Settling an estate in Maine
An executor in Maine 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 Maine 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 $52,500 or less may qualify for a simplified small-estate procedure (personal property only — it will not transfer real estate).
- Creditor claim period
- 4 months
- Typical timeline
- 9–18 months
- State death tax
- a state estate tax
Immediate
Obtain certified death certificates
Maine requires a direct and legitimate interest, and — unusually — tells you what to do if you are refused. Under 22 M.R.S. § 2706 custodians of death records permit inspection or issue certified or non-certified copies when satisfied that the applicant has a direct and legitimate interest in the matter recorded. The decision is made by the State Registrar or the Clerk of a Municipality — so in Maine the town or city clerk is a real route, not just the state office — and that decision is expressly subject to review by the Superior Court. Most states give you no stated appeal if a registrar says no; Maine does. If you are turned down and you genuinely need the record, that is the avenue. 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.
22 M.R.S. § 2706·last read 2026-08-18
Locate the will (or confirm there is none)
Maine gives the custodian an express excuse most states do not, and it changes what you should do about it. Under 18-C M.R.S. § 2-515 a person having custody of a will must, after the death, deliver it with reasonable promptness to a person able to secure its probate, or, if no such person is known, to an appropriate court for filing and recording until probate is sought. But the same section says a custodian is not liable to any person aggrieved for failing to learn of the death, and therefore for the failure to deliver that follows from it. So telling them, in writing and with the date on it, is what removes the defence. A person who wilfully fails to deliver a will, or who wilfully defaces or destroys one, is liable to any person aggrieved for the damages sustained. Wilful refusal after a court order brought to compel delivery is a penalty for contempt of court. Section 2-514 separately governs a will that was deposited with the court during the testator’s lifetime. Make the request in writing and keep a dated copy — in Maine that is not merely evidence of delay, it is what makes the delay actionable.
18-C M.R.S. § 2-515·last read 2026-08-25
Short-term
Claim the family allowances you are entitled to
Maine follows the Uniform Probate Code, all three protections stack, and all three are indexed — so the numbers printed in the statute are a 2017 base rather than the answer. Under 18-C M.R.S. § 2-402 a surviving spouse takes a homestead allowance, printed as $22,500, or where there is no spouse the minor and dependent children divide it. Section 2-403 adds exempt property, printed as $15,000, over and above any security interests, in tangible personal property including household furniture, automobiles, furnishings and appliances, and expressly in addition to the homestead allowance. Section 2-404 adds a reasonable allowance for maintenance during administration, in addition to both, with § 2-405 setting what may be taken. Section 1-108 indexes all of these to the year of death against a 2017 base, rounding any increase down to the next $100, and the county probate courts publish the figures. For a death in 2026 the homestead allowance is $29,500, exempt property is $19,700 and the family allowance is $35,400. One thing sets Maine apart from most states: the three protections were moved up the creditor order in 2023, and under § 3-805 they now rank ahead of debts and taxes with federal preference. In an estate that cannot pay everyone that ordering is worth real money, so ask for all three together when you open the estate rather than at the end.
18-C M.R.S. §§ 2-402, 2-403, 2-404, 2-405, 1-108·last read 2026-08-26
Notify beneficiaries and keep them informed
Maine gives you thirty days from appointment. Under 18-C M.R.S. § 3-705 every personal representative except a special administrator must give information of the appointment to the heirs and devisees — including the devisees under any will mentioned in the application for appointment, even where you were appointed on the assumption that the person died intestate. It goes by ordinary mail to each person whose address is reasonably available to you. You need not notify anyone who has already been adjudicated in a prior formal testacy proceeding to have no interest in the estate. Keep a list of who you wrote to and when — it is the only proof you will have. 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.
18-C M.R.S. § 3-705·last read 2026-08-18
Determine if probate is required
Maine will look wrong if you read the statute, so read this first. 18-C M.R.S. § 3-1201 says $40,000 — but it adds “adjusted for inflation pursuant to section 1-108“, and the adjusted figure is what governs. That is why the amount shown above is higher than the number in the law: about $52,500 for a death in 2026, against $51,100 for 2025. The adjusted limit moves every year and depends on the date of death, not on today’s date, so confirm the figure for the right year with the Probate Court rather than trusting any published number, including ours. On scope: the test is the value of the entire estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances, so real property counts toward it, while the affidavit itself moves only personal property and will not transfer real estate. Thirty days must have passed.
18-C M.R.S. § 3-1201·last read 2026-08-18
Legal Process
File a petition with the probate court
Maine calls the official the Register — not the registrar, not the clerk — and getting the word right saves a wasted call. Under 18-C M.R.S. § 3-302, on receiving an application requesting informal probate of a will the register issues a written statement of informal probate once the findings required by § 3-303 are made, provided at least 120 hours have elapsed since the death. No judge and no hearing are involved in that route. Informal probate is conclusive as to all persons until it is superseded by an order in a formal testacy proceeding. Maine runs probate through a Probate Court in each county, so it is the register of that county’s Probate Court you are dealing with. 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.
18-C M.R.S. § 3-302·last read 2026-08-18
Inventory all assets and debts
Maine gives you three months and asks for one element most states omit. Under 18-C M.R.S. § 3-706 the personal representative must within three months prepare an inventory of the property owned at death, in reasonable detail, with each item’s fair market value at the date of death and the type and amount of any encumbrance. It is either filed with the court or mailed to all interested persons who request it. The Maine addition: the inventory must also include a schedule of credits — money owed to the deceased — naming the obligors, the amounts due and the nature of each obligation, exclusive of the expenses and risk of collection. Debts owed to the estate are easy to forget and are genuinely part of the job here. There is also a real sanction for skipping the whole exercise. Under § 3-706(3) the burden can shift to you. Where no inventory was filed, mailed or furnished, and an interested party makes a prima facie case that property which should have been inventoried is now missing, you must prove that the property would properly have been excluded. 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.
18-C M.R.S. § 3-706·last read 2026-08-19
Publish notice to creditors
Maine requires publication but for a shorter run than most states — two weeks, not three. Under 18-C M.R.S. § 3-801 the personal representative upon appointment shall publish a notice to creditors announcing the appointment and your address and telling creditors to present claims within four months after the date of first publication or be forever barred. The notice must be published once a week for two successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation. Because publication is mandatory here, an estate that skipped it has not started the four months at all, and the exposure simply continues — so if you have taken over an estate where this was missed, publish now rather than hoping. 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.
18-C M.R.S. § 3-801·last read 2026-08-18
Administration
Identify and close digital accounts
Maine asks for copies where most states demand certified ones, which saves both time and money. Article 10 of Title 18-C is the Maine Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, and § 10-107 governs the content of a deceased person’s electronic communications. Content is disclosed only where the person consented or a court directs it. The personal representative must then give the custodian a written request, a copy of the death certificate, and a copy of the letters of appointment or court order — copies, not the certified copies that Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota and New Hampshire demand. Unless the person gave direction through the provider’s online tool, you must also produce the will, trust or power of attorney showing consent. The custodian may additionally require an account identifier, evidence linking the account to the person, or a court finding, so have the account details to hand before you write. 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.
18-C M.R.S. § 10-107·last read 2026-08-25
Financial Settlement
Pay valid debts and expenses
Maine amended this order in 2023 and the additions sit high up. Under 18-C M.R.S. § 3-805, where assets are insufficient, the order is this. (A) Costs and expenses of administration. (B) Reasonable funeral expenses. Then the three family protections added in 2023 — (B-1) Homestead Allowance, (B-2) Family Allowance, (B-3) exempt property. Then (C) debts and taxes with federal preference. (D) Medicaid benefits recoverable under Title 22, together with the reasonable medical and hospital expenses of the last illness. (E) Debts and taxes with preference under other Maine laws. (F) All other claims. The family allowances outranking federal-preference debts is the notable part — in Maine the surviving family is protected before most creditors, which is not true everywhere. 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.
18-C M.R.S. § 3-805·last read 2026-08-27
File required tax returns
Maine has its own estate tax with a threshold that sits well below the federal one and is indexed, so it moves each year — $7,160,000 for deaths in 2026, against $7,000,000 for 2025 and $6,800,000 for 2024. That is high enough that most Maine estates are unaffected, but low enough that a farm, a working waterfront property or a long-held camp can push a family over without anyone expecting it. Because the figure is indexed, confirm the amount for the year of death rather than using a number from an article — and the mechanism is worth knowing so you can sanity-check whatever you are told. 36 M.R.S. § 4102(5) fixes the base at $5,600,000 for deaths from 1 January 2018, and § 4119 has the assessor multiply that by a chained-CPI adjustment each year, rounded to the nearest $10,000, published on or about 15 September for the following calendar year. So the real figure is always a round number, and the one you want is the one published for the year of death. Maine also has its own fiduciary income tax return for income the estate earns after the death, which is a separate filing from the estate tax and is required even where no estate tax is due. Two warnings that apply to every figure here. These amounts move almost every year and several are indexed to inflation, so confirm the current number for the date of death before relying on it — the year that governs is the year the person died, not the year you are filing. And having no state estate tax does not mean there is no state filing. Most states with an income tax want their own Fiduciary return once you file a federal Form 1041. Ask about the state’s own 1041 equivalent.
36 M.R.S. §§ 4102(5), 4119·last read 2026-09-09
Distribution
Distribute assets to heirs
Maine follows the Uniform Probate Code tiers, indexes them for inflation, and gives the fourth one no dollar cushion at all. 18-C M.R.S. § 2-102 sets four shares. The spouse takes the entire estate if no descendant or parent survives, or if every descendant is also the spouse’s and the spouse has no other children. They take a first fixed sum plus three quarters of the balance if there is no descendant but a parent survives. A smaller first sum plus half if all the descendants are shared but the spouse has children of their own. And a flat one half, with no cushion at all, if one or more of the deceased’s descendants are not the spouse’s. The statute prints those two sums as $300,000 and $100,000, but § 1-108 adjusts them for inflation against a 2017 base, keyed to the year of death, with any increase rounded down to the next $100. The county probate courts publish the resulting figures. For a death in 2026 they are $394,000 and $131,300; for 2025, $383,900 and $127,900. Treat the printed $300,000 and $100,000 as a floor rather than the answer. The fourth tier is still the one to watch: a single child from an earlier relationship removes the cushion entirely, and no indexing helps with that. Maine also bars an absent parent, and the section number is not where you would look for it — it is § 2-113, not 2-114. Under 18-C M.R.S. § 2-113 a parent cannot inherit through intestate succession from or through their child in two cases. Where the parent’s rights were terminated and the relationship was not judicially reestablished. Or where the child died before reaching eighteen and there is clear and convincing evidence that immediately before the death those rights could have been terminated under other Maine law for nonsupport, abandonment, abuse, neglect or other acts or omissions. A barred parent is treated as having predeceased the child. 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. Maine’s rules on who counts as a child were rewritten in 2017 and three of them are worth knowing before anyone is written off. Section 2-117 handles adoption differently from every other state in this set. An adoption order divests the former parents of everything “including the right to inherit from or through the adoptee” — and then: “An adoptee, however, may inherit from the adoptee’s former parents if so provided in the adoption decree.” There is no automatic stepparent exception here. Whether the tie survives is a question about what the DECREE says, so find the decree before assuming either way. Section 2-116 covers the petition that was still running when somebody died. If a parentage or adoption petition is pending and not finally adjudicated when the PETITIONER dies, the subject of that petition is considered their child and may inherit from and through them. The rule is deliberately asymmetric: if the subject dies first, the petitioner inherits only if there is a final adjudication. A half-finished adoption counts for the child and not for the adult. And § 2-118 puts numbers on a posthumously conceived child, where most states are silent. The deceased is a parent if the child was in utero not later than 36 months after the death, or born not later than 45 months after it.
18-C M.R.S. §§ 1-108, 2-102, 2-113, 2-116, 2-117, 2-118·last read 2026-09-09
Close Estate
File a final accounting and close the estate
Maine closes by sworn statement after six months. Under 18-C M.R.S. § 3-1003, unless prohibited by court order and except in supervised administration, the personal representative may close the estate by filing with the court a verified statement no earlier than six months after the original appointment of a general personal representative. The statement confirms that the creditors’ claim period has run and that the estate has been fully administered — claims presented paid, settled or otherwise disposed of, administration expenses and death taxes accounted for, and the assets distributed to the people entitled. No hearing is needed for this route, which is why most ordinary Maine estates never see a judge. 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.
18-C M.R.S. § 3-1003·last read 2026-08-18
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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 Maine probate attorney.