What Does a Personal Representative Do in Probate? - YouTube

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.