Pennsylvania living trusts & estate documents

Living trust law in Pennsylvania

A revocable living trust holds your home, accounts, and other property during your life, you stay in full control as trustee and can change or revoke it any time, then passes it to your beneficiaries without probate when you're gone. In Pennsylvania, trusts are governed by the Pennsylvania Uniform Trust Act, 20 Pa.C.S. Chapter 77.

Avoiding probate in Pennsylvania

Probate in Pennsylvania is governed by the Probate, Estates and Fiduciaries Code, Title 20, Pa.C.S. and handled by the Orphans' Court, after the Register of Wills admits the will. Estates are administered through the Register of Wills and the Orphans' Court division.

Settlement of a small estate by petition is available when the decedent's property, exclusive of real estate and of property payable under section 3101 but including personal property claimed as the family exemption, has a gross value not exceeding $50,000 (20 Pa.C.S. §3102). Separately, section 3101 lets certain payments be made to the spouse, a child, a parent or a sibling without letters: wages, salary or employee benefits not exceeding $10,000, and bank or other savings deposits when the total in that institution does not exceed $20,000 (the deposit figure set by Act 50 of 2025), on presentation of a receipted funeral bill or a funeral director's affidavit. Assets held in a funded living trust pass to your beneficiaries without probate, whatever the size of the estate. Many Pennsylvania homeowners set one up for that reason.

Estate and inheritance tax in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has an inheritance tax under section 2116 of the Tax Reform Code, with the rate set by the heir's relationship to the decedent: zero percent for transfers to a surviving spouse or to a parent from a child aged 21 or younger, 4.5 percent for lineal heirs, 12 percent for siblings and 15 percent for others. The separate federal estate tax reaches only estates above $15 million per person (2026, adjusted yearly), so most families never owe it.

Protecting a surviving spouse in Pennsylvania

A surviving spouse in Pennsylvania who is left out of the will can instead claim an elective share of one-third of the property that 20 Pa.C.S. § 2203(a) lists (property passing by will or intestacy, and the lifetime transfers, survivorship interests, annuity rights and gifts within one year above $3,000 per donee that it names), subject to the exclusions in § 2203(b) under 20 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 2203, a protection the will itself cannot override.

Pennsylvania also sets aside a family exemption of real or personal property to the value of $3,500 for the spouse, or if there is none the children who were members of the decedent's household, or if none the decedent's parents who were members of the household (20 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3121), ranking second in the order of payment under § 3392, after the costs of administration and ahead of funeral and medical costs and the other claims.

Signing your Pennsylvania documents

1. Sign the living trust. Executed and acknowledged before a notary (RULONA certificate, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania).
2. Sign the will. Sign your will at the end before two witnesses and a notary, who complete the self-proving acknowledgment and affidavits included in your will, so it can be probated without witness testimony (20 Pa.C.S. 3132.1). Pennsylvania law itself requires only your signature at the end (20 Pa.C.S. 2502) (standalone and pour-over wills).
3. Sign the power of attorney. Sign your Durable Power of Attorney before a Notary Public and in the presence of two adult witnesses, who then sign the witness lines. Neither a witness nor the notary may be a person you named as your Attorney in Fact. Sign and date the Notice on the first page as well. Each person you named as Attorney in Fact must sign the Acknowledgment page at the end of the document before acting for you.
4. Sign the health care documents. Sign your Advance Health Care Directive in the presence of two adult witnesses, who then sign the witness statements (each part of the form that shows witness lines is signed the same way). The eligibility rules printed on the form govern who may serve.
5. Follow your package instructions. Your package includes page-by-page signing instructions written for Pennsylvania. Follow those as the authoritative guide.

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