Settling an estate in Virginia
An executor in Virginia has to work through the Circuit Court and a long list of tasks that have nothing to do with the court. This page sets out what Virginia law actually requires at each step, with the section it comes from and the date we last read it.
- Probate court
- Circuit Court
- Small-estate shortcut
- Estates of $75,000 or less may qualify for a simplified small-estate procedure (personal property only — real estate is not counted toward the limit).
- Creditor claim period
- No fixed window — see the notice-to-creditors step below for what actually protects you here.
- Typical timeline
- 6–18 months
- State death tax
- None — no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax
Immediate
Obtain certified death certificates
You can get certified copies from any local health department, regardless of which county the death happened in — you do not have to travel there. They are also sold at DMV customer service centers, which is often the fastest route, or by mail from the Division of Vital Records in Richmond. On price: the Department of Health and the DMV adjusted the vital record certificate fee to $15.00 effective 1 July 2026, under Chapter 616 of the 2026 Acts of Assembly, so guidance quoting an older figure is out of date. Order several while you are there — every institution wants its own certified copy and none will accept a photocopy.
Va. Dept. of Health, Division of Vital Records (fee per 2026 Acts of Assembly ch. 616)·last read 2026-08-18
Locate the will (or confirm there is none)
A will is offered for probate to the Clerk of the Circuit Court where the person lived, and Virginia really does let a will be lodged with that clerk during life — § 64.2-409 sets out how. The person or their attorney lodges it with the clerk of the circuit court where they reside. The clerk gives a receipt, seals it in a numbered envelope endorsed with the testator’s name and the date, and indexes it alphabetically by both the testator’s name and the executor’s — so the clerk can search for it even if you are not sure the will exists. The envelope stays sealed until the testator asks for it back in writing, or until they die. On Notice of the Death the clerk opens it and delivers it to anyone entitled to offer it for probate, so your job is simply to tell the clerk the person has died. One more place to ask: an attorney, bank or trust company that has held a will for a client for at least seven years without knowing whether the client is alive may lodge it with the clerk themselves, so a will left with a firm that has since closed may have ended up there. Finally, do not open a safe deposit box alone to look — take someone with you or ask the bank about their procedure, so nobody can later question what was in it.
Va. Code § 64.2-409·last read 2026-08-19
Short-term
Claim the family allowances you are entitled to
Virginia gives three separate allowances and they stack. A surviving spouse, and minor children the person was obliged to support, can claim allowances out of the estate on top of anything else: a Family Allowance for maintenance during administration, payable as a lump sum of up to $30,000 or in instalments of up to $2,500 a month (§ 64.2-309). Exempt property of up to $25,000 in household furniture, vehicles, furnishings, appliances and personal effects, over and above any loan secured on them (§ 64.2-310). And a Homestead Allowance of $25,000 (§ 64.2-311). The homestead allowance has priority over all claims against the estate except the family allowance and exempt property — so it comes ahead of creditors, which matters most in exactly the estates that cannot pay everyone. Two catches. There is a deadline: under § 64.2-313 the election must be made no later than one year after the later of the will being admitted to probate or an administrator qualifying, either in person before the court or by a writing recorded with the clerk. And the homestead allowance is expressly in lieu of a share passing to the spouse or minor children, so it is not simply added on top — check how it interacts with the share before assuming. If money is tight for the surviving spouse right now, this is the first thing to ask about. One provision can remove all of these, and which version applies turns on the date of death. Va. Code § 64.2-308(A) bars a spouse who wilfully deserts or abandons the other, where that continues until the death, from intestate succession, the elective share, EXEMPT PROPERTY, the FAMILY ALLOWANCE and the HOMESTEAD ALLOWANCE — so the allowances go with the share, not separately. That section sits in the article applying to deaths before 1 January 2017; the article for later deaths carries only a parent version at § 64.2-308.17. Whether the spousal bar still operates for a later death is not something the code settles on its face, so ask before assuming an estranged spouse can claim these.
Va. Code §§ 64.2-309, 64.2-310, 64.2-311, 64.2-313, 64.2-308·last read 2026-08-27
Notify beneficiaries and keep them informed
Virginia does not leave this to judgement — it is a statutory requirement with two deadlines. Under Va. Code § 64.2-508 you must give written notice to the heirs and beneficiaries within 30 days of qualifying, using the Notice Regarding Estate the clerk hands you (Form CC-1616). Then within four months you must file an Affidavit of Notice (Form CC-1617) confirming you sent them. This second filing is the one people forget: the commissioner of accounts cannot approve a settlement until it is on file, so skipping it stops you closing the estate later. Read the list of who must be told, because it is wider than “the beneficiaries”: § 64.2-508(a) covers the surviving spouse, all heirs at law whether or not there is a will, every living and ascertained beneficiary under the will including anyone taking under § 64.2-418 and beneficiaries of any trust the will creates. People with a will routinely notify only the named beneficiaries and miss the heirs at law entirely.
Va. Code § 64.2-508·last read 2026-08-19
Determine if probate is required
Virginia’s small estate affidavit covers a personal estate of up to $75,000 — § 64.2-600 defines a small asset as one worth no more than that on the date of death and expressly not real property, so a house closes this route however modest the rest is. Under § 64.2-601 the affidavit is made by all the known successors and must state four things, two of which families routinely miss: that the entire personal probate estate wherever located does not exceed $75,000. That at least 60 days have passed since the death. That no application for a personal representative is pending or has been granted anywhere. And that the will, if there is one, was duly probated. That last point surprises people — the affidavit collects the assets, it does not excuse probating the will. Form CC-1685. There is also a lighter route worth asking about: under § 64.2-602 a holder may pay out a small asset of $35,000 or less without any affidavit at all, provided 60 days have passed and no personal representative has been applied for. Whoever receives it then owes a fiduciary duty to pass the right shares to the other successors.
Va. Code §§ 64.2-600, 64.2-601, 64.2-602·last read 2026-08-19
Legal Process
File a petition with the probate court
You qualify before the Clerk of the Circuit Court, usually by appointment rather than by petitioning a judge, Section 64.2-444 is what makes that possible. The clerk, or a duly qualified deputy, may admit wills to probate and appoint and qualify executors and administrators in the same manner and with like effect as the Circuit Court. Which county or city: under § 64.2-443 it is where the person had a known place of residence. If there was none, where any real estate they devised or owned lies. And failing that, where they died or where they have any estate. One provision worth knowing before you assume the answer: if the person had gone into a nursing home, convalescent home or similar institution because of advanced age or impaired health, their legal residence is rebuttably presumed to be where it was before they became a patient. So a parent who spent their last two years in a facility one county over is usually still probated at home. Call the clerk’s office in that county to book the appointment and confirm what to bring.
Va. Code §§ 64.2-443, 64.2-444·last read 2026-08-19
Inventory all assets and debts
In Virginia the inventory is filed with the Commissioner of Accounts, not the court itself, within four months of the date you qualified (Va. Code § 64.2-1300). The commissioner is appointed by the Circuit Court but is a separate office with its own filing address — sending it to the clerk is a common and costly delay.
Va. Code § 64.2-1300·last read 2026-08-19
Publish notice to creditors
Virginia does not require you to place a newspaper notice yourself. The debts and demands process runs through the Commissioner of Accounts, who publishes and posts it at the courthouse, and only when a hearing is requested by you, a creditor, a legatee or a distributee (§ 64.2-550). The claim period runs from your qualification, not from any notice date. There is also an optional route worth asking your commissioner about: § 64.2-508.1 lets a personal representative, on qualification, publish a notice calling on anyone with a claim to present it by a date named in the notice. Two things that section defines usefully. A “claim” for this purpose covers debts of every kind that arose before the death, but expressly not a mortgage, pledge, security interest or other lien already existing at the date of death, and not the shares that heirs or devisees are claiming as heirs or devisees. So publishing does nothing about the mortgage on the house, and it is not a way of shutting out a beneficiary. What the note above does not by itself answer is when you can safely pay out, and § 64.2-529 is where that sits. A personal representative who, after twelve months from qualification, pays a debt or demand of the deceased is not personally liable for any debt or demand of an equal or superior class. Read what that does and does not do. It caps your personal exposure after a year; it does not bar the creditor, and the assets of the estate remain answerable for a valid claim. So the twelve months is your protection, not the creditor’s deadline — which is why there is no fixed creditor window to quote in Virginia.
Va. Code §§ 64.2-529, 64.2-550, 64.2-508.1·last read 2026-08-19
Administration
Identify and close digital accounts
Virginia enacted the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act in 2017 (2017 cc. 33, 80), at Va. Code §§ 64.2-116 to 64.2-132 — article 3.1, seventeen sections. Note what it does not give you: access to the content of emails, texts and messages requires the person to have consented in a will, trust or power of attorney. Without that, a custodian may give you only a catalogue — who was contacted and when — not what was said. Files, domains and virtual currency are treated more openly than communications, so an estate that needs to reach a cryptocurrency account is on much firmer ground than one that wants to read a mailbox. One more point, and in your actual order of work it belongs first: check for an online tool before you check the will. Under Va. Code § 64.2-118 the opening question is not what the will says. Some providers offer a tool that lets the user name who may receive their account — Google’s Inactive Account Manager, Facebook’s Legacy Contact and the like. If the user actually used it, that direction overrides a contrary direction in a will, trust or power of attorney. That holds so long as the tool let them change or delete it at any time. Only where there is no online-tool direction does the will, trust or power of attorney govern, and only where there is neither does the provider’s terms-of-service agreement decide. So look at the accounts before you look at the paperwork — it is quick, it is free, and it can settle the question outright.
Va. Code §§ 64.2-116 to 64.2-132 (esp. § 64.2-118)·last read 2026-08-19
Financial Settlement
Pay valid debts and expenses
Virginia sets ten ranks in Va. Code § 64.2-528, and they bind when the estate cannot pay everything. First come the costs and expenses of administration. Then the family, homestead and exempt-property allowances under Article 2. Then funeral expenses, capped at $5,000. Then debts and taxes with preference under federal law. Then the medical and hospital expenses of the last illness, including compensation of those attending — capped at $4,000 for each hospital and nursing home, and $550 for each person furnishing services or goods. Then debts and taxes due the Commonwealth. Then debts owed as trustee, receiver, personal representative, guardian or conservator, along with money collected for someone else and never paid over. Then child support arrearages. Then debts and taxes due localities. Everything else comes last. Administration costs come first, ahead of the funeral. There is no preference within a class, and a debt already due does not outrank one not yet due. The section was last amended in 2025, so older summaries may show different caps. Paying a lower-ranked debt before a higher-ranked one can leave you personally liable for the difference. So if the estate may not cover everything, stop before paying anything beyond the costs of administration, and take advice — because in Virginia the Article 2 allowances rank AHEAD of the funeral, so settling the funeral bill early is itself one of the ways to get this wrong. One connection is worth making to the family allowances step. Rank 2 is those allowances, under Article 2 of Chapter 3. A surviving spouse’s family allowance, exempt property and homestead allowance are therefore paid ahead of the funeral bill and ahead of every ordinary creditor. In an estate that cannot pay everyone, claiming them is not just worth money — it changes who gets paid at all.
Va. Code § 64.2-528·last read 2026-08-27
File required tax returns
Virginia has no estate tax and no inheritance tax, but that is not the same as nothing to file. If the estate earns income and you file a federal Form 1041, Virginia wants form 770 as well. The deadline is the trap: § 58.1-381 requires the return on or before may 1 for a calendar year — not April 15, and not the federal date — or, if you use a fiscal year, by the fifteenth day of the fourth month after it closes. A return covering only part of a year is due as though it covered the full twelve months. Separately, the final individual return for the person who died is filed by you as executor or administrator, not by the estate. Virginia’s estate tax chapter has never been deleted from the Code. Section 58.1-902 still imposes a tax “in the amount of the federal credit,” meaning the credit under IRC § 2011, which Congress replaced with a deduction. The amount is therefore zero, and § 58.1-905 asks for a return only from an estate subject to that tax.
Va. Code §§ 58.1-381 (Form 770), 58.1-902·last read 2026-09-09
Distribution
Distribute assets to heirs
Virginia intestacy has a trap for blended families. If all of the deceased's children are also the surviving spouse's, the spouse takes the whole estate. But if even one child is from another relationship, the spouse takes only one third and the children share the other two thirds (Va. Code § 64.2-200). This surprises people constantly, and getting it wrong means distributing to the wrong people — which you may have to make good personally. Separately, Virginia gives a surviving spouse statutory allowances that are claimed apart from these shares and have their own deadline — see the family allowances step. There is also a desertion bar, and which version applies turns on the date of death \u2014 which is worth raising with the court or an attorney rather than assuming. For a death before 1 January 2017, Va. Code \u00a7 64.2-308(A) is explicit: a spouse who wilfully deserts or abandons the other, where that continues until the death, is barred from intestate succession, the elective share, exempt property, the family allowance and the homestead allowance. For a death on or after that date the elective-share rules moved to a new article, and its counterpart, \u00a7 64.2-308.17, carries only the parent version \u2014 a parent who wilfully deserts a minor or incapacitated child is barred from the child\u2019s estate. Whether the spousal bar still operates for a later death is not something we can settle from the face of the code, so ask. Virginia also has a full slayer act in its own chapter, which is easy to miss because it sits away from the descent rules. Chapter 25 of Title 64.2 runs from § 64.2-2500 to § 64.2-2511 and works the problem through. A slayer does not acquire property as a result of the slaying. Separate sections then deal with property passing by will or intestate succession and the surviving spouse, concurrent ownership with or without survivorship, reversions and vested remainders, interests depending on survivorship, contingent remainders and future interests, powers of appointment, and insurance proceeds. It protects an insurer or obligor paying in good faith and a person acquiring from the slayer, and § 64.2-2510 makes the judicial record determining someone a slayer admissible. Section 64.2-102 says who counts as a child, and it contains a deadline that ends claims. On adoption Virginia is the most generous version of the rule: an adopted person is the child of the adopting parent and not of the biological parents, “except that adoption of a child by the spouse of a biological parent has no effect on the relationship between the child and EITHER biological parent”. Not one parent, and not one-way — both, in full. 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 or dissolved one, or where paternity is established by clear and convincing evidence including genetic testing under § 64.2-103. That second route is one-way: it does not let the father or his kindred inherit from the child unless he openly treated the child as his and did not refuse to support them. Now the deadline. Under subdivision 4 no such claim of succession is recognised unless, WITHIN ONE YEAR of the parent’s death, both an affidavit alleging parenthood is filed in the clerk’s office of the circuit court where the property is, AND an action seeking adjudication of parenthood is filed in an appropriate circuit court. Two filings, two places, one year — and the section says the period runs “notwithstanding the minority of such child”, so a child’s age does not pause it. It does not apply where the relationship is already established by a birth record given on the parent’s information, by an admission of parenthood before a court or in writing under oath, or by a previous paternity judgment. Subdivision 5 adds that terminating residual parental rights under § 16.1-283 stops the PARENT taking from or through the child, without otherwise cutting down the child’s own rights.
Va. Code §§ 64.2-102, 64.2-103, 64.2-200, 64.2-308, 64.2-308.17, 64.2-309, 64.2-310, 64.2-311, 64.2-313, ch. 25 (64.2-2500 et seq.)·last read 2026-09-09
Close Estate
File a final accounting and close the estate
The account goes to the Commissioner of Accounts, not to the court — § 64.2-1312 has the commissioner state, settle and report it to the Circuit Court. The deadlines: under § 64.2-1304 the first account is due within sixteen months of qualification and covers the first twelve. Each later 12-month period is then due within four months of the end of that period, unless the commissioner extends the time for reasonable cause. So an estate that runs long files repeatedly, not once. The shortcut most Virginia families qualify for sits in § 64.2-1314. If all the distributees, or all the residuary beneficiaries under the will, are the personal representatives, you may file a Statement in Lieu of an account. It swears to three things: that all known charges have been paid, that six months have passed since you qualified in the clerk’s office, and that the residue has been delivered. A residuary beneficiary must attach an itemized list with vouchers showing every other bequest was satisfied. This is the ordinary route where a parent leaves everything to the children who are serving. If you cannot file it in time, you must still file something within the § 64.2-1304 window: either an interim account or a sworn notice of intent to file the statement later, explaining why you cannot yet — and one or the other every year until the statement is filed. Separately, § 64.2-1302 has the clerk waive inventory and settlement where the personal estate is $35,000 or less and the person qualifying is an heir, beneficiary or creditor whose claim exceeds the estate, though not if the decedent owned real estate that person would have power to sell.
Va. Code §§ 64.2-1302, 64.2-1304, 64.2-1312, 64.2-1314·last read 2026-08-19
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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 Virginia probate attorney.