three months and requires filing in more than one place where there is out-of-county land. Under 12 Del. C. § 1905 every executor or administrator must, within 3 months after the granting of letters, file an Inventory and Appraisal in the office of the Register of Wills of the county where the letters were granted. A copy also goes to the Register of Wills office of any other county in which the deceased owned real estate. That second filing is the one people miss, and it is what puts the world on notice as to the land. The inventory covers the goods and chattels and a list of all debts and credits due or belonging to the deceased or the estate — money owed to them counts, not only what they owned outright.
12 Del. C. § 1905·last read 2026-08-18
Publish notice to creditors
Delaware runs a hard eight-month bar measured from the death, and it applies whether or not anybody ever published a notice. Under 12 Del. C. § 2102 all claims against the estate arising before or at the death are barred against the estate, the personal representative and the heirs and devisees unless presented within eight months of the decedent’s death. That covers claims of the State and its subdivisions, whether due or to become due, absolute or contingent, liquidated or not, founded on contract, tort or any other legal basis. Two consequences. Creditors cannot revive a claim by arguing they were never told. And the clock started on the day of the death, not on the day you were appointed — so time spent before probate was opened has already been spent.
12 Del. C. § 2102·last read 2026-08-18
Administration
Identify and close digital accounts
Delaware does not use the same act as most of the country, and anything you read about “RUFADAA“ may not apply. Delaware legislated first in the nation in 2014, and 12 Del. C. chapter 50 is its own Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets and Digital Accounts Act — enacted before the revised uniform act that the other states later adopted, and drawn more broadly. Its “account holder“ covers not just a deceased person but a disabled person under chapter 39, a principal under a durable personal power of attorney under chapter 49A, and the settlor of a trust that was revocable until death or incapacity. Because the drafting differs from the uniform act, do not assume the consent-and-catalogue rules described for other states carry over — take advice on chapter 50 specifically if the accounts matter.
12 Del. C. ch. 50·last read 2026-08-18
Financial Settlement
Pay valid debts and expenses
Delaware has a twelve-class order and administration expenses are not in it — under 12 Del. C. § 2105 they come off the top first, and the numbered list starts afterwards. (1) The surviving spouse’s allowance. (2) Funeral expenses. (3) Child support arrears or retroactive support owed at the date of death. (4) Medicine, medical attendance, nursing and necessaries for the last sickness. (5) Wages of household servants or farm labourers, capped at one year’s wages each. (6) Delaware taxes. (7) Rent, not exceeding one year. (8) Judgments. (9) Recognizances, mortgages and other obligations of record. (10) Obligations under seal. (11) Written contracts for money or goods. (12) All other demands. The child support class is genuinely unusual and ranks above medical bills. 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 administration expenses that come off the top, and take advice. In Delaware the surviving spouse’s allowance ranks ahead of the funeral, so the funeral bill is not the safe first payment it looks like.
12 Del. C. § 2105·last read 2026-08-27
File required tax returns
Delaware repealed its death taxes outright, and the Code says so on its face: in Title 30, chapter 13 (inheritance), chapter 14 (gift tax) and chapter 15 (estate tax) are all marked repealed. The estate tax went with 81 Del. Laws c. 52, effective 1 January 2018, so anyone who died from that date owes no Delaware estate tax at all — and guidance written before 2018 is simply out of date. Do not read that as nothing to file. Chapter 16 of the same title still covers Estates and Trusts for income tax purposes, so if the estate earns income and you file a federal Form 1041 there may be a Delaware fiduciary return to go with it. Ask the Division of Revenue about the estate’s own income, and remember that property in another state can carry that state’s filing obligations regardless of what Delaware does.
30 Del. C. chs. 13, 14, 15 (repealed); ch. 16 (estates and trusts)·last read 2026-08-18
Distribution
Distribute assets to heirs
Delaware never lets the surviving spouse take the real estate outright. It is not alone in limiting a spouse that way — Arkansas gives a one-third life estate in the realty where there are descendants, Texas a life estate in one third of the land, and Rhode Island does not pass real estate to the spouse at all — but Delaware applies it across the board. Under 12 Del. C. § 502 the spouse receives the entire estate only where there is no issue and no surviving parent. Otherwise the spouse gets a share of the personal estate plus a life estate in the real estate — the house itself passes to the children or other heirs, with the spouse entitled to live in it for life. The personal-estate shares are: the first $50,000 plus half the balance where a parent survives or where all the children are also the spouse’s; and one half where one or more children are not the spouse’s. A life estate is not ownership, so the spouse cannot sell the house — this is worth explaining carefully before anyone makes plans. One point worth stating because most states around Delaware are the other way: there is no bar here on an absent parent or a deserting spouse. Chapter 5 of Title 12 runs from § 501 to § 512 — intestate estate, the shares, the 120-hour survival rule, posthumous children, kindred of the half blood, alienage, advancements, debts owed to the deceased and the abolition of dower and curtesy — and contains no disqualification section at all. So a separated spouse who never divorced is still the surviving spouse, and a parent who abandoned a child still inherits from that child. Work the shares on the family as it legally stands. 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. Delaware routes the definition out to Title 13. Under 12 Del. C. § 508 a “child” is an individual of any age whose parentage is established under Chapter 8 of Title 13, and “parent” is defined the same way. Then the specifics. An adopted person is the child of the adopting parent and not of the natural parent, except that adoption by the spouse of a natural parent has no effect on the relationship with that natural parent — that one only. A person born out of wedlock is the child of the mother, and of the father if legitimated under Chapter 13 of Title 13, or where the parents went through a marriage ceremony even a void one, or where paternity is established by adjudication before the father’s death or afterwards. The standard on that last route is the one to notice: Delaware asks for a PREPONDERANCE of the evidence, where most states require clear and convincing proof. It still runs one way — the father and his kindred take nothing from or through the child unless he openly treated the child as his and did not refuse to support them. And § 505 is short and useful: posthumous children, born alive, are considered as though living at the death of their parent.
12 Del. C. §§ 502, 503, 505, 508 (and ch. 5 generally)·last read 2026-09-09
Close Estate
File a final accounting and close the estate
Delaware is the only state we have checked where Failing to account can put you in prison, and the duty is annual rather than one-off. Under 12 Del. C. § 2301 every executor or administrator must render an account of their administration to the Court of Chancery, in money, every year from the date of their letters, until the estate is closed and a final account is passed by the Court. If they fail to, the Court of Chancery shall issue process of attachment and may enforce compliance by imprisonment. That is the stated remedy, not a dormant provision. There are two forms of relief and most families only hear about the first. The Register of Wills may, for sufficient cause, extend the time for accounting by up to six months. But the Register may also, on your Affidavit that there were no transactions or matters for an account in a given year, dispense with that year’s account altogether — which is the better answer for an estate that is simply waiting on something and has nothing to report. Either way, ask before the deadline passes rather than after. If the Register refuses, any interested party may appeal that decision to the Court of Chancery. One limit worth knowing: the Register receives the accountings for the Court’s approval but has no power to disallow a debt or expense you have claimed — that is the Court’s decision, not the counter clerk’s.
12 Del. C. § 2301·last read 2026-08-18
Work through this as a checklist
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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 Delaware probate attorney.