Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: In Indiana, once the personal representative publishes notice to creditors, a creditor has 3 months to file a claim; and if notice is never published, the absolute deadline is 9 months from the date of death.
What is the creditor-claim deadline in Indiana?
| Once notice to creditors is published | 3 months |
| If notice is never published (absolute deadline) | 9 months from the date of death |
| Creditor personally mailed notice | No separate mailed-notice deadline |
“All claims against a decedent’s estate…shall be forever barred…unless filed with the court…within: (1) three (3) months after the date of the first published notice to creditors… All claims barrable under subsection (a) shall be barred if not filed within nine (9) months after the death of the decedent.”
Source: Ind. Code § 29-1-14-1
What makes Indiana different
Indiana’s 3-month notice-triggered window is among the shortest surveyed, paired with a 9-month absolute outer bar from death.
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 Indiana’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 | Ind. Code § 29-1-14-1 |
| Indiana courts (general reference) | Indiana 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.