Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

Re: legal responsibility to heirs?

Unless your mother and uncle personally signed for debts of your grandmother, they do not have personal liability for her debts.

All of your grandmother's assets, including her home, if she owned that, bank accounts, personal property, etc., are part of her estate and available for payment of debts. If she had a will, the person named as personal representative (also referred to as executor/executrix) could go through an estate administration to have the estate declared insolvent, if the amount of the debts exceeds the value of all assets. If there was no will, the estate may be administered by a family member. In either case, application has to be made to the Register of wills for the county where your grandmother resided at the time of her death for Letters authorizing the personal representative to act on behalf of the estate.

Advertising an estate is notice to creditors to present their claims. If they do not present their claims within a certain time, they cannot later make a claim for payment of debts of the decedent.

The staff in most Register of Wills' offices are helpful to people who are trying to administer estates on their own.