Personal representative

Wills, trusts and estates
Part of the common law series
Wills
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Trusts
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Estate administration
Intestacy Testator Probate Power of appointment Simultaneous death Slayer rule Laughing heir Advancement Disclaimer of interest Inheritance tax
Related topics
Advance directive (Living will) Totten trust
Other common law areas
Contract Tort Property Criminal law Evidence

In common law jurisdictions, a personal representative is either an executor for the estate of a deceased person who left a will or the administrator of an intestate estate.^[1] In either case, a surrogate court of competent jurisdiction issues a finding of fact, including that a will has or has not been filed, and that an executor or administrator has been appointed. These are often referred to as "letters testamentary", "letters of administration" or "letters of representation", as the case may be. These documents, with the appropriate death certificate, are often the only license a person needs to do the banking, stock trading, real estate transactions, and other actions necessary to marshal and dispose of the decedent's estate in the name of the estate itself.

As a fiduciary, a personal representative has the duties of:

1. loyalty
2. candor or honesty
3. good faith.

In the U.S., punctilio of honor, or the highest standard of honor, is the level of scrupulousness that a fiduciary must abide by.^[2]

Types of personal representatives include:

• Executor or executrix (term for females)
• Alternate executor
• Administrator
• Ancilllary administrator
• Administrator de bonis non - one acting without complete authority
• Public administrator
• Guardian
• Conservator
• Overseer - an assistant to an executor, now mostly obsolete

U.S. Department of Defense

In the U.S., the Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants appointed a Personal Representative (CSRT) to meet with each captive who was still being held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, in August 2004, when the Supreme Court forced the Department of Defense to start convening Combatant Status Review Tribunals. Such a personal representative is more like a guardian ad litem.

References

Bibliography

• Hayton , D. & Marshall, C. (2005). Commentary and Cases on the Law of Trusts and Equitable Remedies. London: Sweet & Maxwell. ISBN 0-421-90190-X.