Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: In Illinois, once the personal representative publishes notice to creditors, a creditor has 6 months to file a claim; and if notice is never published, the absolute deadline is 2 years from the date of death; and a creditor who is personally mailed notice gets 91 days.
What is the creditor-claim deadline in Illinois?
| Once notice to creditors is published | 6 months |
| If notice is never published (absolute deadline) | 2 years from the date of death |
| Creditor personally mailed notice | 91 days |
“…not less than 6 months from the date of the first publication or 3 months from the date of mailing or delivery, whichever is later, and that any claim not filed on or before that date is barred. … all claims which could have been barred under this Section are, in any event, barred 2 years after decedent’s death, whether or not letters of office are issued upon the estate of the decedent.”
Source: 755 ILCS 5/18-3 and 5/18-12
What makes Illinois different
Illinois sets one filing date that must satisfy two floors at once (6 months from publication AND 3 months from mailing, whichever is later), backstopped by a flat 2-year death-based bar.
Does this deadline apply the same way if the estate never opens probate?
These deadlines are creatures of the probate process itself; they run once an estate is opened (by publication, mailing, appointment, or the grant of letters, depending on Illinois’s own rule above). A creditor of a decedent whose estate never enters probate at all is not cut off by this particular statute, though the underlying debt’s own ordinary statute of limitations still applies.
Sources
| Statute | 755 ILCS 5/18-3 and 5/18-12 |
| Illinois courts (general reference) | Illinois judicial branch |
| Confidence | High |
Every statute quoted on this page was read directly from the state’s own legislature/code site this session, or, where that site blocked automated access, from a reputable legal-citation mirror quoting the same official text with its official citation (disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; the exact deadline in a given estate can turn on facts (whether a personal representative was appointed, whether notice was ever published or mailed) that only your own probate court file can confirm.