Can You Have Someone Named in a Will Not Serve as a Representative

Can you bar someone, who was named in the will, from serving as the personal representative if you prove that they would have a conflict of interest or would be hostile to the beneficiaries?

When can you have someone who’s named in a will, not serve as personal representative of the estate. Hello my name is John Pankauski, I’m a trial lawyer with Pankauski Hauser.
Ever find that somebody is nominated or named in a will to serve as a person that’s going to run the estate with some people calling administrator or what we in Florida call the personal representative. How do you prevent that person from serving in a fiduciary capacity or if there’s pending litigation going on in the court hasn’t decided who’s going to run the estate you may need an interim person who was appointed. Maybe a curator or an administrator ad litem. How do you prevent somebody who’s named in the will from serving in that fiduciary capacity.
Two things that you need to know. Florida probate Rule 5.120 and section 733 .308 of the Florida probate code. You can read those both free of charge online. You can also call us here at Pankauski Hauser, we just had a hearing directly on point were very successful in preventing someone from being appointed a fiduciary in an estate in Delray Beach, Palm Beach County Florida when they were named in the will to serve. We had the judge make specific findings of fact that demonstrated that the person who is nominated had a conflict of interest, was adverse to the estate and the beneficiaries and was indeed hostile to those beneficiaries that’s an important issue that a lot of probate litigation attorneys and family members face when somebody who’s nominated to be trustee or guardian or personal representative of a probate is hostile to the beneficiaries they’re supposed to serve.