Estate Administration · Beneficiary Rights · Pittsburgh
Your Sibling Is the Executor and Has Not Shown You the Will in Pennsylvania
There is no formal reading of the will in Pennsylvania. When your parent dies and a will is probated under 20 Pa.C.S. § 3101 et seq., the will becomes a public record at the Register of Wills. You can get a certified copy yourself without the executor’s knowledge or cooperation. Under Pa. O.C. Rule 10.5 the executor must notify all beneficiaries within three months, but if they have not, you can still access the will yourself. If the estate has been opened, the will is already available to you. If it has not been opened, the question is why.
Most beneficiaries who call because the executor sibling has not shown them the will do not know they can get it themselves. They are waiting for the executor to produce it. They do not have to wait. The will is either already public or the executor has not opened the estate yet, and those two situations have different answers.
If the estate has been opened the will is a public record. You can pull it from the Allegheny County Department of Court Records yourself. You do not need the executor’s permission. If the estate has not been opened and months have passed, that is a different problem.
Call 412-351-4422 or schedule a consultation if you need help understanding what the will says or what your rights are under it.
Which of these is closest to what you are dealing with?
The estate has been opened and the executor has not sent me anything.
Under Pa. O.C. Rule 10.5 the executor must send Form RW-07 to all known heirs and beneficiaries within three months of receiving letters. You can also pull the will yourself from the Allegheny County Department of Court Records without waiting for the executor.
I do not know if the estate has been opened.
Search the Allegheny County Department of Court Records online. If the estate is there, the will is public. If there is no estate docket, the executor has not probated the will yet. How long ago did your parent die?
The estate has been open for months and the executor has gone silent.
An executor who does not communicate is not just frustrating :it is a breach of fiduciary duty. You can demand a formal accounting and petition the Orphans Court to compel a response if the silence continues.
My parent died months ago and no estate has been opened.
An executor who holds the original will and does not present it for probate is sitting on a legal obligation. Pennsylvania law requires timely probate. If the executor is delaying to control information or assets, that delay is actionable.
I got a Form RW-07 but it does not explain what I am entitled to receive.
The RW-07 is a notice that the estate was opened :not a statement of your share. It directs you to the Register of Wills for a copy of the will. Pull the will from the DCR and read what it says about your share. If the will is unclear or you believe you were wrongly excluded, that is a separate question.
The will I saw is different from what my parent told me.
If the will was changed late in life under circumstances that suggest someone influenced your parent, that is a different legal question involving undue influence or lack of capacity. For that situation see something changed with the will in Pennsylvania. This page addresses getting access to the will — not challenging what it says.
How to Get the Will Yourself in Allegheny County
Search the Allegheny County Department of Court Records online, find the estate docket, and request a certified copy of the will.
Once a will is presented to the Register of Wills and the estate is opened, the will becomes part of the public court record. In Allegheny County that record is maintained by the Department of Court Records. You can search the probate docket online at the Allegheny County Department of Court Records website, find the estate, and request a certified copy of the will. The fee is minimal. The executor does not need to know you did it. This is not a legal maneuver :it is a routine public records request that anyone can make.
If you are not in Allegheny County the process is the same :you go to the Register of Wills in the county where the decedent lived at the time of death. Every probated will in Pennsylvania is a public record at the county level. The estate docket tells you who was appointed executor, when letters were granted, and what documents have been filed. The will itself tells you what your parent intended. Getting that information does not require the executor’s cooperation or even their awareness.
The Notice the Executor Was Required to Send You
Under Pa. O.C. Rule 10.5 the executor must send written notice of estate administration to all known heirs and beneficiaries within three months of receiving letters testamentary. That notice is Form RW-07 :Notice of Estate Administration. It tells you the estate has been opened, who the executor is, and how to obtain a copy of the will from the Register of Wills. Within ten days of sending RW-07 the executor must file Form RW-08 :Certification of Notice :with the Register of Wills certifying that all required parties were notified.
If more than three months have passed since letters were granted and you have not received Form RW-07, the executor has violated Pa. O.C. Rule 10.5. That is an actionable failure. It does not mean the will is being hidden :executors routinely fail to send RW-07 out of ignorance rather than bad faith. But it is a failure the executor is required to correct, and the Orphans Court can sanction a personal representative who does not comply. A demand letter to the executor citing Rule 10.5 often produces the notice immediately.
When the Estate Has Not Been Opened
The executor named in a will is not automatically the executor. They become the executor when they present the original will to the Register of Wills, file a Petition for Grant of Letters Testamentary, and receive letters testamentary from the Register of Wills. Until that happens the estate is not open, the will is not public, and no one has legal authority to act on behalf of the estate. An executor who holds the original will and does not present it for probate is sitting on a legal obligation they have not yet performed.
Pennsylvania law requires the will to be presented for probate within a reasonable time after death. There is no fixed statutory deadline but significant delay without explanation :particularly when assets are being transferred or managed informally while the estate sits unopened :raises serious questions. A person who believes an executor is deliberately delaying probate to control assets or information before heirs can see the will may petition the Register of Wills or the Orphans Court to compel the executor to act. The original will belongs to the estate, not to the executor personally.
What the Will Does and Does Not Tell You
The probated will tells you what your parent directed regarding the disposition of the probate estate :the assets that pass through the will. It does not tell you about assets that pass outside the will: jointly held property, retirement accounts with beneficiary designations, life insurance policies, payable-on-death bank accounts, and assets held in a trust. Those assets are not controlled by the will and do not appear in the probate docket. A beneficiary who reads the will and concludes they received nothing may be looking at only part of the picture :or may be correct that the will excludes them from the probate estate entirely.
If the will is clear and your share is stated, the question shifts to administration :whether the executor is handling the estate correctly and whether you will receive what the will directs. If the will is unclear, or if it says something different from what your parent told you to expect, or if you believe you were wrongly excluded, those are separate questions that require legal analysis of the specific document and circumstances.
When to Stop Waiting and Get Counsel
Most beneficiaries who cannot get information from an executor sibling resolve the immediate question by pulling the will from the DCR themselves. The information gap closes. The question then becomes whether the administration is being handled correctly :which is a different question from whether you can see the will. You need counsel when the silence is covering something rather than reflecting simple disorganization. Signs that something more is happening: assets being transferred informally before the estate is opened, the estate has been open for more than a year with no accounting and no distribution timeline, estate property has been sold and you were not told, or the will that was probated is materially different from what your parent expressed to you before death.
An executor sibling who simply has not gotten around to sending you the notice is a different problem from an executor sibling who is using the administration period to move assets. The first resolves with a phone call or a demand letter. The second requires court intervention :a petition to compel accounting, a petition for removal, or a surcharge proceeding. Getting the will first tells you which situation you are in. The longer the delay continues without investigation, the harder it becomes to recover what was moved.
A Pittsburgh woman called fourteen months after her mother died. Her brother was the executor. She had received nothing :no Form RW-07, no accounting, no distribution, no explanation. She did not know the estate had been opened. A search of the Allegheny County Department of Court Records showed the estate had been opened eleven months earlier. The will left the estate equally to both siblings. The estate included the family home, two bank accounts, and an investment portfolio. The home had been listed for sale two months after the estate opened. It closed four months later for $340,000. The investment accounts had been partially liquidated. None of the proceeds had been distributed to her. Her brother had been writing checks from the estate account to himself as “executor compensation” totaling $68,000 :an amount the court later found to be entirely unauthorized. She did not know any of this until she searched the DCR herself. The petition to compel accounting was filed the following week. The surcharge proceeding followed. She recovered her share plus interest and counsel fees. The information was always public. She just did not know to look.
Estate administration notice requirements are governed by Pa. O.C. Rule 10.5. The Petition for Grant of Letters Testamentary and probate records are maintained by the Allegheny County Register of Wills. Estate dockets are searchable through the Allegheny County Department of Court Records. Executor removal is governed by 20 Pa.C.S. § 3182.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a formal reading of the will in Pennsylvania?
No. The formal reading of the will is a movie convention that does not exist in Pennsylvania practice. When someone dies, the executor presents the original will to the Register of Wills to open the estate. The will becomes part of the public court record at that point. There is no ceremony, no gathering, and no requirement that the executor read the will aloud to anyone.
How do I get a copy of the will if the executor won’t give me one?
If the estate has been opened, search the Allegheny County Department of Court Records online. Find the estate docket and request a certified copy of the will. The fee is minimal and you do not need the executor’s cooperation. If the estate has not been opened yet, the will is not yet a public record and you will need to address why the executor has not presented it for probate.
Is the executor required to notify me that the estate was opened?
Yes. Under Pa. O.C. Rule 10.5 the executor must send Form RW-07 :Notice of Estate Administration :to all known heirs and beneficiaries within three months of receiving letters testamentary. The notice directs you to the Register of Wills for a copy of the will. An executor who does not send RW-07 within three months has violated the rule and can be sanctioned by the Orphans Court.
What if the estate was never opened?
An executor who holds the original will and does not present it for probate within a reasonable time is failing to perform a legal obligation. Pennsylvania law requires timely probate. If significant time has passed :particularly if assets are being transferred or managed informally while the estate sits unopened :a beneficiary or heir can petition the Register of Wills or the Orphans Court to compel the executor to act.
What if the will says something different from what my parent told me?
That is a separate question from getting access to the will. If the will was changed late in life under circumstances suggesting someone exerted undue influence, or if your parent lacked capacity when the change was made, those are grounds for a will contest addressed at something changed with the will in Pennsylvania. Will contests involve different legal standards and different timelines. This page addresses getting access to the will — not challenging its contents.
For related topics see our pages on executor duties in Pennsylvania, forcing an estate accounting in Pennsylvania, executor not communicating in Pennsylvania, and beneficiary rights in Pennsylvania.
At Lebovitz & Lebovitz, P.A., we represent beneficiaries and heirs in estate administration disputes, Orphans Court proceedings, and executor misconduct matters throughout Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania.