Michigan timeline
Michigan probate timeline: the 28-day wait and creditor deadlines
The simplified route starts 28 days after death.
Michigan 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
The collection of personal property by sworn statement route requires 28 days to elapse from the date of death. This is a precondition: the affidavit or petition cannot be presented before it runs, regardless of how straightforward the estate is.
After 28 days after a decedent's death, a person indebted to the decedent or having possession of tangible personal property or an instrument evidencing a debt, obligation, stock, or chose in action belonging to the decedent shall pay the indebtedness or deliver the tangible personal property or the instrument to a person claiming to be the decedent's successorMCL 700.3983 — Michigan Legislature; MCL Complete Through PA 103 of 2026.
Creditor deadlines
- From publication of notice to creditors
- Claims generally must be presented within 4 months after publication.
- From actual notice to a known creditor
- A creditor known at publication or during the following 4 months gets the later of 1 month after subsequent notice or 4 months after publication.
- From appointment of the representative
- Appointment triggers the personal representative’s duty to publish unless notice was already given; the claim period itself runs from publication.
- Outer limit, running from death
- If statutory notice requirements were not met, pre-death claims are barred unless presented within 3 years after death, subject to listed exceptions.
How these combine. Michigan has distinct deadlines: publication, later notice to known creditors, and a three-year death-based outer bar when statutory notice was not given, plus separate post-death claim rules. One days value would misstate the framework.
upon appointment a personal representative shall publish, and a special personal representative may publish, a notice as provided by supreme court rule notifying estate creditors to present their claims within 4 months after the date of the notice's publication or be forever barred.MCL 700.3801 — Michigan Legislature; MCL Complete Through PA 103 of 2026.
Michigan measures its four months from publication, and what the representative knew decides who gets longer
MCL 700.3803(1) bars a pre-death claim — including a claim of the state or a subdivision of it, “whether due or to become due, absolute or contingent, liquidated or unliquidated, or based on contract, tort, or another legal basis” — unless it is presented within one of three windows. Where notice is given in compliance with § 3801 or § 7608, the period is four months after the date of publication of notice to creditors.
Subdivision (b) treats known creditors differently, and defines “known” by a window rather than by a moment. For a creditor known to the personal representative “at the time of publication or during the 4 months following publication,” the period is one month after the subsequent sending of notice or four months after publication, whichever is later. A creditor the representative learns of in month three is therefore still owed notice, and may end up with a deadline past the general four months.
Failing to give notice at all does not close the estate early — it holds it open far longer. Under subdivision (c), if the notice requirements of § 3801 or § 7608 have not been met, the period is three years after the decedent’s death. The four-month figure is the reward for publishing, not the default.
One provision imports another state’s law directly: a claim “barred by a statute at the decedent’s domicile before the publication for claims in this state is also barred in this state.” For a decedent domiciled elsewhere, the Michigan deadline is not the only one that has to be checked.
Claims arising at or after death run under subsection (2): four months after performance is due on a contract with the personal representative, and otherwise four months after the claim arises or the time specified in subsection (1)(a), whichever is later.
Subsection (3) removes three things from the section’s reach entirely: enforcement of a mortgage, pledge or other lien on estate property; proceedings on liability covered by insurance, “to the insurance protection limits only”; and “collection of compensation for services rendered and reimbursement of expenses advanced by the personal representative or by an attorney, auditor, investment adviser, or other specialized agent or assistant.” The people administering the estate are not creditors racing their own deadline.
Source: MCL § 700.3803 (EPIC), eff. Apr. 1, 2000, am. 2009 Act 46, eff. Apr. 1, 2010, 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.
Michigan record: 10/10 verified, 56 matched checks, latest source re-fetch October 3, 2026. Source record · method · report a correction