How Does a Personal Representative display, ethics, Transparency and prove accountability for Probate Proceedings?

What Is The Role Of A Personal Representative?

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Duties, Role, and Responsibilities of a Personal Representative.

The term personal representative is synonymous with the legal terms “Executor” and “Administrator.” When a personal representative gets involved, someone dies, and they either had a will or did not have a will, and we have to start administering their estate. An executor is a person named in a will, and an administrator is someone who petitions the court to administer the estate when there is no will. They do the same duties; they have different titles. The personal representative’s job initially, whether it is an executor or an administrator, is to get the case filed in court and get it moving. They will file a petition to be appointed by the court; they will send notices to people applying to be the personal representative. The petition is to be placed on the hearing calendar for a judge to review and approve the petition.

What Is The Role Of A Personal Representative

Once that is completed, and a person is appointed as executor or administrator, that personal representative will notice all the creditors that the person is deceased and tell them they need to file their claims if they want to get paid. The personal representative has to inventory and appraise all the assets, accounting for everything going on, and make sure governmental authorities are adequately noticed of the death. Then the personal representative will have to put the whole thing together in an extensive log of accounting. When the judge approves it, only then can the personal representative distribute the assets to the beneficiaries, which is really what they were meant to do in the first place.

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Are Personal Representatives Compensated for their Work?

In California, compensation is set by statute; when it comes to payment for either the executor or the administrator; for the first $100,000 in assets, the compensation will be $4,000 each for the personal representative and the attorney, for the next $100,000.00 it will be $3,000. It is $2,000 for each subsequent $100,000 in assets. For example, for a $500,000 estate, the commission for both the personal representative and attorney will be $13,000 each. As you can see, to be without a trust and stuck in the probate system costs a lot of money.

Can a Personal Representative Decide to Opt-Out of their Duties?

An executor or administrator can resign by requesting that from the court. Then the court will appoint a new executor or administrator, although I have not seen that happen, since the amount of money that person will make is enough to make them bite the bullet and get the job done. Would you turn down $13,000 for what is not a horrible job to do? Most people won’t. For more information on Personal Representative In An Estate Plan, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you seek by contacting Steve Bliss today.