Settling an estate in Utah
An executor in Utah has to work through the District Court and a long list of tasks that have nothing to do with the court. This page sets out what Utah law actually requires at each step, with the section it comes from and the date we last read it.
- Probate court
- District Court
- Small-estate shortcut
- Estates of $100,000 or less may qualify for a simplified small-estate procedure (personal property only — it will not transfer real estate).
- Creditor claim period
- 3 months
- Typical timeline
- 6–12 months
- State death tax
- None — no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax
Immediate
Obtain certified death certificates
Utah lists the qualifying grounds exhaustively, and names the genealogist among them. Under Utah Code § 26B-8-125(2)(d) a custodian may issue a certified copy when satisfied that the applicant has demonstrated a direct, tangible and legitimate interest. Subsection (3) then says that interest is present only if one of a closed set of conditions is met. Those include a request from the subject, an immediate family member — defined as a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent or grandchild — the guardian, or a designated legal representative. Subsection (1)(a) defines that last term as an attorney, physician, funeral service director, genealogist, or other agent of the subject or of an immediate family member who has been delegated the authority to access vital records. The interest is also present where the request involves a personal or property right of the subject of the record. 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.
Utah Code § 26B-8-125·last read 2026-08-25
Locate the will (or confirm there is none)
Utah is request-triggered, and its wording is narrower than the neighbouring states in a way worth knowing. Under Utah Code § 75-2-902, after the death of a testator and on request of an interested person, a person having custody of the will shall deliver it with reasonable promptness to a person able to secure its probate. Most states that copied this provision add a fallback — if no such person is known, deliver it to an appropriate court. Utah’s section as written does not carry that clause, so the statute points at a person rather than at a courthouse. In practice that makes it worth naming yourself in the request as the person able to secure probate, so the custodian has an addressee the section actually recognises. A person who wilfully fails to deliver a will is liable to a person aggrieved for damages sustained by the failure, and a person who wilfully refuses or fails after a court order brought to compel delivery is subject to penalty for contempt of court. Until an interested person asks, nothing is late. Put the request in writing and keep a dated copy.
Utah Code § 75-2-902·last read 2026-08-25
Short-term
Claim the family allowances you are entitled to
Utah charges both of its allowances against the inheritance, which is the reverse of most states, and it indexes all three figures — so the numbers printed in the statute are a 2009 base rather than the answer. Under Utah Code § 75-2-402 a surviving spouse takes a homestead allowance, printed as $22,500, or where there is no spouse the minor and dependent children divide it. But the section makes it chargeable against any benefit or share passing to them by the will, by intestate succession, by way of elective share or by nonprobate transfer, so unless the will provides otherwise it reduces the inheritance rather than adding to it. Section 75-2-403 works the same way: exempt property, printed as $15,000, over and above any security interests, in household furniture, automobiles, furnishings, appliances and personal effects, and again chargeable against the share. Section 75-2-405 adds a family allowance. Section 75-1-110 indexes all of them to the year of death against a 2009 base, and the Administrative Office of the Courts publishes the figures each year before 1 February. For a death in 2026 the homestead allowance is $33,700, exempt property is $22,500 and the family allowance is $40,500; for 2025 they are $32,900, $21,900 and $39,500. All have priority over claims against the estate, though the exempt property may be reduced to let the homestead and family allowances be paid first. In Utah these protect the family from creditors rather than enlarging what the family receives.
Utah Code §§ 75-2-402, 75-2-403, 75-2-405, 75-1-110·last read 2026-08-26
Notify beneficiaries and keep them informed
Utah has no post-appointment duty to write to heirs — the clerk does it before probate is granted instead. Part 7 of chapter 3, which holds the personal representative’s duties, runs from § 75-3-701 to § 75-3-713 and contains no information-to-heirs section; § 75-3-705 there is the inventory. What Utah has is § 75-3-306(2): on receipt of an application for informal probate of a will, the clerk gives written notice to the heirs and devisees who have not waived it, delivered or sent by ordinary mail to the address shown on the application. That notice gives the applicant’s name and address, the name and location of the court, the date the application was filed, and a statement that probate will be granted after ten days. The reassuring part is the last sentence: failing to object within those ten days does not affect your right to petition to set the probate aside under § 75-3-401. 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.
Utah Code § 75-3-306·last read 2026-08-25
Determine if probate is required
Utah measures the $100,000 against the net value of the estate less liens and encumbrances, so real property counts toward the limit, while the affidavit reaches only personal property — bank accounts, securities, and up to four motor vehicles — and never real estate. The four-vehicle allowance is unusual and worth knowing if the person kept cars, trucks or trailers. Thirty days must have passed since the death, and no personal representative may have been appointed or applied for. If there is real property, ask the district court about Utah’s informal probate route instead, which is considerably lighter than supervised administration.
Utah Code § 75-3-1201·last read 2026-08-18
Legal Process
File a petition with the probate court
Utah’s registrar cannot act until the clerk’s notice has run, unless everyone waives it. Under Utah Code § 75-3-302 the registrar, on making the findings required by § 75-3-303, shall issue a written statement of informal probate. But only if at least ten days have elapsed since the date of the notice required by § 75-3-306 — or if at least 120 hours have elapsed since the death and all persons entitled to that notice have waived it in writing. So the ordinary path waits out the clerk’s ten-day notice to the heirs and devisees, while unanimous written waivers shorten the wait to five days from the death. That is the practical lever in Utah where the family is agreed. Two protections come with it: informal probate is conclusive as to all persons until superseded by an order in a formal testacy proceeding, and no defect in the application or the procedure leading to it renders the probate void. 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.
Utah Code § 75-3-302·last read 2026-08-25
Inventory all assets and debts
Utah asks you to prepare the inventory but not necessarily to file it. Under Utah Code § 75-3-705 a personal representative who is not a special administrator, and not a successor to someone who has already discharged the duty, must within three months after appointment prepare an inventory of property owned by the deceased at death. It is listed in reasonable detail, showing each item’s fair market value as at the date of death and the type and amount of any encumbrance. You must send a copy to interested persons who request it. Filing the original with the court is permitted but not required. So in Utah the document exists whether or not the court ever sees it, and a beneficiary who wants to see it has to ask for 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.
Utah Code § 75-3-705·last read 2026-08-25
Publish notice to creditors
Utah leaves publication to you, and that decision settles whether any clock runs at all. Under Utah Code § 75-3-801(1) a personal representative upon appointment may publish a notice to creditors announcing the appointment and address, requiring claims within three months after the date of first publication or they are forever barred. Publication runs once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, and electronically under § 45-1-101 for three weeks. Subsection (2) adds an optional direct route. You may give written notice by mail or other delivery to any creditor, requiring the claim within ninety days from the published notice, or sixty days from the mailing, whichever is later. Because both are permissive, an estate where nothing was published and nothing was mailed has barred nobody, and the exposure simply continues. 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.
Utah Code § 75-3-801·last read 2026-08-25
Administration
Identify and close digital accounts
Utah’s act gives you a deadline you can hold a provider to, and it is the part families never use. Under Utah Code § 75A-6-107 the content of electronic communications is disclosed where the deceased person consented or a court directs it, on a written request, a certified copy of the death certificate, and a certified copy of the letter of appointment — or a small estate affidavit or court order. Unless the online tool was used you must also produce the will, trust or power of attorney evidencing consent. The section worth quoting in your letter is § 75A-6-116: not later than sixty days after receiving the required information, the custodian shall comply with the request, and if it fails to, the fiduciary may apply to the court for an order directing compliance. That sixty-day clock runs in every state that adopted this act. Date your request and diary it. 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.
Utah Code §§ 75A-6-107, 75A-6-116·last read 2026-08-25
Financial Settlement
Pay valid debts and expenses
Utah reverses the first two classes of the Uniform Probate Code: the funeral comes first, ahead of the costs of administration. Utah Code § 75-3-805 ranks them where assets are insufficient. (a) Reasonable funeral expenses. (b) Costs and expenses of administration. (c) Debts and taxes with preference under federal law. (d) Reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness, including compensation of those attending, and medical assistance where Section 26B-3-1013 applies. (e) Debts and taxes with preference under other Utah laws. (f) All other claims. Subsection (2) adds that no claim is preferred over another of the same class, and that a claim due and payable gets no preference over claims not yet due. If you have read general UPC guidance elsewhere it will have administration first — in Utah that is the wrong way round, and it matters when the estate cannot cover both. 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.
Utah Code § 75-3-805·last read 2026-08-27
File required tax returns
Utah repealed its death tax chapter outright, and did so recently. Title 59, Chapter 11 — the Inheritance Tax Act — is stamped repealed as of 6 May 2026 in the Legislature’s own published code, which now carries nothing but the chapter heading and that repeal date. Before then the chapter was already a dead letter in practice, because it was a pick-up tax measured by the federal credit for state death taxes that Congress replaced with a deduction. Utah has no inheritance tax either. Utah does tax income, so an estate that earns income during administration will have a Utah fiduciary return to file. Because the repeal is recent, older guides and older probate checklists may still describe a Utah inheritance tax filing — check the date on anything that tells you one is due. 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.
Utah Code Title 59, Chapter 11 (repealed 6 May 2026)·last read 2026-08-25
Distribution
Distribute assets to heirs
Utah is more generous to the spouse than almost any other Uniform Probate Code state, because it ignores the parents entirely — and it indexes the one figure it does use. Under Utah Code § 75-2-102 the surviving spouse takes the entire intestate estate if no descendant of the deceased survives, or if all the deceased’s surviving descendants are also descendants of the surviving spouse. Only where one or more of the deceased’s surviving descendants are not the spouse’s does the estate split, and then the spouse takes a first fixed sum plus half of any balance. The statute prints that sum as $75,000, but § 75-1-110 adjusts it against a 2009 base, keyed to the year of death, rounding any increase down to the next $100 — and the Administrative Office of the Courts publishes the cumulative list before 1 February each year. For a death in 2026 the figure is $112,500; for 2025 it is $109,700. So in Utah a childless widow or widower takes everything even where the deceased’s mother and father are both living — in most uniform-code states that same family would give the parents a quarter of the balance. The section also treats certain non-probate transfers the spouse receives as an advancement when the shares are worked out, so what passed outside probate can reduce what the spouse takes inside it. Utah also shuts out an absent parent, and the rule is easy to miss because of where it sits. Section 75-2-114 is headed parent and child relationship, and the bar is subsection (4): inheritance from or through a child by the child’s parent or the child’s kindred is precluded unless that parent openly treated the child as their own and did not refuse to support the child. There is no time period and no court finding required — the test is open treatment plus not refusing support — and it reaches the parent’s side of the family, not just the parent. Note the section was amended by the 2026 General Session with effect from 6 May 2026 and now takes its parentage definitions from Title 81, so older write-ups of it are out of date. The rest of that section says who counts as a child, and the 2026 rewrite changed its vocabulary as well as its cross-reference. Under subsection (2) an individual is the child of their parents “regardless of the individual’s parent’s marital status”, with the relationship established under Title 81, Chapter 5, the Uniform Parentage Act. Subsection (3) is the adoption rule: an adopted individual is the child of the adopting parents and not of the “pre-existing parent”, a term the section now takes from § 81-13-101. The exception is narrow. Adoption by the spouse of a child’s pre-existing parent has no effect on the relationship between the child and that pre-existing parent — and the subsection stops there, so the other pre-existing parent’s side is cut off. Arizona and Montana both go further in the same situation, expressly preserving the child’s right to inherit from or through the other parent; Utah does not, so a stepparent adoption here costs the child one side of the family. 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.
Utah Code §§ 75-2-102, 75-1-110, 75-2-114 (am. 2026 Gen. Sess. ch. 155)·last read 2026-09-09
Close Estate
File a final accounting and close the estate
Utah lets the family waive the accounting, which is the difference between a short close and a long one. Under Utah Code § 75-3-1003(1) a personal representative may close by filing a verified statement no earlier than four months after the date of the original appointment of a general personal representative. It must state that the time limitation for presenting creditors’ claims has expired, and that the estate has been fully administered — claims presented, administration expenses and death taxes paid, settled or otherwise disposed of, and the assets distributed. It must also confirm that a copy has gone to all distributees and to every creditor whose claim is neither paid nor barred, with a full written account to the distributees affected. Subsection (3) is the useful part: any accounting required under this section, or under § 75-3-1001 or § 75-3-1002, may be waived where all the distributees consent in writing. Under (2) the appointment terminates one year after filing if no proceedings are pending. 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.
Utah Code § 75-3-1003·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 Utah probate attorney.