Hi I’m Reed Bloodworth founding partner of Bloodworth Law.
Today I wanted to talk to you about what a does a personal representative do in probate.
So the first question to answer is what’s probate?
Probate’s the formal court supervised process whereby a decedent’s will is both validated
and then make sure it is complied with.
Within that process what does a personal representative do?
Well a personal representative is the person approved by the court to carry out the probate
procedure.
The first thing a personal representative does is seeks to open the probate with the
court by filing a petition for administration.
Once this is filed the personal representative will also file the decedent’s will with
the court and also the death certificate.
Once the letters of administration are issued naming the personal representative the personal
representative will serve the notice of administration to all of the known beneficiaries surviving
spouse and some cases other interested parties.
Once the personal representative is named he or she has many duties they must comply
with.
Some of the primary duties include serving the notice of administration on the beneficiaries
gathering all of the assets of the estate determining who the creditors are of the decedent
and then supplying those creditors with notice so that those creditors can file claims against
the estate to get paid for any outstanding bills owed at the time of death.
Along with that one of the primary duties of a personal representative is then dealing
with the process of these claims filed by creditors.
Some of them may be valid.
Sometimes the creditors may miss the deadline to file those types of claims and you would
object to those and may have to do some type of litigation or negotiating pertaining to
those debts.
The personal representative’s also responsible for paying any other debts pertain excuse
me any other debts pertaining to the estate such as funeral costs.
The personal representative is also responsible for preparing an estate tax return if necessary.
And once all of the debts and everything of that nature’s been taken care of perhaps
the most important aspect of the personal representative has is distributing the remaining
assets pursuant to the terms of the will to the beneficiaries.
Once that aspect is completed the personal representative would then close the probate
estate.
Now it is important for a personal representative to remember that they are allowed to hire
professionals to assist them in this process.
Indeed I think it’s crucial in many circumstances for a personal representative to hire an accountant
or an attorney or both.
These things are specifically allowed and the accountant or attorney hired can be paid
from the estate.
It’s not something that the personal representative has to come out of his or her own pocket for.
Now often times litigation can occur within probate.
Bloodworth Law represents personal representatives and also represents beneficiaries seeking
to remove personal representatives.
So again my name is Reed Bloodworth founding partner of Bloodworth Law.
If you have a question about probate give me a call.
Let’s talk about what happened to you.