Are you worried because you have been chosen to serve as the personal representative of your father’s West Palm Beach estate? Do you understand what a personal representative does?Experienced Palm Beach probate litigators know how hard it can be to go it alone. You may be obligated to retain a counsel as a “resident agent” if you are not a licensed attorney in Florida. Do you know what you have to do?
Gathering Assets
- To start you will have to gather the assets of the West Palm Beach decedent’s estate.
- How do you plan on doing that?
- For one thing you are going to need to be issued letters testamentary by the West Palm Beach probate judge.
- These will empower you to act on behalf of the estate in the future.
- What other stuff will you have to do as a personal representative in West Palm Beach?
Alert the Creditors
- Who does not love talking to creditors?
- As a personal representative you will be tasked with notifying all the creditors.
- How are you going to know who all the creditors are?
- For one thing you will have the known creditors who you have to personally serve but there are also the creditors you do not know.
- What do you do then?
- You have to publish a notice to creditors.
- This will give them fair notice that if they want to get paid they need to come forward.
- When do you get to cut the checks?
Paying out that Inheritance
- After you have done all the boring stuff you can look forward to what you wanted – thatinheritance.
- Did you know there are specific orders that you have to follow when paying out everyone?
- Do you know the order?
- Failure to follow this order could mean that you are on the hook for paying those that did not get paid.
- Do you think the other parties are going to give back their inheritance so that you can set the record straight?
- This is why it is so important to get it right the first time when it comes to West Palm Beach probate.