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Can a personal representative of an estate who has taken care of the decedent for three years take the share of a beneficiary because of a credit card debt?
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
A personal representative of an estate has no power until they have been appointed by a court. The court appointed personal representative of an estate has no right to "take" anyone's share for any reason. If there are issues regarding a beneficiary who owes a debt to the estate then the PR should ask the court what action should be taken.
The PR is obligated to pay the debts of the decedent and distribute the assets according to the will or according to the laws of intestacy if there is no will. They act under the supervision of the court and will be held personally liable if they mismanage the estate or abuse their authority. They have no right to settle the estate by making their own rules. Each beneficiary must sign a release stating they have received their share and have no further claim against the estate.
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
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Is the beneficiary of a will entitled to a share of the decedent's jointly-owned property?
It depends on what the will states. If the will states that you are the sole beneficiary of all of the decedent's property, you will receive whatever share the decedent owned of the jointly-owned property. The decedent's share of the property will become your share. If there are other beneficiaries and the division of ownership is not specified in the will, the decedent's share of the jointly-owned property will be divided equally amongst the beneficiaries. If the will states a specific division amongst beneficiaries (e.g. 1/2 interest to John Doe, 1/4 interest to Jane Doe and 1/4 interest to Bob Doe), then the decedent's share of the jointly owned property will be divided amongst the beneficiaries accordingly. But, the quick answer to your question is that just because someone else who is still alive has a share of the decedent's property doesn't mean that the entire property reverts to that alive shareholder. The decedent's interest in the property will go to his or her heirs in the same proportion that the decedent owned the property when he or she was alive.
Do named beneficiaries on wills overrride named beneficiaries on CD's and IRA's?
In general, the beneficiaries on the CDs and IRAs control over the will. This because the CD or IRA is an asset which by its own nature becomes the property of the named beneficiary. The asset is not the property of the decedent's and a decedent's will transfers only assets in the decedent's name. On the other hand, the rules might be a bit different when it comes to simple joint bank accounts as opposed to ones that have beneficiary designations. In some states, it is possible to challenge a surviving joint owner taking the account.
Should i pay creditors that have filed against my father's estate from his bank accounts because their is no property?
Bank accounts are considered to be personal property and personal property is an asset of the estate. Creditors that file a claim against the estate are entitled to be paid from the assets of the decedent before any assets can be distributed to the heirs. They must be paid from any funds in a bank account owned by the decedent.
Can an orphan claim against a beneficiary who was put as a guardian?
yesbecause that is not his/her birth parentsAnother VIew: Not necessarily. Just because the decedent had been named as Guardian does not signify any familial ties. If you make a claim against the estate, the Probate Court will rule on your eligibility to inherit.
Who collects the life insurance if the policy holder and beneficiary have died?
If the beneficiary of a policy has died, the estate of the beneficiary can still collect the insurance payment, assuming that the beneficiary does have an heir or heirs of some kind (as most people do). Note that this is a fairly unusual situation, because normally when a beneficiary dies, a new beneficiary is named. There is no reason to allow the policy to have no living beneficiary, unless the insured and the beneficiary happen to die at about the same time, and there is no time to name a new beneficiary.
How do you become a personal representative?
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.
Can a beneficiary also be a testator?
The maker of a will should take every precaution so as to make the will not vulnerable to challenges. The witnesses should not be related to you, and should not be a beneficiary. You should pick objective witnesses instead of a beneficiary, spouse or other relative.Yes, in many states a witness to a will may also be a beneficiary. In some, a witness may not be a beneficiary. Depending on the state's laws, a witness-beneficiary might forfeit whatever he/she receives under the will, or, the witness-beneficiary might forfeit only so much of what he/she receives in the will that is in excess of the amount he/she would have received in absence of a will. The old rule used to be that a will witnessed by a beneficiary was completely invalid. That thinking changed over time because it is too harsh a remedy and is unfair to the decedent and to the other beneficiaries. Sometimes it is impossible to avoid having a beneficiary be a witness, such as when a person is on his/her deathbed and only a spouse or children are present to witness the will.Still it is a good idea to avoid the situation if possible as it invites will contest litigation.
What is the difference between an Executor and an Administrator?
An executor handles the estate of a decedent who died with a will. An administrator handles the estate of a decedent who die without a will. The terms are different because an executor is executing the decedent's directions as stated in the will. The administrator is simply handling the estate according to general laws.
What does beneficiary mean?
A beneficiary means one who benefits from something. The benefit may come from an estate, trust, annuity, insurance policy or some similar source.Where there is a will there is a relative. Let us say a rich Uncle likes one of his relatives he will make out his will so that when the Uncle dies the relative he likes will get his money and benefit by it. Thereby that relative becomes a "BENEFCIARY" (Beneficiary)
If a parent abandons you then dies without a will and the divorce settlement says you should be the beneficiary on the life insurance but you are not do you have the right to the life insurance money?
No, you have no entitlement to the money. Because a life insurance policy is a contract the only legitimate way to change a beneficiary is by amending the contract. This could have been easily done by her obtaining a "Change of beneficiary" form and assigning you as the primary beneficiary. Where that did not happen, you have no right to any of the life insurance money regardless of what the will says.A Different PerspectiveYou should consult with an attorney if there is any considerable amount of money involved. You may be able to bring a suit in a court of equity. If the decedent died without naming a beneficiary you may be able to reach the proceeds using the divorce settlement agreement as evidence. An attorney could review the situation and explain your options, if any.
How do you handle life insurance in an estate without a will?
With life insurance, it does not matter if there is or is not a will, because life insurance proceeds are paid directly to the named beneficiary and not to the estate. The named beneficiary obtains a certified death certificate and submits it to the insurance company with the appropriate application form provided by the insurance company. The estate has no rights to the proceeds and would not even be paid to the estate. The only way the estate would be involved is if all named beneficiaries had predeceased the decedent or if the policy names the estate as the beneficiary. In that case, one of the heirs as defined in that state's laws would apply to be the administrator (if there is no will) or executor (if there is a will) and receive the proceeds.
What is a sentence with the word representative?
I needed a representative to do my presentaion because I was sick.
