What does a Personal Representative do?
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A personal representative is in charge of handling all the affairs of the estate. What that means is they gather all the assets, figure out what debts there are, make sure that the debts are paid off, Then, from there, they have other requirements on what they're allowed to do and what they're not allowed to do.

A personal representative does not decide who gets to inherit from the estate. If someone has a will that says 50% goes to each of my kids, the personal representative doesn't get to change that. They do, however, get to decide what makes up that 50%. So if half the estate is in cash and half is in real estate, they can decide what to do with that. Does the house get sold and the cash divided? Does the house get given to one or both of the beneficiaries?

​There are some decisions that the personal representative gets to make, but they have a responsibility to the estate and to the beneficiaries of the estate to act in a proper way and to look out for the best interests of the beneficiaries. So they're bound by what's called a fiduciary duty to look out for the best interests of the beneficiaries.

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​This video is for informative purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice. Small details can have big consequences. Want to know more about Estate Planning, schedule a free consultation with us.

What is Personal Representative?
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PR stands for personal representative. This is the person who has been appointed by the court to be in charge of an estate that's going through the probate process.
A will, will often nominate a personal representative, and a lot of times that person has the impression that they're allowed to start acting on behalf of the estate as soon as the person has passed away. A document like a will can only nominate a personal representative. That person does not have any authority until the court actually appoints them. So, a personal representative is nominated in the will, but is appointed by the court to act on behalf of the estate and handle all the affairs of the estate.

If you would like to know more about the topic, just reach out for a Free Consultation. We can help.

This video is for informative purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice. Small details can have big consequences. Want to know more about Estate Planning, schedule a free consultation with us.

What do I Need for an Initial Meeting with an Estate Planning Lawyer?
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This video is for informative purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice. Small details can have big consequences. Want to know more about Estate Planning, schedule a free consultation with us.

Bottom line is you don't need anything. Part of what an estate planning attorney helps with is the whole decision-making process. We are part of the process of figuring out what you want to do with your estate and how to do it. I have sometimes had people say, "oh, I don't have everything put together yet. I'm not ready to come see an attorney". That's great. That's what we're here for.

We are here to help you get everything put together. Not just functionally, your documents, but also conceptually. If you say, well, we don't know who we want to leave things to, we can help figure that out. We can help talk through what are some of the things that you need to think about.

• What are the different roles that are going to be involved?
  
• Who's going to need to do what?
  
• And what does that entail?

We are part of the planning process. So, when I have clients ask me, what do I need to bring to the initial consultation? The answer is just bring yourselves and your questions.

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Why is it Important for Parents of Young Children to Have an Estate Plan?
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This video is for informative purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice. Small details can have big consequences. If you want to know more about Estate Planning, schedule a free consultation with us.

So why is it important for parents to have an Estate Plan? Young children present an issue that doesn't exist with other types of estate transfers. If you have got young kids, you need someone to take care of them. And if you don't put something into place that names the guardian, then there's going to have to be a court process to determine who should be that guardian. This can be a contested process. If there's more than one person who thinks that they should be in charge, then there can be a court fight about who's best fit to do it.

​If you can name that person ahead of time, which, you can, that eliminates that potential fight. It keeps them not only out of a costly court battle, but it keeps that bad blood from coming up and a conflict that can last the rest of your kids lives. Apart from that, from a purely financial perspective, figuring out who is going to be in charge of assets that you might leave to your kids and structuring that in a way that's not going to be cumbersome for the people that you left behind is going to help them stay out of the court process. It's going to keep them from having to report to the courts on an annual basis about what they've done, and it can really help with the quality of life for the people that you've left in charge when they're dealing with the lives of your children.

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What is the difference between a trust and a will?

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This video is for informative purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice. Small details can have big consequences. Want to know more about Estate Planning, schedule a free consultation with us.

So what is the real difference between a trust and a will? Both legal documents that can be used to transfer assets, but the methods that they use and the court involvement that's required is very different. A will is a set of instructions to the probate court. So, it's only ever going to be involved when an estate is already going through the probate process.

​A trust is set up to be entirely out of court and it can function in a very similar way where you say in a trust who you want things to go to, under what conditions, who's going to be in charge of things, who's involved in administering everything. A trust has some advantages in that it stays out of the court process, and it's got a lot more flexibility - you can have the trust go for a longer period of time - while a will only governs for a short period of time after you've passed away.
Also, once all the assets are handed out, a trust can last for the entirety of, for example, a child's childhood and can last as long as it needs to stay open. So, they can be similar and function, but they get there in very different ways.

This video is for informative purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice. Small details can have big consequences. Contact an attorney for more information. Book a Free Consultation here.