How do you become a personal representative?

Answer 1

The following answer presumes that the Personal Representative was not established by a will which has been admitted to probate and is already before the court. This is called Administration, and applies where there is no will. The next answer talks about the situation if the executory (personal representative) was established by a will which has been admitted to probate and is already before the court. This is diffierent from when the person died without a will. It is called dying intestate. Which is from Latin, meaning "no will". The name Personal Representaitve is the inclusive name for both in most modern probate codes. 1st, ask the personal representative to resign, get another job, do something else.* Consider the posibility that the personal representative merely works there and has one of the most thankless jobs in the Western World. Only in rare occasions are personal representatives talking, after it's all over, about how wonderful the experience was and how they just recomend it to everybody. Most consider it one of the most stressful and painful social experiences in their lives. In short, most personal representative, unless there are economic interests, emotionally significant associations, and astounding egos at work are only too happy to be out of the situation. There's a side effect: as a rule of thumb, the number of years for the personal repersentative and the opposing party, if siblings, to get over the removal/resignation of the personal representative is equal to 3 times the diffierence in the ages of the personal representative and the opposing sibling. That is to speak with each other again. 2nd, If 1st does not work, then petition the probate court, with grounds, and a good probate lawyer, a war chest of money, and time, and an awareness that you might prevail in disposing the personal representative, but that's just about it for the reltionship; the time-bounds in the second paragraph don't count. Consider it over. Suggestions: be sure you know what you want, there's a very good chance you might not get it; next, then you might, and that sometimes is worse. (Just a personal opinion) *If you choose WHATEVER route, do it with a bit of careful circumspect; really provoking people who are personal repersentatives is almost always ultimately expensive. See the second paragrph preceeding. I assume that the will has already been probated and the named personal representative has been appointed and is acting. To remove the personal representative, you would most likely have to file a lawsuit in the probate court against the personal representative asking the court to remove him/her as the representative. Most if not all states have laws that set the grounds upon which a removal can be ordered. These grounds have to do with mismanagement of the estate or failure to act to a degree where there is some harm to the estate. A court will not remove an executor simply because the beneficiaries do not like him/her or even if there are disagreements on what should be done and how.The executor is the one the decedent chose to handle his estate and courts generally honor that choice, especially where there is no harm being done. Check the laws of the estate's jurisdiction to see the specific grounds for removal of personal representatives.