Notice to Creditors Letter Template

What's in it

• Report of the death and your appointment, with the court and case number.
• Where and by when to present a written claim.
• A request to close the account and stop automatic charges.
• A list of enclosures: your letters and a death certificate.

How to use it

1. List every creditor you know of from the mail, statements and the credit report.
2. Fill in the claim deadline under your state's law, counted from the date your state uses.
3. Send it by a method you can prove, such as certified mail, and keep a copy.
4. Log each claim that comes in on the debts sheet of your inventory, and don't pay any until you know the estate can cover all of them in the order the law sets.

Check your court's rules

Most states also require a notice to creditors published in a local newspaper, and some have a court form for the mailed notice (California's is DE-157). The deadline and what starts it vary by state: see the creditor claim window for each state.

Find your court's official forms in probate forms by state, and see the full order of an executor's work in the executor checklist.

More free executor templates

• All executor forms and templates
• Estate inventory spreadsheet
• Executor accounting ledger
• Beneficiary receipt and release
• Renunciation of executor
• How long an executor has to settle an estate (creditor claim windows by state)