Do I need to close a probated will/estate account?

You are not required by state law to formally close the estate. However, if you are subject to any requirement to post a bond or file inventories and report, you need to formally close the estate in order to turn off those requirements. If you leave the estate open, it will eventually close by operation of law. Until it does, you are still the executor and still have the power and obligation to deal with any estate-related issues that come up. This can be a good thing in some cases, such as if an undiscovered asset turns up after you thought you were done (it happens). In many cases, it's not necessarily good or bad. If the estate was insolvent (i.e., there are unpaid creditors), then it becomes more important for you to both close the estate and seek a formal discharge from liability as executor as part of that process. Solemn form probate means that no one can now challenge the Will, but unpaid creditors can still come forward and try to get paid. Most of my clients who are executors of solvent estates (where no debts or beneficiaries remain unpaid) do not formally close the estates. Instead, we notify the probate court as a courtesy that the estate administration has been completed but no petition for discharge will be filed. You can file one later if desired but the estate is not formally closed. The clients who formally close the estates are usually those who are dealing with insolvent estates or ones where there was some dispute. You should ideally be working with a probate attorney on the estate administration and probate; the attorney should be able to help you decide whether or not you need to close the estate based on the actual facts of your matter. That's not something that can be done in this kind of forum.

Always smart to do so, just so no creditors pop up and cause an issue.

The above answers are both good to consider. Being relieved of future liability would be good in case creditors surface in the future, but if assets are discovered that are in the name of your husband that need to be transferred to an heir's name, then only the executor/administrator could make that transfer and having the estate still open would be more convenient than petitioning the court to administer the estate again/some more to get that transfer accomplished.

Until you are discharged, you remain liable for estate issues. You are not required to seek discharge, but doing so protects you from unforeseen liabilities.