Estate Administration

Estate Administration Is a Full Legal Process — Not a Single Afternoon's Errand

Estate Settlement & Administration

“Estate administration” (also called estate settlement) is the umbrella term for everything that happens after someone dies: identifying what they owned, determining what governs its distribution — a will, a trust, or Pennsylvania’s intestacy law if neither exists — paying what’s owed, and distributing what remains to the people entitled to it. Whether that process runs through probate, trust administration, or both depends entirely on how the person’s assets were titled and planned for before they died.

For most families, estate settlement blends elements of both probate and trust administration: some assets pass through the court-supervised probate process, while others, properly held in a trust or with a named beneficiary, transfer directly. Understanding which category each asset falls into is usually the very first task, and it’s rarely as obvious as families expect — a jointly titled account may or may not carry survivorship rights depending on exactly how it was set up years earlier.

ESTATE & TRUST ADMINISTRATION

The Full Sequence, in Practice

Locate the governing documents

Will, trust, powers of attorney, and any prior amendments — the original documents, not simply a family member's recollection of their contents.

Secure and inventory assets

Real estate, financial accounts, personal property, digital assets, and business interests all need to be identified, valued, and protected from loss or waste during administration.

Determine the correct process

Some assets require probate; others transfer through trust administration or by beneficiary designation; often, an estate involves all three simultaneously.

Notify interested parties

Creditors, beneficiaries, and heirs are all entitled to specific legal notice, on specific timelines.

Resolve debts and taxes

Valid creditor claims, the deceased's final income tax return, and Pennsylvania inheritance tax must all be addressed before final distribution.

Distribute and close

Once obligations are satisfied, remaining assets are distributed according to the governing documents, and the estate or trust is formally closed.

ESTATE ADMINISTRATION FEES

The Costs Families Don't Always See Coming

Standard estate settlement fees — whether charged by an attorney, an executor, or both — commonly range from roughly 3% to 5% of the gross estate, a figure that can represent a meaningful sum for a moderately sized estate. Clients enrolled in our TLC™ Estate Plan Maintenance & Fee Guarantee Program lock in a guaranteed fee of just 1% of the gross estate for our administration services (subject to a stated minimum), a saving that, on an estate of even modest size, routinely exceeds many years’ worth of the program’s own annual cost.

TRUSTEE FIDUCIARY DUTIES

What Delays Estate Administration Most Often

In our experience, the single biggest driver of delay isn’t estate size — it’s how current and clear the underlying planning was. An outdated beneficiary designation, an ambiguous distribution clause, a family member who was never told they’d been named executor, or assets that were never properly transferred into a trust the deceased believed was fully funded — each of these turns a routine settlement into a slow, sometimes contentious one. This is the core argument for the ongoing plan review we describe on our Ongoing Estate Plan Management page: catching these gaps while the person is alive to fix them is far less costly, in every sense, than discovering them after death.

FAMILY SUPPORT

Supporting the Family, Not Just the Paperwork

Estate settlement happens during one of the hardest periods in a family’s life, and the administrative burden — court filings, tax deadlines, creditor notices — falls on someone who is simultaneously grieving. Clients enrolled in our TLC™ program benefit from a family meeting at this stage specifically designed to walk survivors through what the plan intended and what happens next, rather than leaving them to piece it together from documents alone.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between estate administration, probate, and trust administration?

Estate administration (sometimes called estate settlement) is the overall process of winding up someone’s affairs after death. Probate and trust administration are the two legal mechanisms that carry it out, depending on how assets were titled — many estates involve both simultaneously.

How much does estate administration typically cost?

Standard fees commonly range from 3% to 5% of the gross estate, though this varies by complexity. Clients enrolled in our TLC™ program lock in a guaranteed 1% fee for our administration services.

What's the very first thing I should do after a family member dies?

Locate the original will and any trust documents, obtain several certified copies of the death certificate, and secure the deceased’s property and financial accounts before taking any other action.

How long does the entire estate settlement process usually take?

It depends heavily on complexity — straightforward estates can resolve within several months, while estates with real estate in multiple states, business interests, tax complications, or family disputes take considerably longer.

Can estate settlement be simpler if the person planned ahead?

Substantially so. Current, clearly drafted documents; properly funded trusts; and up-to-date beneficiary designations are, together, the single biggest factor in how smoothly an estate settles — far more so than the size of the estate itself.

A WORD ON DIY WILLS

Let’s Talk About Your Estate Plan

Ready to talk through your situation? Call 610.897.8994 or schedule a consultation.

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