A personal representative's first 90 days, in order

Most personal representatives arrive overwhelmed. The to-do list looks infinite, the deadlines feel arbitrary, and grief is doing its job in the background. The honest news is this: the first 90 days of Michigan probate are mostly four things, in order. The rest is paperwork.

Week one: paperwork in your hands

Before any court filing, you need three documents physically: the original signed will, a certified death certificate, and a recent address for the deceased. The original will is the one signed in ink — copies are accepted only by court permission, and that's a hassle. If you don't know where it is, check the deceased's safe deposit box, attorney of record, or filed with the probate court (some Michigan counties accept will deposits during life).

Weeks two to four: petition and appointment

Michigan gives you two ways in, and they are not interchangeable. An Application for Informal Probate and/or Appointment of Personal Representative (PC 558) goes to the probate register rather than a judge, and there is no hearing: if the application is complete and nobody with equal or higher priority is in the way, the register appoints you and Letters of Authority issue. A Petition for Probate and/or Appointment of Personal Representative (PC 559) opens a formal proceeding — a judge, notice to interested persons, and a hearing — and it is what you use when the will is questioned, when priority is contested, or when you want the court supervising. Either way you file in the county where the deceased lived. You do not need an attorney for either, though many families find one worth it once the matter is formal.

Upon appointment: notice to creditors

MCL 700.3801(1) attaches this duty to your appointment — it is not a task scheduled for later in the first month. Upon appointment you must publish a notice to creditors, and that publication opens a four-month window in which creditors must present their claims or be forever barred. You must also send the notice to creditors you know of or can reasonably ascertain. Until the window closes you should not distribute estate assets. Separately, MCL 700.3954(1) bars you from filing the sworn statement that closes an unsupervised estate any earlier than five months after your original appointment. Those two clocks together — not any single rule — are why a straightforward Michigan estate still takes half a year. Confirm the dates that apply to yours with the court or an attorney.

Within 91 days of appointment: inventory

MCL 700.3706(1) gives you 91 days from appointment to prepare an inventory of the property the deceased owned at death, listing each item at its fair market value as of the date of death. Fair market value means what the property would actually sell for — not the assessed or taxable value on the tax bill, which in Michigan is a different and much lower figure, and using it will understate both the inventory and the probate inventory fee computed from it. Separately, MCR 5.307(A) requires you to give the court the information it needs to compute that fee within 91 days of the date of your Letters. Cover the home, bank balances, investment accounts, vehicles, and anything else of meaningful value; the statute asks for reasonable detail, not an itemized list of ordinary household goods, but distinctly valuable items — heirloom jewelry, collections, art — should be listed. Where the home's value is not obvious, an appraisal is the defensible way to establish it.

What you do not need to do in 90 days

• Decide whether to sell the home
• Notify every distant relative
• Contest the will
• Hire a litigator
• File the final tax return

These can wait. Don't let well-meaning advice from someone whose own probate ran sideways pull you into decisions that don't need making yet.