What to Do When Someone Dies in Oregon: Probate, Taxes, Deadlines

When someone dies in Oregon, the work falls into a predictable order: arrange for the body and get a legal pronouncement of death, order certified death certificates, figure out which assets pass automatically and which need court involvement, open either a small estate affidavit or full probate, meet Oregon’s notification and creditor deadlines, and handle the tax filings. Oregon adds one wrinkle most families don’t expect: a state estate tax that kicks in at just $1 million, far below the federal threshold. Here is what to do, roughly in the order you’ll need to do it.

The First Few Days

Nothing administrative can start until the death is legally pronounced. In a hospital or hospice, the attending medical professional handles that automatically. For a death at home without medical supervision, call law enforcement or the county medical examiner to confirm and document it.

Oregon law sets a strict order for who decides what happens to the body. Written instructions or a prepaid arrangement with a licensed funeral service practitioner generally control. If there are none, the right passes to the surviving spouse, then adult children, then parents, then adult siblings, then a guardian, then the next closest relative.¹ Contact a funeral home or cremation provider early. The funeral director will also prepare the paperwork that registers the death with the state, which is what triggers your ability to order certified copies.

Ordering Death Certificates

You will need certified copies of the death certificate for almost every step that follows: banks, insurers, retirement plans, the DMV, the probate court. Order them through the Oregon Health Authority or a local county vital records office. Each certified copy costs $25, whether it’s the first one or the tenth.² Most estates need five to ten. Ordering them all at once saves you from repeating the process when a bank or insurer refuses a photocopy.

Figure Out What Skips Probate

Before opening any court case, identify assets that transfer automatically. These never enter probate and often resolve within a few weeks of a phone call and a death certificate.

Property held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship — real estate, bank accounts, securities — passes directly to the surviving co-owner. The survivor usually presents a certified death certificate and a sworn statement to the institution or the county recorder.
Bank accounts with a payable-on-death (POD) designation and investment accounts with a transfer-on-death (TOD) designation pass to the named beneficiary on presentation of ID and a death certificate.
Life insurance proceeds and retirement accounts go directly to named beneficiaries. Contact each insurer or plan administrator to start the claim.
Real property passes outside probate if the deceased recorded a valid transfer-on-death deed under ORS 93.948 through 93.979.³
Assets properly transferred into a revocable living trust during the deceased person’s lifetime are managed by the successor trustee under the trust’s terms, with no court involvement.

Beneficiaries and surviving owners still have to complete retitling paperwork. And although these assets skip probate, their value may still count toward Oregon estate tax.

Find the Will and Identify the Personal Representative

Search the home, any safe deposit box, and files kept with the deceased person’s attorney for an original will. The will usually names a personal representative — the person who will manage the estate, pay debts, and distribute what’s left. That named person has the highest priority to be appointed by the court.⁴

If no one is named, or no will exists, a surviving spouse who stands to inherit has the next priority, followed by other family members who would inherit under intestacy.⁴ Whoever petitions the court will need a list of all potential heirs with names, ages, and addresses, along with documents proving their own relationship to the deceased.

If There Is No Will

Oregon’s intestacy rules decide who inherits. The surviving spouse’s share depends on whose children survive the deceased:

If every child of the deceased is also a child of the surviving spouse, the spouse takes the entire estate.⁵
If any child is not also the surviving spouse’s child, the spouse takes half and the deceased’s descendants share the other half.⁵

With no surviving spouse, the estate passes first to children in equal shares (with grandchildren stepping in for a deceased child), then to parents, then to siblings, then to grandparents and their descendants.⁶ If no relatives can be located, the estate ultimately goes to the state.

Choose Between a Small Estate Affidavit and Full Probate

Oregon has two court tracks for settling an estate. The right one depends on what the deceased owned.

Small Estate Affidavit

A small estate affidavit is available when the estate’s personal property is worth $75,000 or less and its real property is worth $200,000 or less. Those are separate caps, not a combined total. The affidavit cannot be filed until 30 days after the date of death.⁷ A person convicted of a felony is disqualified from filing one.

A second path opens the affidavit to estates with a will, as long as the specifically devised personal property is $75,000 or less, the specifically devised real property is $200,000 or less, and the remaining assets were left to a living trust the deceased created before death.⁸ Creditors then have four months from the filing date to present their claims.⁹

Full Probate

If the estate exceeds either small estate cap, file a petition for appointment of a personal representative with the Oregon Circuit Court. Once the court approves, it issues Letters Testamentary (if there’s a will) or Letters of Administration (if there isn’t). Those letters are the credential banks and other institutions will ask for before letting the representative act.

Filing fees scale with estate value:¹⁰

Less than $50,000: $278
$50,000 to under $1 million: $591
$1 million to under $10 million: $882
$10 million or more: $1,176

Order certified copies of the letters at the same time; the clerk charges a per-copy fee, and you will hand them out widely.

Oregon generally requires the personal representative to post a surety bond before the court issues letters. The bond protects heirs and creditors against mismanagement, and the court sets the amount based on asset value, anticipated income, and probable debts and taxes. A bond isn’t required when the will waives it, when the representative is the sole heir or beneficiary, or when the petitioner states no estate assets are known. The court can still order one for good cause.¹¹

Early on, the representative should also apply to the IRS for an Employer Identification Number using Form SS-4. An estate is a separate tax entity, and the EIN is what lets you open an estate bank account and file estate tax returns.¹²

Notifications and Creditor Deadlines

The personal representative has several notice duties with firm deadlines. Missing them can delay the estate or create personal liability.

State Agencies

Within 30 days of appointment, mail or deliver a copy of the death record and required estate information to both the Oregon Department of Human Services and the Oregon Health Authority.¹³ This gives the state the chance to assert any claim for recovery of Medicaid or other public assistance costs. The notice goes to the Estate Administration Unit within the Office of Payment Accuracy and Recovery.¹⁴

Creditors

In a full probate, the representative must make a reasonably diligent effort during the first three months after appointment to identify the deceased’s debts. Known creditors get direct written notice listing the court, the estate name, and where to send claims. Those creditors then have 45 days from the notice to present a claim.¹⁵ A public notice must also run in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, which opens a four-month window for unknown creditors. In a small estate, the four-month window runs from the filing of the affidavit.⁹

Social Security and Others

Notify the Social Security Administration promptly to stop benefits and avoid overpayments. A surviving spouse or eligible child may qualify for a one-time lump-sum death payment of $255, but the application must be filed within two years of the death.¹⁶ Also contact Oregon DMV to update records and prevent identity fraud, notify any professional licensing boards, and place a deceased alert with the three major credit bureaus.

Taxes: The Oregon $1 Million Trap and Three Other Returns

An estate can involve up to four tax filings, and the personal representative is on the hook for each.

Oregon imposes its own estate tax on estates with a taxable value of $1 million or more, at graduated rates from 10 percent to 16 percent.¹⁷ A $1.5 million estate owes about $50,000; estates at $9.5 million and above hit the 16 percent top rate on the excess. Because the federal exemption is $15,000,000 per person for 2026, many Oregon families owe state estate tax while owing nothing federally.¹⁸ If the estate is near or over $1 million, talk to a tax professional early.

The representative must also file the deceased person’s final federal and Oregon income tax returns for the year of death. For a 2026 death, the final federal Form 1040 is due April 15, 2027.¹⁹ Any unfiled returns from earlier years must also be filed, with tax, penalties, and interest paid from estate funds.²⁰

If the estate itself earns $600 or more in gross income during administration — interest, dividends, rent, gain on sales — the representative must file IRS Form 1041, with a corresponding Oregon fiduciary return where applicable.²¹ The representative can request a final tax determination from the Oregon Department of Revenue to confirm state tax obligations are resolved before closing the estate.²⁰

Distribute Assets and Close the Estate

Once the creditor claim period has run and all debts, taxes, and administrative expenses are paid, the representative distributes what’s left. Distributions follow the will, or Oregon intestacy if there isn’t one. Debts are paid in a set priority order: funeral expenses, costs of administration, and taxes come before unsecured creditors.

For real property, record a new deed with the county recorder to reflect the change in ownership; the recording fee is a small per-page charge that varies by county. For financial accounts, use the Letters Testamentary (or the small estate affidavit) and certified death certificates to close accounts and pay beneficiaries.

One warning before closing: if the estate is closed before the Oregon Department of Revenue’s period for issuing a deficiency notice has expired, the people who received estate property can be held personally liable for any later-assessed tax, penalties, and interest.²⁰ Requesting a final tax determination before closing removes that risk. In a full probate, filing the final accounting with the court ends the representative’s duties.

Oregon law also entitles the personal representative to compensation on a statutory sliding scale, starting at 5 percent of the first $10,000 and dropping to 2 percent above $50,000, with 1 percent of certain non-probate property reportable for estate tax purposes.²² The will or a court order can set a different fee.

1
OregonLaws. Oregon Code ORS 97.130 – Right to Control Disposition of Remains
2
Oregon Health Authority. Order a Death Certificate
3
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statute Chapter 93 – Conveyancing and Recording
4
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes 113.085 – Preference in Appointing Personal Representative
5
OregonLaws. Oregon Code ORS 112.025 – Share of Surviving Spouse if Decedent Leaves Descendants
6
OregonLaws. Oregon Code ORS 112.045 – Share of Others Than Surviving Spouse
7
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statute Chapter 114 – Administration of Estates Generally
8
OregonLaws. Oregon Code ORS 114.510 – Simple Estate Criteria
9
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes 114.540 – Procedure for Claims, Disallowance, Summary Determination
10
OregonLaws. Oregon Code ORS 21.170 – Probate Filing Fees and Accounting Fees
11
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statute Chapter 113 – Initiation of Estate Proceedings
12
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form SS-4
13
OregonLaws. Oregon Code ORS 113.145 – Information to Devisees, Heirs, Interested Persons
14
Legal Information Institute. Oregon Admin Code 461-135-0834 – Delivery of Required Notices to the Estate Administration Unit
15
OregonLaws. Oregon Code ORS 115.003 – Personal Representative to Make Diligent Search
16
Social Security Administration. Lump-Sum Death Payment
17
OregonLaws. Oregon Code ORS 118.010 – Imposition and Amount of Tax in General
18
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026
19
Internal Revenue Service. When to File
20
Legal Information Institute. Oregon Admin Code 150-316-0450 – Decedents Estate Request for a Final Tax Determination
21
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1041
22
OregonLaws. Oregon Code ORS 116.173 – Compensation of Personal Representative