ABSTRACT
Personal representatives are the people who administer the estate left by the deceased. They are sometimes described as stepping into the deceased person’s shoes; they stand in relation to the property in the estate very much as he or she did when still alive, but many special rules apply to them. Personal representatives may be either executors or administrators, depending on whether or not they are appointed by the testator’s will, but all personal representatives have essentially the same duties. Those duties are aimed at having them deal with everything in the testator’s estate so as to wind it up with everyone concerned getting exactly what they should and nothing being left over. The duties involved in administering and winding up the estate are, in essence, to collect in the assets, pay the liabilities and, probably, then to distribute what remains. If there is property which then has to be retained on a continuing trust, the personal representatives should pass it to the trustees. Sometimes the personal representatives and the trustees are the same people, but with different formal roles.
