You have been the personal representative for eight months. You handled the first thirty days by the book. The creditors are paid, the house is sold, the checks are written. You file the sworn statement to close, the court accepts it without a hearing, and the file goes quiet. That feels like the end of it.

It is not. In Michigan, closing the estate and being released from liability are two different events, produced by two different filings, and the faster of the two routes produces only the first.

Michigan Gives You Two Ways to Close a Probate Estate

The Estates and Protected Individuals Code provides two closing routes, and the choice is not always yours. A personal representative in an unsupervised estate may close by filing a sworn closing statement under MCL 700.3954. No hearing, no judge, no order.

Any estate may instead be closed by an order of complete estate settlement under MCL 700.3952, and an estate in supervised administration must be closed that way. MCR 5.311(A), (B)(1). The sworn statement is faster and cheaper. It also leaves something on the table.

The Sworn Statement: Five Months, Four Sworn Facts, No Hearing

You cannot file it early. The sworn statement may be filed no earlier than five months after the date of a general personal representative’s original appointment. MCL 700.3954(1). That floor sits on the claims period underneath it. A creditor has four months from publication of the notice to creditors to present a claim. MCL 700.3803(1)(a).

In the statement you swear to four things. MCL 700.3954(1)(a) to (d).

• That notice was published and the time for presenting claims has expired.
• That you fully administered the estate, paying, settling, or otherwise disposing of the claims presented, the administration and estate expenses, and the death taxes, including distribution of the property to the persons entitled to it.
• That you sent a copy of the statement to every distributee and to every creditor whose claim is neither paid nor barred.
• That you furnished the distributees a full written account of your administration, one that clearly states the amount paid out of the estate in fiduciary fees, attorney fees, and other professional fees.

One administrative item catches people at the counter. The inventory fee must be paid no later than the day you file the sworn statement, or one year after appointment, whichever comes first. MCR 5.307(A).

Then two clocks run. If no interested person objects within 28 days, you are entitled to a certificate from the probate register stating that you appear to have fully administered the estate. MCL 700.3958. If no proceeding involving you is pending in that court one year after the statement is filed, your appointment terminates. MCL 700.3954(2).

Why the Certificate of Completion Is Not a Discharge

Read the certificate’s own limitation. It is evidence that a lien given to secure your obligation in place of a bond is discharged, and the statute then says in terms that the certificate “does not preclude action against the personal representative or the surety.” MCL 700.3958. The document tells the interested persons the same thing on its notice page.

So what does filing actually buy you? A deadline. The right of a successor or creditor to proceed against you for breach of fiduciary duty is barred unless the proceeding is commenced within six months after the closing statement is filed. MCL 700.3956.

That bar has a gap in it, and the gap is why the account in item four matters more than it looks. It does not reach a claim against you for fraud, misrepresentation, or inadequate disclosure related to the settlement of the estate. MCL 700.3956.

An account that reports a lump sum where the statute asks what came in and what went out is what keeps a personal representative exposed long after the six months have run, because the beneficiary’s complaint is no longer that you administered the estate badly. It is that you never told him what you did.

Filing the sworn statement closes the estate. It does not close your exposure, and nothing the probate register issues afterward will.

The Petition Route Is the One That Produces an Order of Discharge

An order of complete estate settlement does what a sworn statement cannot. After notice to all interested persons and a hearing, the court may determine the persons entitled to distribution, approve the settlement, direct or approve distribution, and discharge the personal representative from further claim or demand of an interested person. MCL 700.3952(2). Where administration is complete, the order also terminates your authority and closes the estate. MCR 5.311(B)(5).

Three practical points about getting there:

• You may petition at any time. Any other interested person must wait a year from the original appointment, and the court will not accept the petition from anyone until the time for presenting claims that arose before the death has expired. MCL 700.3952(1).
• File the final account. Where properly presented claims still have to be paid or assets still have to be distributed, the schedule of distributions and payment of claims is what puts those items in front of the judge.
• For the discharge itself, petition with notice to the interested persons and file the set the rule requires: the inventory, the accountings in the itemized form MCR 5.310(C)(2)(c) prescribes, the notice of appointment, the attorney fee notice, the notice to the spouse, affidavits of any required publication, and the Michigan estate tax proof, with proofs of service. The court may order you discharged if it is satisfied that you properly administered the estate. MCR 5.311(B)(3).

Distribute First and Take Receipts

Neither route lets you close before the property goes out the door. Distribution to the persons entitled is part of the full administration you swear to. MCL 700.3954(1)(b).

Take a receipt for every distribution of personal property and know what it does. Proof that a distributee received an instrument or deed of distribution, or payment in distribution, is conclusive evidence that the distributee succeeded to the estate’s interest in that property as against all persons interested in the estate, with one exception that runs your way: you may recover the property or its value if the distribution was improper. MCL 700.3910.

The receipt settles the distributee’s title. It does not settle whether you were right to hand the property over, and if you were not, the recovery action is yours to bring, against a family member, after you have already closed.

Frequently Asked Questions About Closing a Michigan Probate Estate

Talk to a Michigan Probate Attorney Before You File Your Closing Documents

The personal representatives who get hurt at this stage are rarely the ones who made a bad call on an investment. They are the ones who closed correctly by their own lights, on a form that required an account, and handed the beneficiaries an account too thin to bar the claim that arrived a year later. Before anything is filed, three questions are worth answering: which closing route this estate qualifies for, whether the account you are about to furnish satisfies MCL 700.3954(1)(d), and whether the size of the estate or the temperature of the family justifies asking a judge for an order of discharge instead.

We handle probate administration across Southeast, Central, and Mid-Michigan, including closing work on estates someone else opened. To schedule a consultation, call Boroja, Bernier & Associates at (586) 991-7611.

About the Author

Daniel Boroja, Esq. is a founding partner of Boroja, Bernier & Associates PLLC, where he leads the firm’s estate planning, probate and trust administration, and elder law practice. He has practiced Michigan estate and trust law since 2013 (Bar No. P77079).