Insolvent Probate Estate Claim-Payment Priority in Iowa
At a glance
| Statutory payment order | Ten classes when assets are or appear insufficient (§ 633.425); payment follows that order (§ 633.426). |
|---|---|
| Administration costs | Class 1 court costs; class 2 other administration costs, including qualifying spouse support award (§§ 633.425(1)–(2), 633.374(2)). |
| Funeral and last illness | Class 3 reasonable funeral/burial; class 5 reasonable necessary last-illness medical/hospital care and attendant pay (§ 633.425(3),(5)). |
| Family and homestead allowances | Court-ordered spouse/dependent support allowance is part of administration costs; separate child award uses same terms (§§ 633.374(2), 633.376(1)). |
| Taxes and public claims | Class 4 federally preferred debts/taxes; class 6 Iowa-preferred taxes; class 7 § 249A.53(2) medical-assistance debt (§ 633.425(4),(6)–(7)). |
| Secured claims | Surrender security for full allowed-claim basis; otherwise deduct realized proceeds or agreed/court-directed collateral value (§ 633.423). |
| Support and special debts | Class 8 last-90-day employee labor; class 9 accrued support payments and specified family-case awards/judgments (§ 633.425(8)–(9)). |
| General claims | Class 10 all other allowed claims (§ 633.425(10)). |
| Underfunded class | Pro rata within underfunded class; no preference for due over not-yet-due claims (§ 633.426). |
Requirements one by one
Administration and family support
Under § 633.425(1)–(2), court costs are first and other administration costs second. Under § 633.374(2), a court-ordered surviving-spouse support allowance is an administration cost. Under § 633.376(1), the court may award support to a qualifying child not living with the surviving spouse under the same terms and conditions.
Care, wages, and accrued support
Section 633.425(5) places reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness, including attendant compensation, in class 5. The class-8 wage preference is limited to employee labor in the 90 days before death. Class 9 covers accrued unpaid support payments and specified dissolution, separate-maintenance, uniform-support, or paternity awards and judgments.
Secured claims
Under § 633.423, a creditor that surrenders security uses the full allowed amount as the payment basis. If the creditor keeps and exhausts the security, proceeds are deducted; if not exhausted, the agreed or court-directed collateral value is deducted.
What trips people up
Under § 633.426, an underfunded class is paid pro rata even when some claims are already due and others are not. The 2026 amendment to § 633.336(3)–(4) separately requires a wrongful-death recovery's estate portion to cover specified administration and medical-assistance amounts before the court considers which § 633.425 debts related to the death are paid from the remainder of that portion.
Common questions
Is there a preferred dollar cap for funeral expenses? Section 633.425(3) puts reasonable funeral and burial expenses in class 3 without naming a dollar limit.
How can a recorded lien be identified in a secured claim? Section 633.423 says the claim can describe the lien by date and refer to its recording volume, page, and place.
Statutes and sources
- Iowa Code §§ 633.425, 633.426, 633.423, 633.374, 633.376, and 633.336 as amended by 2026 Iowa Acts ch. 1074. Verbatim official text, URLs, and access dates appear in the source fields above.
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
What does Iowa law mean for your facts?
You just read the general rule. Ask your own question and see which parts of current Iowa law apply to your situation, with citations you can check.
Opens in Ezel Pro.
- Starts from the statutes this survey is built on
- Cites every source it relies on, so you can verify it
- Chat, drafting and research in one workspace