House Bill 1176 has passed both houses of the legislature and has been signed into law by the governor, becoming the Act of November 24, 2025, No. 50. The two sections of the act can be summarized as follows:

Section 1 of the act amends 20 Pa.C.S. § 2103(a)(6) to change the ultimate intestate heir (who would take in the event that there is no surviving spouse and no surviving issue, parents, brothers or sisters, issue of brothers or sisters, grandparents or issue of grandparents) from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to an “endowed community fund” located in the municipality, school district, or county in which the decedent resided. If there is no such “endowed community fund” (as further defined by the statute), the last intestate heir is the Commonwealth. This part of the act takes effect in 60 days (which presumably means it applies to the estates of intestates dying 60 days or more after enactment, because intestate shares are usually determined based on the facts and laws as of the date of death).

Section 2 of the act amends two of the subsections of 20 Pa.C.S. § 3101 (“Payments to family and funeral directors”) to increase the amounts that may be paid without any grant of letters:

• In subsection (b) (“Deposit account”), the maximum total amount on deposit in the name of the decedent at a bank or other financial institution that can be paid to a funeral director or family member is increased from $10,000 to $20,000. This change is effective in 60 days, which may refer to the date of the payment and not the date of death.

• In subsection (e) (“Unclaimed property”), the maximum amount held by the State Treasurer as unclaimed property of a decedent that can be paid to a family member without any grant of letters is increased from $11,000 to $20,000. This change is effective in 180 days, which may refer to the date of the claim filed with the Treasurer not the date of death.

The maximum amounts which may be paid under other subsections of § 3101 remain unchanged, so wages, salaries, and employee benefits are still limited to $10,000 under subsection (a), a patient’s care account is still limited to $10,000 under subsection (c), and life insurance payable to the estate is still limited to $11,000 under subsection (d).