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The Responsibilities of a Personal Representative

The Responsibilities of a Personal Representative

As you prepare your estate plan, you can choose a personal representative to handle matters associated with your estate after you pass away. In Florida, your personal representative can be an individual, a trust company established under state law, or a bank or savings and loan institution that is qualified and authorized to exercise fiduciary powers.

To serve as your personal representative, an individual must be either a Florida resident or a close relative of yours.

You have some leeway in your estate plan to establish the particular responsibilities of your personal representative, but there are some general tasks a representative should almost always handle. These include the following:

  • Gathering all probate assets and valuing them
  • Publishing a Notice to Creditors in various publications to allow potential claimants an opportunity to file their claims on the estate, in accordance with the law
  • Serving Notice to Administration forms to provide information about the estate administration
  • Searching for known creditors and notifying them of the deadline for filing claims
  • Objecting to any improper claims and defending against lawsuits that occur due to those claims
  • Filing tax returns and paying all taxes due
  • Seeking professional assistance for various aspects of estate administration from accountants, attorneys and investment advisors
  • Paying all expenses of administering the estate
  • Distributing all probate assets to surviving beneficiaries
  • Closing the probate estate upon completion of the administration process

To learn more about choosing a personal representative and the responsibilities your representative will have, contact a dedicated Pensacola estate planning attorney with The Law Office of Zachary T. Magaha.

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    Pensacola, Florida 32501
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