Michigan Probate Laws: Tracks, Timeline, and Duties

Michigan probate laws, set out in the Estates and Protected Individuals Code (EPIC), govern how a deceased person’s estate is opened in court, how debts get paid, and how what remains reaches the people entitled to it. For 2026, two numbers shape most cases: estates worth $53,000 or less (after funeral costs) can use a simplified small-estate track, and a surviving spouse’s guaranteed intestate share now starts at $301,000 before the rest of the estate is divided.¹ The rest of this article walks through the tracks, the timeline, the duties, and the money.

The Three Probate Tracks

Michigan offers three paths, and the right one depends on the estate’s size and whether trouble is likely.

Small Estate Proceedings

If the gross estate, minus funeral and burial costs, is $53,000 or less for 2026, the court can order assets turned over to the surviving spouse or heirs through a simplified process.²¹ The court has to be satisfied that funeral expenses are paid or will be paid from estate assets first. If real property is involved, mortgage debt up to $250,000 is subtracted from that property’s value when applying the $53,000 cap, which pulls more families into this track than the raw number suggests.

Informal Probate

When the will is uncontested and the estate is straightforward, informal probate keeps the court largely out of the way. The personal representative handles administration independently while still hitting every statutory requirement: publishing creditor notice, preparing the inventory, paying valid debts, and distributing what’s left. The court steps in only if a dispute surfaces.

Formal Probate

Formal probate runs before a judge with notice to all interested parties. Choose this when the will is contested, beneficiaries disagree, or the assets are complicated. The court supervises every major step. The filing fee for a formal proceeding petition is $175.³ The base fee to open any estate case is $150 statewide.⁴

Assets That Never Enter Probate

Plenty of what a person owned at death never touches the probate estate. Sorting these out first can shrink the case, and sometimes eliminate the need for probate entirely.

Property held in joint tenancy with rights of survivorship (real estate, joint bank accounts) passes automatically to the surviving co-owner.
Accounts with a named beneficiary — life insurance, IRAs, 401(k)s, payable-on-death bank accounts, transfer-on-death brokerage accounts — go directly to that person.
Assets titled in a revocable living trust pass under the trust document, handled by the successor trustee without court proceedings.
Real property under an enhanced life estate deed (ladybird deed) transfers automatically at death to the named beneficiaries while the owner keeps full control during life.

When the deceased’s major assets all fall into these categories, the family may not need probate at all, or may qualify for the small estate route.

The Timeline From Filing to Distribution

Probate begins with a petition in the probate court of the county where the deceased lived. The petition includes the will, if one exists, and a request to appoint a personal representative. The court reviews the will and issues letters of authority to the representative.

Within 91 days of appointment, the representative has to prepare a full inventory of what the deceased owned at death, including fair market values and any debts tied to each asset. Copies go to all presumptive distributees and to any interested person who asks. Filing the inventory with the court is optional, though many representatives do it.⁵ An inventory fee, calculated on a sliding scale tied to asset value, comes due before the estate can close.

Next comes the notice to creditors. Once published, creditors have four months to submit claims.⁶ The representative reviews each claim, pays the legitimate ones, and only after that window closes can remaining assets be distributed to beneficiaries. Most Michigan estates wrap up in six months to a year. Contested or complex ones take longer.

What the Personal Representative Does

The personal representative (Michigan’s term for executor) is a fiduciary. Every action has to serve the estate’s interest, not the representative’s.

Core Duties

The immediate job is securing assets: locking the house, safeguarding vehicles, notifying banks and brokerages, and collecting anything owed to the deceased. From there, the representative prepares the inventory, publishes creditor notice, evaluates claims, pays valid debts and taxes, files the deceased’s final income tax return, and distributes what’s left according to the will or intestacy rules.

If cash and liquid accounts can’t cover the debts, the representative may need to sell real estate or other property to raise funds. Every major financial action should be documented, because the representative can be required to provide a full accounting to distributees before the estate closes.

Compensation

Michigan law entitles a personal representative to reasonable compensation, paid periodically as earned without prior court approval. “Reasonable” isn’t a fixed percentage. It depends on the estate’s complexity, the time spent, and the skill required. If the will names a specific amount, the representative can accept it or renounce it and take reasonable compensation instead. An attorney serving as personal representative has to keep detailed time records.⁷

Bond

In informal probate, no bond is required unless the will calls for one or a special representative is appointed. In formal probate, the court can order a bond at appointment, though it usually honors a will’s bond waiver unless an interested person objects. Depositing cash or collateral with the county treasurer as security can substitute for a bond.⁸

The Order Debts Must Be Paid

When the estate can’t pay everyone in full, Michigan law dictates a strict payment order. The representative cannot pick favorites within a class. The priority runs:⁹

Administration costs (court fees, attorney fees, expenses of running the estate)
Reasonable funeral and burial expenses
Homestead allowance for the surviving spouse
Family allowance for the surviving spouse and dependent children
Exempt property (household furnishings and personal effects up to a capped amount)
Debts with federal priority, including federal taxes and Medicaid recovery claims
Reasonable last-illness medical expenses
Debts with state priority, including state taxes
All other claims, sharing equally within this class

Getting this order wrong is one of the fastest routes to personal liability. Pay a lower-priority creditor before a higher one, run out of money, and the representative can owe the difference personally.

Protections for the Surviving Spouse and Children

Three protections sit ahead of most creditor claims and apply regardless of what the will says.

The surviving spouse receives a homestead allowance with a $15,000 base amount, adjusted annually for cost of living. If no spouse survives, the deceased’s minor or dependent children split the same total.¹⁰
The spouse can claim exempt property (furniture, vehicles, appliances, personal effects) worth up to a $10,000 base amount, adjusted annually, above any liens.¹¹
A family allowance covers reasonable maintenance during administration, payable to the spouse or, if none, to the caregivers of minor children. When the estate can’t pay all allowed claims, the family allowance lasts up to one year.¹²

These stack on top of whatever the spouse inherits through the will or intestacy, and the representative has to account for them before distributing to other beneficiaries or paying lower-priority debts.

Who Inherits Without a Will

When there is no valid will, Michigan’s intestacy rules decide. The surviving spouse’s share depends on whether children or parents survive and on the family’s makeup. The dollar figures below are the 2026 adjusted amounts:¹

No children and no surviving parent: the spouse inherits everything.¹³
All children are shared with the spouse, and the spouse has no other children: spouse gets the first $301,000 plus half the balance.
No children survive but a parent does: spouse gets the first $301,000 plus three-quarters of the balance.
All children are shared, but the spouse also has other children from another relationship: spouse gets the first $301,000 plus half the balance.
Some but not all children are shared: spouse gets the first $301,000 plus half the balance.
None of the deceased’s children are the spouse’s children: spouse gets the first $201,000 plus half the balance.¹³

That last scenario is the one blended families hit hardest. Whatever the spouse doesn’t take passes to the deceased’s children in equal shares. If no spouse, children, or parents survive, the estate moves out to siblings and then to more distant relatives.

Taxes

Michigan imposes no state estate tax and no inheritance tax. Beneficiaries owe nothing to Michigan just because they inherited. The federal picture still applies, though.

The personal representative files the deceased’s final federal and state income tax return covering January 1 through the date of death, due by the regular April deadline of the following year unless extended.¹⁴ If the estate itself earns $600 or more in gross income after death (interest, dividends, rents), the representative files Form 1041, the federal fiduciary income tax return.¹⁵ The 2026 federal estate tax exemption is $15,000,000; only estates above that threshold file Form 706.¹⁶ Most Michigan estates never come close, but check the totals early anyway.

Disputes and Representative Liability

Contested probate slows everything down and raises the cost. The common flashpoints are the will’s validity, the representative’s conduct, and creditor claims.

A will contest usually rests on undue influence or lack of testamentary capacity. Undue influence requires showing the testator was vulnerable, that someone had opportunity to pressure them, and that the resulting will reflects the influencer’s wishes rather than the testator’s. Lack of capacity means the testator didn’t understand what they owned, who their family was, or what the will was doing. Forgery and fraud are recognized grounds too, though harder to prove. Beyond the will itself, beneficiaries may dispute interpretation, distribution, or the representative’s fairness — blended-family intestacy is a frequent trigger. Creditors whose claims the representative rejects can petition the court for review.

A personal representative is personally liable for obligations from estate management only when personally at fault, which covers mismanaging assets, paying debts in the wrong priority order, or distributing property before claims are resolved.¹⁷ On contracts, the representative avoids personal liability by clearly acting in a fiduciary capacity and naming the estate. Fail to do that and the representative can be on the hook. Beneficiaries who suspect mismanagement can petition the court directly for an accounting or surcharge.

Closing the Estate

For informal cases, closing happens when the representative files a Sworn Statement to Close Unsupervised Administration. There is no filing fee for it, but it cannot be filed sooner than five months after appointment, and only after all of the following:

The creditor notice period has expired.
Valid claims, administration expenses, and taxes have been paid or otherwise resolved.
Estate assets have been distributed to the people entitled to them.
The sworn statement has been sent to all distributees and to any known creditor with an outstanding claim.
A written accounting has gone to all affected distributees, listing fiduciary fees, attorney fees, and other professional fees paid.
The inventory has been presented to the court and the inventory fee paid.

If no one objects within 28 days, the representative can file a Certificate of Completion, though it’s optional. In formal, supervised proceedings, the court closes the estate by issuing an order of complete settlement after reviewing the final accounting.

1
State of Michigan. Estates and Protected Individuals Cost-of-Living Adjustments (FY 2026)
2
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.3982 – Small Estates
3
Kent County, MI. Formal Proceedings
4
Michigan Courts. Probate Court Fee Tables (February 2025)
5
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.3706 – Inventory and Appraisement
6
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.3803 – Limitations on Time for Presentation of Claims
7
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.3719 – Compensation of Personal Representative
8
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.3603 – Bond Not Required Without Court Order
9
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.3805 – Priority of Claim Payments
10
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.2402 – Homestead Allowance
11
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.2404 – Exempt Property
12
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.2403 – Family Allowance
13
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.2102 – Share of Spouse
14
Internal Revenue Service. How to File a Final Tax Return for Someone Who Has Passed Away
15
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1041 and Schedules A, B, G, J, and K-1
16
Internal Revenue Service. What’s New — Estate and Gift Tax
17
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 700.3808 – Individual Liability of Personal Representative