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Estate Administration Without a Will in PA If the deceased has no children or spouse, their parents take the estate. If the deceased is married but has no children, their spouse takes the estate. If they have children but no living spouse, the children share the estate equally.

The process of settling an estate involves naming a personal representative, collecting estate assets, filling appropriate forms with the Register of Wills, notifying heirs, providing a public notice, paying all debts and taxes, and distributing the remaining assets to heirs named in the will or under the laws of ...

To be recognized as the estate administrator, you must file the petition for grant of letters of administration with the Register of Wills. You'll also need to pay the estate administration fees.

A petition must be filed with the Register of Wills requesting issuance of Letters of Administration. Since there is no will naming the deceased's representative, all of the heirs to the estate must sign a document called a ?renunciation? deferring to a representative called an Administrator/ Administratrix.

Pennsylvania law requires the executor to advertise the estate to ?request all persons having claims against the estate of the decedent to make known the same to [the executor] or his attorney, and all persons indebted to the decedent to make payment to [the executor] without delay.? (20 Pa. C.S.A. § 3162.)

When there's no living spouse, descendants or parents, then a decedent's estate goes to their siblings. If none of these relatives are living, then grandparents are the recipients of the decedent's property. Pennsylvania gives half to the paternal grandparents and half to the maternal grandparents.