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

Settling an estate in South Carolina

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 South Carolina, if you have the original will, you must deliver it to the probate judge in the county where it would be probated (or to the executor named in it) within 30 days of learning of the death.

S.C. Code Ann. § 62-2-901Read the statute · scstatehouse.govchecked Oct 5, 2026effective Jan 1, 2014

Which court handles probate

In South Carolina, the probate court in the county where the person who died lived handles the estate. If they lived out of state, it is any county where they owned property.

S.C. Code Ann. § 62-3-201; § 62-1-302Read the statute · scstatehouse.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

Creditors' deadline to make claims

In South Carolina, the executor or administrator (the law calls them the personal representative) publishes a notice to creditors once a week for three weeks, and creditors have 8 months from the first publication to file claims. In any case, claims are barred one year after the death.

S.C. Code Ann. § 62-3-801; § 62-3-803Read the statute · scstatehouse.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

Estate inventory

In South Carolina, the executor or administrator must file an inventory and appraisal of the probate property, valued as of the date of death, with the probate court within 90 days of being appointed.

S.C. Code Ann. § 62-3-706Read the statute · scstatehouse.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

The order estate debts are paid

In South Carolina, if the estate cannot pay every debt, the executor or administrator pays them in a set order: administration costs and funeral expenses first, then federal priority debts and taxes, then last-illness medical costs, then state priority debts, then everything else.

S.C. Code Ann. § 62-3-805Read the statute · scstatehouse.govchecked Oct 5, 2026

State estate and inheritance tax

South Carolina has no estate tax for people who died on or after January 1, 2005, and no inheritance tax.

S.C. Code Ann. § 12-16-510 (South Carolina Estate Tax Act)Read the statute · dor.sc.govchecked Oct 5, 2026effective Jan 1, 2005

Closing an estate

In South Carolina, once creditor claims are settled, the executor or administrator (the personal representative) files a final accounting, a proposed distribution, and an application for settlement with the probate court, and sends copies with a notice of right to demand a hearing to everyone interested. If nobody demands a hearing within 30 days, the court can approve distribution and discharge them.

S.C. Code Ann. § 62-3-1001; § 62-3-1003; § 62-3-1204Read the statute · scstatehouse.govchecked Oct 5, 2026effective Jan 1, 2014