{"id":12359,"date":"2026-05-31T19:39:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T23:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/?p=12359"},"modified":"2026-05-31T19:39:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T23:39:33","slug":"comparing-laws-for-wills-and-revocable-trusts-in-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/?p=12359","title":{"rendered":"Comparing Laws for Wills and Revocable Trusts in Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the major goals of the Pennsylvania Uniform Trust Act (Act of July 7, 2006, No. 98 of 2006) was to conform the laws relating to revocable trusts to the laws relating to wills and decedent\u2019s estates. The chart below is an adaptation of a chart originally created by Edward M. Watters III, and it shows both the similarities and differences between these two different types of documents and the interpretation and administration of them. (All section references are to the Probate, Estates and Fiduciaries Code, Title 20 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes.)<\/p>\n\n\n

Wills v. Revocable Trusts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
<\/td>Wills<\/th>Revocable Trusts<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Who may make?<\/td>Anyone 18 or more years of age who is of sound mind. (\u00a7 2501<\/a>)<\/td>Same as for will. (\u00a7 7751<\/a>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Formalities<\/td>Written and signed at the end. (\u00a7 2502<\/a>)<\/td>Written and signed. (\u00a7\u00a7 7731<\/a> and 7732<\/a>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Execution in another jurisdiction<\/td>Valid if valid under law were testator was domiciled, or in which testator died. (\u00a7 2504.1<\/a>)<\/td>Valid if valid under law where executed or under law where (1) settlor was domiciliary, resident, or national, (2) a trustee was a domiciled or had a place of business, or (3) any trust property was located. (\u00a7 7733)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Filing<\/td>Filed for probate with Register of Wills after death and upon testimony of two witnesses (\u00a7 3132<\/a>) if not self-proved (\u00a7 3132.1<\/a>).<\/td>Not probated; filed with Orphans’ Court if there is a contest or accounting.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Notices<\/td>After probate, notice to spouse, children, and beneficiaries. (Pa. R.O.C.P. 10.5<\/a>)<\/td>After death, notice to personal representative, spouse, children, and each current beneficiary. (\u00a7 7780.3<\/a>(c))<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Grounds for contest<\/td>Forgery, mistake, lack of capacity, fraud, and undue influence. (Case law)<\/td>Same as for contesting a will. (\u00a7 7754<\/a>(c))<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Time for contest<\/td>One year from probate. (\u00a7 908<\/a>)<\/td>One year after notice under \u00a7 7708.3<\/a>(c). (\u00a7 7754<\/a>(b))<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
How to contest<\/td>Before probate, by\u00a0caveat\u00a0filed with Register; after probate, by appeal to Orphans’ Court. (\u00a7 908<\/a>)<\/td>By petition in the Orphans’ Court. (\u00a7 7754(a)<\/a>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Rules of construction<\/td>Case law and statute (\u00a7 2514<\/a>).<\/td>Same as for testamentary trusts. (\u00a7 7710.2<\/a>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Claims of decedent’s creditors<\/td>Property of estate is subject to claims of decedent’s creditors.<\/td>Creditors have same rights as against estate, except that estate shall be applied first to claims. (\u00a7 7755<\/a>(a))<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
How claims are made<\/td>By notice to personal representative (i.e., executor or administrator). (\u00a7 3384<\/a>)<\/td>By notice to personal representative (who is required to give notice to trustee within 20 days) or, if none is appointed, to trustee in manner provided by \u00a7 3384<\/a>. (\u00a7 7755<\/a>(b))<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Time for claims<\/td>A personal representative may make distributions one year after first advertisement of grant of letters. (\u00a7 3532<\/a>)<\/td>Same as for personal representative or, if none appointed within 90 days after death, trustee may advertise to begin one year period for claims. (\u00a7 7755<\/a>(c))<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the major goals of the Pennsylvania Uniform Trust Act (Act of July 7, 2006, No. 98 of 2006) was to conform the laws relating to revocable trusts to the laws relating to wills and decedent\u2019s estates. The chart below … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[594,781,484],"class_list":["post-12359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-revocable-trust","tag-uniform-trust-act","tag-wills","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12359"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12391,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12359\/revisions\/12391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.evans-legal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}