Does a Personal Representative Get More?

Video

Good morning, folks. It’s Andy Stautz with Stautz Law, and I am back for another talk about Indiana probate and estate planning. Today, we’re talking about personal representative privileges. Really, personal representatives’ lack of privileges.  

Background: What Does the P.R. Do?

So, a little bit of background. The personal representative is the person in a probate estate who is in charge of running the show, right? This is a synonym of executor, if you’ve heard of that. Okay, so the personal representative is appointed by the court in both a supervised and an unsupervised estate. And they’re given these letters, letters testamentary, letters of administration, depending on the case, that gives the person legal authority to go gather up the decedent’s property, you know, set it aside in this separate estate account, manage the accounts, you know, settle claims, all of this.  

The Personal Representative Doesn’t Get a Bigger Share

The biggest single issue I run into with choice of personal representative or with heirs, heirship situations, you know, is when heirs are suspicious, like, does the personal representative get extra, right? Like, should we fight to be the personal representative because it’s like a privileged position?  

And the answer very generally is no. Okay, the personal representative doesn’t get an extra share of the estate. So if there are, let’s say it’s an intestate estate, there’s no will, there’s just three adult children. Okay, the three adult children are going to get equal thirds, and the child who decides to be the personal representative doesn’t get half all of a sudden, okay, they still get equal thirds.  

So the choice of personal representative does not affect the basic distribution scheme.  

The choice of personal representative does not affect the basic distribution scheme.  

Personal Representative Fees are Not a Windfall

That said, the personal representative is allowed to take a fee, basically like an hourly rate for his or her work doing the personal representative duties, right? Because It’s a lot of paperwork. It’s a lot of administrative time. You know, you got to deal with, me, the lawyer, whatever. You got to be on the phone with a lawyer all the time. So it is work. It’s a job. And the personal representative is allowed to take a reasonable fee for that work. In general, though, and personal representatives’ fees are a big topic, I suppose, but In general, it should be indifferent, right? It should be, the fee should be just enough to compensate for the work so that anybody would take it or leave it, right? It needs to be about, it needs to be about like that. So it shouldn’t be like this big bonus to the personal representative. So that’s where, when I say it doesn’t change the distribution to be a personal representative, And yes, you get a fee, but the fee is just to make up for the work, and it is a lot of work.  

The Personal Representative Job is Not Worth a Fight

So there you have it. So the basic, I guess the point of recording this talk is to say, most of the time, for most people, You don’t need, siblings don’t need to fight about who’s going to be the personal representative, or heirs don’t need to fight about it.  

Because, you know, for someone who isn’t the personal representative, you can pretty much just sit back, keep an eye on things, but just wait for your distribution at the end. You know, review the accountings and such to make sure it’s going right, but it’s easier not to be the personal representative, right?  

And that presumes that the personal representative who does serve is a diligent, responsible person. So, if you’ve got your pick, you want, you want the most like business-like, check the box, diligent child. We’ve talked about this in other talks, right? You don’t want someone debilitated by grief. You also don’t want someone who has no fixed address. But, you know, as long as the personal representative is suited to the job, And as long as the, estate counsel, the probate lawyer is, honest and upstanding and trustworthy, (me) it’s easier not to be the personal representative. Being the personal representative is an important job. You got to do it right. But it’s work and it shouldn’t be like there are no, there are not such special privileges that it should be like a prize to be fought for.  

Conclusion

Okay. So I suppose that was a basic overview, but the key question is, does the personal representative get an extra share? No. Do they get a reasonable fee for their work? Yes, but I think you’d have to be pretty silly to take on the job just for the fee, right?  

Most people do it because they want to honor the decedent and make sure their affairs are taken care of diligently and fairly.  

That’s all I’ve got for today. Thanks for listening. And if you’ve got any questions, you’re probably on my website. Give me a call, give me an e-mail. I’d love to talk more about your specific situation.