Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: In Montana, once the personal representative publishes notice to creditors, a creditor has 4 months to file a claim; and if notice is never published, the absolute deadline is 1 year from the date of death; and a creditor who is personally mailed notice gets 30 days.
What is the creditor-claim deadline in Montana?
| Once notice to creditors is published | 4 months |
| If notice is never published (absolute deadline) | 1 year from the date of death |
| Creditor personally mailed notice | 30 days |
“shall publish a notice once a week for 3 successive weeks…notifying creditors of the estate to present their claims within 4 months after the date of the first publication of the notice or be forever barred. … barred unless presented within the earlier of the following time limitations: (a) within 1 year after the decedent’s death; or (b) within the time provided…for creditors who are given actual notice and within the time provided…for all creditors barred by publication.”
What makes Montana different
Montana frames the one-year death-based bar and the shorter 4-month/30-day notice periods as alternatives under a single ‘earlier of’ rule.
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 Montana’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 | Mont. Code Ann. §§ 72-3-801, 72-3-803 |
| Montana courts (general reference) | Montana 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.