Gabe Albrecht

Real Estate Transitions Advisory

A personal representative's checklist.

This is the short version of what Dane County asks of a personal representative, and roughly when.

If you got a letter from me, this is the guide I said I'd send. It's here, it's free, and there's nothing to fill in.

Your attorney decides what applies to your estate and none of this is legal advice. Every date that matters to you is on your own paperwork. What this page can do is tell you what's coming, so the next envelope isn't a surprise.

Dane County, informal administration

Eight things, roughly in this order.

  1. Your letters. PR-1810
    The one page proving the court put you in charge. Everything else waits on it, and a title company will want a recent certified copy.

  2. An estate account. IRS SS-4
    A federal EIN and a checking account in the estate's name. Nothing personal moves through it.

  3. Your deadline notice. PR-1832
    The Notice of Estate Administration Deadlines, sent to you by the Probate Registrar. It carries your actual dates. Not the general ones. Yours.

  4. Notice to creditors. PR-1804
    Published once the estate opens, which starts a window of three to four months for anyone owed money to come forward.

  5. The inventory. PR-1811
    What the estate owns and what each item was worth on the date of death. Due within six months of appointment. The real estate is the line most often left blank.

  6. The house, while you decide.
    Taxes, insurance, utilities and mortgage stay current out of estate funds. Worth a call to the insurer: most policies limit coverage once a house sits empty.

  7. If the house sells.
    Wisconsin conveys through a Personal Representative's Deed, not a general warranty deed. The offer to purchase should say so.

  8. Closing it out. PR-1814, PR-1815, PR-1816
    The estate account, signed receipts from everyone who received something, and the statement that closes the estate.

Form numbers are here because they're on the paperwork in front of you. They were checked against the Wisconsin Court System's form index for informal administration.

Where I can actually help

Number five is the one I can do for you.

The inventory needs a value for the house as of the date of death, which on a house that's appreciated is a different number from what it's worth today. I can put that together for you, or send it straight to your attorney.

There's no charge for it

It's a broker's opinion of value rather than an appraisal, and it's the deadline most commonly missed on the dockets I've read. You don't have to be selling anything to ask.

If you want more than the short version

Two other pages, and what each one is for.

There's a longer walk through the same sequence on the probate timeline page, with the Wisconsin statutes behind the dates and what typically happens in this county at each step.

If any of the words on your paperwork are new, the glossary has them in plain English. Special administration, domiciliary letters, the ones nobody explains because everybody in the room already knows them.

If you'd rather have it on paper

Print this page, or I'll send you a copy.

This page is the guide. You can print it straight from your browser. It comes out without the navigation or the color, so it can sit on the kitchen counter instead of in your head.

If you'd rather I sent you one, email me and I will. There's no form, there's no list, and nothing starts.

Email me a printable copy

Being straight with you

What this checklist can't tell you.

It can't tell you your dates. Those are on your own notice and they're specific to your case. It can't tell you which procedure your estate is in, and it can't tell you what your attorney should do next.

What it can do is let you walk into that conversation knowing the shape of the thing. If the house is the part that's stuck, that's the part I can help with.