The Many Roles of the Personal Representative of a Deceased Person’s Estate
Being the personal representative of a deceased person’s estate is like being the default parent of a child, except that it takes place at the other end of a person’s life journey. Both roles are an honor, and secretly you would not want to share them with anyone, but they are both exhausting. When you are the default parent, you change most of the diapers, clean most of the spit up, accomplish most of the wardrobe changes, bathroom trips, and baths, supervise most of the homework, and provide transportation to most of the extracurricular activities and doctors’ appointments, but you also get most of the cuddles and get to hear most of your child’s unfiltered ideas. Likewise, as the personal representative of a deceased family member’s estate, all of the legal requirements that enable the heirs to receive their inheritance are your responsibility, but you also get to live with the feeling that, out of everyone the decedent could have chosen as personal representative, he or she chose you. If you are feeling overwhelmed by your responsibilities as the personal representative of a deceased family member’s estate, contact a Bronx probate attorney.
Wrangler of Paperwork
In uncomplicated probate cases, your job consists almost entirely of ensuring that the right documents reach the right recipients. To begin probate, you must submit documents to the probate court, including a request to open the estate to probate and the decedent’s will. You must then send notices to the decedent’s surviving family members and the beneficiaries of the will, as well as to parties to whom the decedent owed outstanding debts. You must also send this notice to the local newspaper so they can publish it. You will also need to send the decedent’s final tax return to the IRS.
This is only if things are uncomplicated. If you must sell assets belonging to the estate to settle the estate’s debts, then this means listing the assets for sale and communicating with prospective buyers.
Bearer of Bad News
Except in the messiest situations, where estranged relatives disagree about whether the decedent’s will is valid, the hardest part of your job as personal representative is notifying the heirs that they will not inherit as much money as they were hoping. You are the one who gets the blame, even though you are only following state law, the text of the decedent’s will, or both.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help
As the personal representative of a deceased person’s estate, you always have the right to hire a lawyer to represent you in probate court. It makes sense to hire a lawyer if you expect that one of the decedent’s relatives will challenge the will, but you have the right to hire one even if the probate case is uncomplicated.
Schedule a Confidential Consultation With a Bronx Estate Planning Attorney
A probate lawyer can help you make practical decisions in your role as the personal representative of a deceased family member’s estate. Contact Cavallo & Cavallo in the Bronx, New York to set up a consultation.
Source:
leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/Index.cfm/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0733/Sections/0733.502.html#:~:text=733.502%20Resignation%20of%20personal%20representative,not%20jeopardized%20by%20the%20resignation.