Probate Notice to Creditors and Claim Deadlines in Indiana

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Publish after letters and finish the one-month search

Indiana Code § 29-1-7-7 requires publication as soon as any letters issue. The notice runs once each week for two consecutive weeks in an English-language, general-circulation newspaper published in the court's county; an adjacent county is used if no newspaper is published locally. A proof copy is filed within 30 days after publication.

Within one month after first publication, § 29-1-7-7.5 requires the representative to review reasonably available financial records and make reasonable inquiries of known people likely to know the decedent's debts. Completing those steps creates presumptions rebuttable only by clear and convincing evidence.

Match direct notice to when the creditor is found

A listed known creditor receives notice by the Indiana Courts E-filing System or prepaid first-class mail. Another known or reasonably ascertainable unpaid creditor receives written or electronic notice within the one-month search period, or as soon as possible afterward, by a method reasonably calculated to ensure actual receipt.

Service within the month leaves the ordinary three-month publication clock in place. Later service requires a new clerk-issued notice and gives two months from service, but never past nine months after death. The representative also delivers the creditor schedule to the clerk.

File the sworn statement with the probate clerk

Section 29-1-14-2 requires a succinct definite statement filed with the clerk of the court that issued letters. The clerk serves an exact copy on the representative. The claim includes any written instrument, all credits and deductions, the required justly-due-and-unpaid affidavit, lien and recording details, and the nature of any contingency.

Keep the short deadline and outside bar separate

Section 29-1-14-1 generally bars an ordinary claim not filed within three months after first publication. A beneficiary named in a later-revoked will receives the later statutory revocation clock. No ordinary barrable claim may be filed more than nine months after death, and probate does not revive a claim already barred when the decedent died.

Preserve the express alternate routes

Timely contingent claims may be handled through retained funds or later distributee liability under §§ 29-1-14-7 and -8. Administration expenses and government claims are excluded from the ordinary subsection (a) bar. The code also preserves mortgage, pledge, and lien enforcement; qualifying negligence actions; and continuation through substitution of a properly commenced predeath action.

What trips people up

The one-month search names a records review and inquiries; it is not merely an undefined diligence standard.

Late direct notice supplies a new two-month service clock but cannot extend the nine-month death-based bar.

Sending notice does not admit that a claim is allowable. The statute expressly keeps notice and claim validity separate.

The negligence route may outlast the probate clock, but it cannot reach general estate assets unless the suit met the estate-claim deadline.

Common questions

Can a creditor just sue the representative?

Generally no. The creditor files the statutory statement with the probate clerk. Negligence and properly commenced predeath actions have separate routes.

Does the claim need an affidavit?

Yes. The claimant, agent, or attorney must supply the affidavit required by § 29-1-14-2.

Does a mortgage disappear without a probate claim?

No. Sections 29-1-14-1 and -15 preserve appropriate lien-enforcement proceedings.

Statutes and sources

• Ind. Code §§ 29-1-7-7 and 29-1-7-7.5 — publication, direct notice, creditor schedule, and search: https://iga.in.gov/ic/2026/Title_29/Article_1/Chapter_7.pdf (accessed 2026-08-12).
• Ind. Code §§ 29-1-14-1, -2, -7, -8, -15, and -20 — claim filing, deadlines, outer bar, and alternate routes: https://iga.in.gov/ic/2026/Title_29/Article_1/Chapter_14.pdf (accessed 2026-08-12).