Probate Notice to Creditors and Claim Deadlines in Michigan

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Publish on appointment and investigate records and mail

Under § 700.3801(1), an appointed personal representative must publish notice unless notice has already been given; a special personal representative may publish. The statutory notice tells estate creditors to present claims within four months after publication or be forever barred. The statute delegates the publication method and form to Supreme Court rule, so the statute itself does not state a newspaper, frequency, or proof requirement.

Publication starts a defined investigation and notice period. A creditor is known when the representative has actual notice or the creditor is reasonably ascertainable from an investigation of the decedent's available records for the two years immediately before death and mail following death. The representative must send notice to creditors known at publication or discovered during the four months afterward, and to the trustee of a trust described in § 700.7605(1) for which the decedent was settlor.

Send known-creditor notice on one of two clocks

Ordinarily, § 700.3801(2)(a) requires known-creditor notice within four months after publication. If the representative first learns of the creditor with fewer than 28 days remaining, subsection (2)(b) allows 28 days after first knowledge. The statute assigns any liability for a good-faith failure to give required notice to the estate rather than imposing personal liability on the representative or estate attorney.

These are notice-sending deadlines, not the creditor's final presentation date. Under § 700.3803(1)(b), a known creditor receives the later of four months after publication or one month after the subsequent notice is sent.

Present the claim to the representative, court, or through a proceeding

Section 700.3804(1)(a) allows delivery or mailing to the personal representative of a written statement giving the claim's basis, claimant name and address, and amount. Alternatively, the creditor may file the prescribed written statement with the court and deliver or mail a copy to the representative. Presentation occurs on the representative's receipt or the court filing, whichever occurs first.

A not-yet-due claim states its due date; a contingent or unliquidated claim states the uncertainty; and a secured claim describes the security. An error in those three details does not invalidate presentation. Section 700.3804(1)(b) also permits timely commencement of a payment proceeding in a court with jurisdiction over the representative. A matter already pending against the decedent at death needs no separate presentation.

Apply four months, the later one-month date, or three years

For an ordinary predeath claim after compliant notice, § 700.3803(1)(a) uses four months after publication. An earlier statute-of-limitations or nonclaim bar still controls, including a bar already effective at the decedent's domicile before Michigan publication. A known creditor receives one month after the subsequent notice is sent when that is later than the publication-based date.

If the notice requirements of § 700.3801 or the trust-notice provision in § 700.7608 have not been met, § 700.3803(1)(c) uses three years after death. The bar reaches the estate, personal representative, heirs and devisees, and nonprobate transferees.

Under § 700.3802, an ordinary limitations defense that already barred the claim at death remains available. For a claim not otherwise barred, the section suspends a limitations period measured from an event other than death or publication during the four months after death, and treats proper presentation as the equivalent of commencing a proceeding for limitations purposes.

Keep disallowance relief separate from the initial nonclaim deadline

Part 8 states no ordinary extension of the initial presentation deadline and no no-known-asset exception. Its extension provision arises only after a timely claim is presented and disallowed. A claimant ordinarily has 63 days after the representative mails a warning notice of disallowance to commence a proceeding. For a not-yet-due, contingent, or unliquidated claim, the representative may consent to an extension or the court may order one to avoid injustice, but not beyond the applicable statute of limitations. The presentation and extension rules appear in § 700.3804(1)-(2).

Under § 700.3806(1), a warned disallowance bars the disallowed portion unless the claimant starts a proceeding within 63 days after mailing. After that claim becomes barred, subsection (3) permits allowance and payment only if the estate is solvent and every successor whose interest would be affected consents. That narrow rule does not reopen a claim that was never timely presented under § 700.3803.

Preserve collateral and insurance without creating a general exception

Section 700.3803(3)(a) preserves a proceeding to enforce a mortgage, pledge, or other lien against estate property. Subsection (3)(b) preserves a liability proceeding only to the limits of the liability insurance protecting the decedent or representative. Those routes protect collateral or coverage, not a general untimely claim against estate assets.

Subsection (3)(c) also excludes collection of compensation for services and reimbursement of expenses advanced by the representative or the representative's attorney or other specialized assistants. By contrast, § 700.3803(1) expressly includes claims of Michigan and its subdivisions in the ordinary predeath-claim framework.

What trips people up

Michigan defines the known-creditor investigation. It is not an unlimited search: the statute names available records from the two years before death and mail following death.

The four-month notice-sending period and four-month claim bar are related but not identical. A creditor first discovered near the end receives 28 days for the representative to send notice and then may receive the later one-month presentation period.

Court filing alone is not the whole court-filed route. Section 700.3804(1)(a) also directs the claimant to deliver or mail a copy of the filed statement to the personal representative.

The three-year clock applies when the statutory notice requirements have not been met. Compliant publication replaces it with the shorter statutory presentation periods.

Common questions

Must the representative review every old record?

Section 700.3801 defines the investigation by reference to available records for the two years immediately before death and mail following death, along with actual notice.

What must the written claim contain?

It states the claim's basis, the claimant's name and address, and the amount. Not-yet-due, contingent, unliquidated, and secured claims add the details named in § 700.3804(1)(a).

Can a lien still be enforced after the probate claim period?

Section 700.3803(3)(a) preserves proceedings to enforce a mortgage, pledge, or other lien on estate property. It does not create a right to recover generally from other estate assets.

Does insurance change the result?

Only to the coverage limit. Section 700.3803(3)(b) preserves a proceeding to establish liability when the decedent or representative is protected by liability insurance, but only up to the insurance protection limits.

Statutes and sources

• Mich. Comp. Laws § 700.3801 — publication, defined known-creditor investigation, direct-notice recipients, and sending deadlines. Michigan Legislature, official EPIC whole-act PDF: https://legislature.mi.gov/documents/mcl/pdf/mcl-Act-386-of-1998.pdf (accessed 2026-08-12).
• Mich. Comp. Laws §§ 700.3802-.3803 — ordinary limitations, four-month and three-year bars, known-creditor later date, liens, insurance, and stated exclusions. Same official PDF (accessed 2026-08-12).
• Mich. Comp. Laws § 700.3804 — presentation routes, required content, and limited post-disallowance extension. Same official PDF (accessed 2026-08-12).
• Mich. Comp. Laws § 700.3806 — disallowance bar and solvent-estate, unanimous-consent rule after that bar. Same official PDF (accessed 2026-08-12).