Get Notice To Creds In Decedents' Estates-kgDM.doc

Virginia Code § 64.2-508 (A-D) requires that a fiduciary give written notice of probate to certain individuals within 30 days of qualification. Within 4 months of qualification, a fiduciary must file an affidavit with the Probate Department confirming that said notice(s) were sent.

It's not a legal requirement to place a deceased estates notice, but it is advisable, and most solicitors place them as a matter of course (in a 2016 Gazette survey, 80 per cent of probate professionals always placed one if acting as professional executor).

You are under no legal obligation to take out a death notice or obituary. Think of the latter as a final gift to your loved one—a celebration of who they were and the legacy they created.

A death notice is a brief, factual statement that announces someone's death to the public. An obituary also includes facts surrounding a person's death, but also includes biographical information, stories, and anecdotes to help honor that person's memory.

As an executor of a will, one of your responsibilities is to deal with any claims against the deceased's estate. To protect yourself from these claims, you should put a statutory advertisement in The Gazette and in a newspaper that's local to the deceased.

A death notice is a brief, factual statement that announces someone's death to the public. An obituary also includes facts surrounding a person's death, but also includes biographical information, stories, and anecdotes to help honor that person's memory.

This protects the executor or trustee from being liable for any unidentified creditors. If you don't place a notice, and a creditor subsequently comes forward after the estate has been distributed, you may then have some personal liability for an unidentified debt.

A personal representative may, but is not required to, publish a Notice to Creditors in a legal newspaper in the county where the person resided at the time of death. The language that the Notice should contain can be found in RCW 11.40. 030. A sample Notice to Creditors is contained here (PDF) (Word).