Probate in Delaware: do you need a lawyer, and what it costs

Settling an estate in Delaware

What an executor deals with after the funeral: the will, the court, creditors, tax and closing the estate. Each fact links to the statute it comes from and shows the date we last read it.

Filing the original will

In Delaware, whoever has the original will must deliver it to the Register of Wills for the county where they live within 10 days after learning of the death. A person who willfully fails to deliver it can be held liable for the harm it causes.

Del. Code Ann. tit. 12, § 1301Read the statute · delcode.delaware.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

Which court handles probate

In Delaware, probate is opened with the Register of Wills in the county where the person who died lived, which acts as a clerk of the Court of Chancery. If they lived out of state, it can be opened in a county where they owned property.

Del. Code Ann. tit. 12, §§ 1502, 1504, 2501Read the statute · delcode.delaware.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

Creditors' deadline to make claims

In Delaware, the Register of Wills posts a notice of the executor's or administrator's appointment within 40 days and has it published in a newspaper once a week for three weeks (posting only for very small estates). Claims for debts owed at the death must be presented within 8 months of the death, whether or not notice was given.

Del. Code Ann. tit. 12, §§ 2101, 2102Read the statute · delcode.delaware.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

Estate inventory

In Delaware, the executor or administrator must file a sworn inventory and appraisal with the Register of Wills within 3 months after letters are granted, listing personal property, debts owed to and by the person who died, and each Delaware property, all valued as of the date of death.

Del. Code Ann. tit. 12, § 1905Read the statute · delcode.delaware.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

The order estate debts are paid

In Delaware, after the costs of running the estate are paid, debts are paid in a set order: the surviving spouse's allowance, then funeral costs, then unpaid child support, then last-illness medical and nursing bills, then up to a year of household or farm workers' wages, then state taxes, then up to a year of rent, then court judgments, then recorded debts like mortgages, then sealed contracts, then other written contracts, and finally everything else.

Del. Code Ann. tit. 12, § 2105Read the statute · delcode.delaware.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

State estate and inheritance tax

Delaware has no estate tax for deaths on or after January 1, 2018, and no inheritance tax. Only the federal estate tax can apply, and only to very large estates.

Del. Code Ann. tit. 30, ch. 15 (repealed by 81 Del. Laws c. 52, eff. Jan. 1, 2018); tit. 30, ch. 13 (repealed)Read the statute · delcode.delaware.govchecked Oct 5, 2026effective Jan 1, 2018

Closing an estate

In Delaware, the executor or administrator files an account with the Register of Wills every year until a final account is approved by the Court of Chancery, which closes the estate. The Register mails notice to the beneficiaries, who have 3 months to inspect and object unless they sign waivers. The law gives one year from letters to settle the estate unless there is a reason for longer.

Del. Code Ann. tit. 12, §§ 2301, 2302, 2311Read the statute · delcode.delaware.govchecked Oct 5, 2026