Within 270 days22 NYCRR 207.20Verified Sep 15, 2026View source of the personal representative's appointment.

For a cooperative estate the personal representative closes by informal settlement of the final account under SCPA § 2202 — rendering a full written account to the distributees and obtaining acknowledged receipt-and-release instruments approving the account and discharging the fiduciary (Form JA-2), optionally formalized by a decree releasing and discharging the fiduciary under § 2203; where releases cannot be obtained the account is judicially settled by decree in a voluntary accounting proceeding under SCPA §§ 2208-2215SCPA Article 22 (§§ 2202, 2203, 2208, 2211, 2215); § 1802Verified Sep 15, 2026View source.

A person named as executor who will not serve renounces the appointment before anyone is appointed; the instrument is a written renunciation filed with the courtSCPA § 1417(1), (4)Verified Sep 22, 2026View source. The writing is signed and acknowledged before a notarySCPA § 1417(1), (4)Verified Sep 22, 2026View source.

Not before the claim period runs: a voluntary judicial settlement requires that the time to present claims has expired or 7 months have passed since letters issued (SCPA § 2208(1)(a)); the § 2203 informal-discharge decree requires that the creditor-claim period has expired and all known debts and administration expenses be paid (§ 2203(2)(a))SCPA § 2208(1)(a); § 2203(2)(a)Verified Sep 15, 2026View source. A § 2203 discharge decree requires the PR to show "that all taxes have been paid or that no taxes were due" (SCPA § 2203(1)); NY imposes its own estate tax and its estate-tax lien on NY real property (Tax Law § 982) must be released via Form ET-117 to convey the property. Consistent with the tax-rules taxClearance blockSCPA § 2203(1); N.Y. Tax Law § 982Verified Sep 15, 2026View source.