Kansas timeline
Kansas probate timeline and creditor deadlines
The waiting-period requirement has not been verified, so no number is published below.
Kansas creditor deadlines are set out below against the event each one runs from.
Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch October 3, 2026.
The one date this page can source
No waiting-period number is published for the small estate affidavit (k.s.a. 59-1507b); kansas simplified estates act administration (k.s.a. 59-3201 to 59-3206) route. K.S.A. 59-1507b states no fixed waiting period after death for the small-estate affidavit. Read: K.S.A. 59-1507b.
(a) When a resident of the state dies, whether testate or intestate, if the total assets of the estate of the decedent subject to probate do not exceed $75,000 in valueK.S.A. 59-1507b — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes; L. 2024.
Creditor deadlines
- From publication of notice to creditors
- Four months from the date of first publication of notice to creditors under K.S.A. 59-2236 (K.S.A. 59-2239(a)).
- From actual notice to a known creditor
- If the identity of the creditor is known or reasonably ascertainable, 30 days after actual notice was given (K.S.A. 59-2239(b)). A demand is barred unless presented within the LATER of the publication period or this actual-notice period.
- Outer limit, running from death
- No creditor has any claim against or lien upon the decedent's property (other than liens existing at death) unless a petition for probate of the will or for administration is filed within six months after the death of the decedent (K.S.A. 59-2239(1)).
How these combine. Kansas keeps three separate claim clocks. Under K.S.A. 59-2239 a demand is forever barred unless presented within the LATER of (a) four months from the date of first publication of notice to creditors under K.S.A. 59-2236, or (b) where the creditor is known or reasonably ascertainable, 30 days after actual notice was given. Both run only if the estate is opened: no creditor has a claim unless a petition for probate or administration is filed within six months after the decedent's death. The four-month period is stated in months, so it is not reduced to a fixed number of days.
shall be forever barred from payment unless the demand is presented within the later of: (a) four months from the date of first publication of notice under K.S.A. 59-2236 , and amendments thereto; or (b) if the identity of the creditor is known or reasonably ascertainable, 30 days after actual notice was givenK.S.A. 59-2239 — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes; History: L. 1939.
Kansas bars the claim on one clock and the creditor’s standing to have any claim at all on a second
K.S.A. 59-2239(1) bars demands against a decedent’s estate — including demands of the state, and expressly “the individual demands of executors and administrators” — unless presented within the later of four months from the date of first publication of notice under K.S.A. 59-2236, or, “if the identity of the creditor is known or reasonably ascertainable, 30 days after actual notice was given.” A will requiring payment of a demand exhibited later controls over the bar.
The second clock is the one that has no analogue in most states, and it does not depend on the creditor doing anything wrong. “No creditor shall have any claim against or lien upon the property of a decedent other than liens existing at the date of the decedent’s death, unless a petition is filed for the probate of the decedent’s will … or for the administration of the decedent’s estate … within six months after the death of the decedent.” If nobody opens an estate within six months, the creditor’s claim against the property is gone regardless of diligence.
That pairing inverts the usual incentive. In Michigan, failing to publish notice extends creditor exposure to three years; in Kansas, failing to open the estate at all extinguishes the claim at six months. A creditor watching a Kansas estate cannot simply wait to be notified.
Tort claims are carved out. Subsection (2) provides that nothing in the section prevents enforcement of a tort claim against the personal representative within the ordinary statute of limitations, and that for the purpose of enforcing such claims “the estate of the decedent may be opened or reopened, a special administrator appointed, and suit filed against the administrator” within that period.
The carve-out is narrower than it first reads. Any recovery in such an action “shall not affect the distribution of the assets of the estate” unless a claim was filed within the time allowed under subsection (1), or an action was commenced as provided in K.S.A. 59-2238(2). The tort claimant keeps the right to sue; what is lost is the right to be paid out of the estate’s assets.
Source: K.S.A. § 59-2239 (claims against estate; time for filing; when barred), read from the enacting state’s own published code on 2026-09-17. Quoted wording is the statute’s; the surrounding explanation is this site’s reading of it and is not legal advice.
General sequence: first week, how long probate takes.
Kansas record: 7/7 verified, 24 matched checks, latest source re-fetch October 3, 2026. Source record · method · report a correction