Do I have to go through probate in Michigan?

In Michigan, estates worth $53,000 or less may qualify for a simplified small-estate procedure (personal property only). Estates above that generally require probate through the Probate Court.

How long do creditors have to make a claim in Michigan?

The creditor claim period in Michigan is generally 4 months. What starts that clock varies, so confirm which date applies before relying on it.

How long does probate take in Michigan?

A typical Michigan estate takes 6–18 months. Complications — a contested will, an unsold house, a late-surfacing creditor — extend it.

Does Michigan have an estate or inheritance tax?

Michigan has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. That is not the same as nothing to file: if the estate earns income and you file a federal Form 1041, many states want their own fiduciary return alongside it.

EstateMate › Probate by state › Michigan

Settling an estate in Michigan

An executor in Michigan 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 Michigan 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 $53,000 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: 6–18 months
State death tax: None — no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax

Immediate

Obtain certified death certificates

Michigan is unusually open here and it will surprise anyone who has dealt with a restrictive state. Under MCL 333.2882(1)(c) the state registrar or a local registrar shall, on a written request and the prescribed fee, issue a certified copy of a death record — including the cause of death — to any applicant. There is no requirement to show you are a relative, an heir or a personal representative, which is a real practical difference: a friend, a neighbour or your attorney can collect them on your behalf without paperwork proving the connection. Note that Michigan treats birth records far more restrictively, so do not assume the same openness if you also need one of those. 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.

MCL 333.2882·last read 2026-08-18

Locate the will (or confirm there is none)

Michigan sets a lower bar for liability than most states, which is worth knowing if you are the one holding the will. Under MCL 700.2516 a custodian of a will or codicil, or anyone having possession or care of one, must forward it to the court having jurisdiction with reasonable promptness after the death — either by delivering it personally or by sending it properly addressed by registered mail. Then the key difference: a person who neglects to perform this duty without reasonable cause is liable for the damages sustained. Most states require the failure to be wilful; Michigan does not, so simple neglect is enough. A person who wilfully refuses after a court order is in contempt. If you are an heir and you believe someone is sitting on the will, do not wait to see whether the clock starts: here it is already running, and it started with the death or with their knowledge of it, not with anything you do. A written request is therefore not what creates the duty — it is what evidences the breach. Make it in writing anyway and keep a dated copy, because that is what turns a delay into something you can prove.

MCL 700.2516·last read 2026-08-19

Short-term

Claim the family allowances you are entitled to

Michigan indexes all three figures, so the numbers printed in the statute are not the numbers you get. MCL 700.2402 states a homestead allowance of $15,000, § 700.2404 exempt property of $10,000 and § 700.2405 a family allowance of $18,000. But § 700.1210 requires each to be multiplied by the 1997 cost-of-living factor for the calendar year in which the person died, then rounded to the nearest $1,000, and Treasury publishes that factor before 1 February each year. For deaths in 2026 the factor is 2.006, which puts the homestead allowance at $30,000, exempt property at $20,000 and the family allowance at $36,000. For deaths in 2025 the factor was 1.954 and the figures were $29,000, $20,000 and $35,000. Those are the operative amounts and together they are substantial. The multiplier is fixed by the year of death rather than the year you claim, so find the notice for the right year, and treat any guidance quoting $15,000 as out of date. One thing can take all three away. Under MCL 700.2803 a person who feloniously and intentionally kills the deceased, or who is convicted of abuse, neglect or exploitation with respect to them, forfeits every benefit under this article — and the section names the homestead allowance, the family allowance and exempt property among them. So where there has been an allegation of elder abuse, these allowances are not automatic.

MCL §§ 700.2402, 700.2404, 700.2405, 700.1210, 700.2803·last read 2026-08-27

Notify beneficiaries and keep them informed

Michigan gives you twenty-eight days — not thirty, which is an easy few days to lose. Under MCL 700.3705 the personal representative (other than a special personal representative) must give notice of the appointment to the deceased’s heirs and devisees within 28 days of appointment, or such other time as a court rule sets. Michigan adds a recipient most states do not: if the person was the settlor of a trust described in § 7605(1), the trustee of that trust must be notified too. Notice is by personal service or ordinary first-class mail to each person whose address is reasonably available. Anyone who has signed a written waiver of notice can be left out, as can a person already adjudicated to have no interest in the estate. 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. The notice is not free-form either. MCL 700.3705(1) requires a form approved by the Supreme Court, and it must state four things. That the court will not supervise you — omitted where yours is a supervised proceeding. That unless someone files a written objection to your appointment or a demand that bond or higher bond be posted, you serve without bond or with the bond shown. Your name and address as personal representative. And that during the administration you must give every interested person a copy of the petition for your appointment and of the will, a copy of the inventory, and a copy of the settlement petition or closing statement. So the letter doubles as notice of the objection window — which is precisely why a friendly note of your own devising is not compliance.

MCL 700.3705·last read 2026-08-19

Determine if probate is required

Michigan has two routes and the figure in the statute is not the figure that applies. Under MCL 700.3983 a sworn statement works after twenty-eight days — not thirty — where the estate does not include real property and the value of the entire estate, wherever located, net of liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $50,000 “Adjusted as provided in section 1210“. That adjustment is an inflation uplift, which is why the figure shown above is about $53,000 for a 2026 death rather than the $50,000 printed in the law. Ask the probate court for the current number against the date of death. The second route, MCL 700.3982, is a Court Order distributing a small estate, and it puts the funeral first: if funeral and burial expenses are unpaid or were paid by someone else, the court shall order the property used first to pay them or reimburse whoever did, before anything reaches the spouse or heirs.

MCL §§ 700.3982, 700.3983·last read 2026-08-18

Legal Process

File a petition with the probate court

Michigan runs under EPIC, the Estates and Protected Individuals Code, and most estates never reach a judge. Under MCL 700.3301 an interested person applies for informal probate or informal appointment, and the application is directed to the register rather than to a judge. You swear it is accurate and complete, and it asks for the deceased’s date of death and age, their county and state of domicile, and the names, addresses and ages of the spouse, children, devisees and heirs so far as you can establish them with reasonable diligence. Under MCL 700.3302 the register then issues a written statement of informal probate once the § 3303 findings are made; that probate is conclusive as to everyone until superseded by an order in a formal testacy proceeding, and a defect in the application does not make it void. One timing rule is worth knowing: if no application is filed within 28 days of the death, MCL 700.3301(1) lets a person holding a right or cause of action that cannot be enforced without an administration file the application instead. Leaving it undone does not leave the estate undisturbed — it hands the opening to a creditor. Formal proceedings before a judge are for contested or complicated estates; ask the county probate court whether yours qualifies for informal, because most uncontested estates do.

Mich. Comp. Laws §§ 700.3301, 700.3302·last read 2026-08-19

Inventory all assets and debts

Michigan gives you 91 days, and the duty most people miss is service, not filing. Under MCL 700.3706 a personal representative must within 91 days of appointment prepare an inventory of the property owned at death, in reasonable detail. It shows each item’s fair market value as of the date of death and the type and amount of any encumbrance. The duty does not fall on a special personal representative, or on a successor where it was already discharged. Filing with the court is optional, but sending it is not: you must send a copy to all presumptive distributees, and to any other interested person who asks. That is a wider duty than in the states where the inventory goes only to whoever requests it. Separately, Michigan charges an inventory fee that scales with the value of the estate rather than a flat filing fee — MCL 600.871 sets the graduated scale, and § 700.3706(2) requires you to give the court the figures it needs to calculate it. On a larger estate that is a meaningful sum, so budget for it early and use your county probate court’s inventory fee calculator for the exact number. Values are as of the date of death, not today.

Mich. Comp. Laws § 700.3706; § 600.871·last read 2026-08-19

Publish notice to creditors

Michigan sets the wording by Supreme Court Rule rather than in the statute, and defines a “known“ creditor more broadly than people expect. Under MCL 700.3801 the personal representative shall, upon appointment, publish notice as provided by court rule, giving creditors four months from publication before they are barred. You must also send a copy to each creditor you know of at the time of publication or during the four months that follow, and to the trustee of a trust described in § 7605(1) where the deceased was settlor. Critically, you “know“ a creditor not only where you have actual notice but where their existence is reasonably ascertainable on an investigation — so a look through the post and the bank statements is part of the job, not optional diligence. 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.

MCL 700.3801·last read 2026-08-18

Administration

Identify and close digital accounts

Michigan asks for a plain copy of the death certificate, which saves a step and a fee. The Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act is Act 59 of 2016, and MCL 700.1007 governs the content of a deceased user’s electronic communications. Content is disclosed where the person consented or a court directs it, and the personal representative must give the digital custodian a written request, a copy of the death certificate — a copy, not a certified one — and a certified copy of the letters of authority, a small-estate affidavit, or other court order. Unless the person used the provider’s online tool you must also produce the will, trust or power of attorney evidencing consent. Note Michigan’s vocabulary: the act says digital custodian throughout, which is worth matching in your letter. 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.

MCL 700.1007·last read 2026-08-25

Financial Settlement

Pay valid debts and expenses

Michigan puts the family protections third, fourth and fifth — above medical bills and above state taxes. MCL 700.3805 ranks them. (a) Costs and expenses of administration. (b) Reasonable funeral and burial expenses. (c) Homestead Allowance. (d) Family Allowance. (e) Exempt property. (f) Debts and taxes with priority under federal law, which the statute says expressly includes Medicaid estate recovery under 42 U.S.C. 1396p. (g) Reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness. (h) Debts and taxes with priority under other Michigan laws. (i) All other claims. Naming Medicaid recovery inside the federal class is the Michigan-specific point — it ranks above the last illness, not below it. Subsection (3) then puts a duty on you that most executors never hear about. Where the property will not cover the claims and the allowances, the representative shall certify the amount and nature of the deficiency to the trustee of a trust described in § 7605(1), for the trustee to pay under § 7606. And where the representative knows of other nonprobate transfers that may be liable, then unless the will provides otherwise they shall proceed to collect the deficiency, in a manner reasonable in the circumstances, so that each transfer bears a proportionate or equitable share of the total burden. So a Michigan revocable trust and the assets that passed outside probate are not beyond the reach of the estate’s creditors — and going after them is the representative’s job, not the creditors’. 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.

MCL §§ 700.3805, 700.7606·last read 2026-08-27

File required tax returns

Michigan’s estate tax act dates from 1899 and no longer collects anything. MCL 205.232 imposes a tax on the transfer of the estate of every person who at the time of death was a Michigan resident, and sets it equal to the maximum allowable federal credit under the Internal Revenue Code for estate, inheritance, legacy and succession taxes paid to the states. Congress replaced that credit with a deduction, so the maximum allowable credit is zero and no Michigan estate tax is due. The same 1899 act still carries the old inheritance tax at MCL 205.201, but MCL 205.231 — added by 1993 Act 54 — renamed the whole act the Michigan estate tax act, and the inheritance tax reaches only deaths long in the past. If you are winding up an estate where the death was decades ago, check that with Treasury rather than assuming. Michigan taxes income, so an estate that earns income during administration will have a Michigan fiduciary return to file. Ask Treasury for the current form and threshold. 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.

MCL 205.201, 205.231, 205.232·last read 2026-08-25

Distribution

Distribute assets to heirs

Michigan has six tiers, more than any state we cover, and — this is the part that catches people — the dollar figures printed in the statute are not the ones that apply. MCL 700.2102(1) sets six shares. The spouse takes the entire estate if no descendant and no parent survives. They take the first tier amount plus half the balance if all the descendants are shared and the spouse has no other children. They take that same amount plus three quarters if there is no descendant but a parent survives. That amount plus half if all the descendants are shared but the spouse has children of their own. That amount plus half again if some but not all of the deceased’s descendants are the spouse’s. And a lower amount plus half if none of them are. Subsection (2) is the key: each dollar amount must be adjusted as provided in section 1210. Under MCL 700.1210(1) the printed $150,000 and $100,000 are multiplied by the 1997 cost-of-living adjustment factor for the calendar year in which the person DIED, rounded to the nearest $1,000, with the Department of Treasury certifying the factor each year before 1 February. For a 2026 death the factor is 2.006, so the figures are $301,000 and $201,000. For a 2025 death they are $293,000 and $195,000. The year of death controls, not the year you are settling the estate — so find the right year’s row in Treasury’s table before you divide anything. Before applying any of the tiers above, check whether the survivor is a surviving spouse at all, because Michigan defines that narrowly. MCL 700.2801(1) excludes anyone divorced or whose marriage was annulled, and says a decree of separation that does not end the marriage is not a divorce for this purpose. Subsection (2) then excludes several more people. Somebody who obtained or consented to a divorce or annulment Michigan does not recognise. Somebody who, after an invalid decree obtained by the deceased, went through a marriage ceremony with a third person. Somebody who was party to a concluded proceeding purporting to terminate all marital property rights. Somebody living in a bigamous relationship at the death. And, most likely to arise in an ordinary family, somebody who for one year or more before the death was wilfully absent from the deceased spouse, deserted them, or wilfully neglected or refused to support them where required by law to do so. Separated but never divorced is exactly the case this reaches. Michigan also has a forfeiture that covers elder abuse alongside killing, and it takes more than the share. Under MCL 700.2803(1) someone who feloniously and intentionally kills the deceased, or who is convicted of committing abuse, neglect or exploitation with respect to them, forfeits ALL benefits under this article: the intestate share, the elective share, an omitted spouse’s or child’s share, the homestead allowance, the family allowance and exempt property. The intestate estate then passes as if that person had disclaimed. Subsection (2) goes further. It revokes any revocable disposition or appointment the deceased made to them in a governing instrument, any power of appointment conferred on them, and any nomination of them to serve as personal representative, executor, funeral representative, trustee or agent. It also severs a joint tenancy with right of survivorship held at the time of the killing or the abuse. Note the difference between the two limbs: the abuse limb requires a CONVICTION, the killing limb does not. 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. MCL 700.2114 settles who counts as a child, and Michigan’s list is longer and more modern than most. Subsection (1) starts from the child of their natural parents “regardless of their marital status”, then gives six ways the relationship can be established where the child was born out of wedlock. Two of them matter more than the rest. Under (1)(b)(iii) a mutually acknowledged relationship of parent and child counts, if it began before the child turned eighteen and continued until the death of one of them — so a parent who never married, never signed anything and never went to court can still be a parent here. And under (1)(b)(v) the probate court may make that determination “regardless of the child’s age or whether or not the individual with a claim to parentage has died”, so there is no point at which the question closes. Paragraphs (d) and (e) treat the intended parents as the parents for assisted reproduction and surrogacy. Subsection (2) is adoption: the adopted individual is the child of the adoptive parents and not the natural parents, but a stepparent adoption has no effect on the relationship with that natural parent, nor on the right to inherit from or through the other one. Adoption counts from an interlocutory decree that is not vacated or reversed. Subsection (4) is the open-treatment bar, and like Arizona’s it reaches the parent’s kindred as well as the parent.

MCL 700.2102, 700.1210, 700.2114, 700.2801, 700.2803·last read 2026-09-09

Close Estate

File a final accounting and close the estate

Michigan’s wait is five months — an odd figure that sits between the four-month and six-month states, and easy to get wrong by assuming six. Under MCL 700.3954, unless prohibited by court order and except in supervised administration, the personal representative may close by filing a Sworn Statement no earlier than five months after the general personal representative’s original appointment. Michigan also asks for something most states do not: the statement must confirm that notice was published and that the time limited for presenting creditors’ claims has expired — so if publication was skipped you cannot close this way. It must also confirm full administration and distribution, describing any claim still undischarged. 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.

MCL 700.3954·last read 2026-08-18

Work through this as a checklist

The free Michigan checklist tracks where you are across every step, keeps your documents in one place, and tells you what is due next. No payment, no card.

Open the free Michigan checklist

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 Michigan probate attorney.