Personal Representative

Idaho Personal Representative Lawyer

An Idaho personal representative lawyer is the first person you should call if you are not clear about the duties of closing out an estate. The sooner you can speak to an Idaho personal representative attorney the easier it will be for you to step into this role with confidence and have clarity over this checklist you will need to follow. If you have been named as a personal representative to an Idaho estate, either in a last will and testament written by a loved one or through the laws of intestacy for a loved one who passed away, you may need an estate planning lawyer to help you sort through the details.

This becomes even more important if your loved one’s estate was complex or if you are having difficulty locating beneficiaries, creditors or assets. You’ll want to find a personal representative attorney in Idaho who has previously worked with individuals who have been named as a personal representative to complete those duties and responsibilities.

What Does a Personal Representative Have to Do?

The first purpose of a personal representative in Idaho is to protect the estate. This begins by them opening the formal process of probate and being approved by the court as the personal representative. They then must begin to protect the estate of the loved one who passed away, such as determining every item owned by the person who passed away both intangible and tangible that was owned by the decedent at the time they passed away. This also requires taking possession or control of each piece of the decedent’s property so that all of that can be appropriately protected.

Every effort must be made to preserve and protect these assets so that it can be distributed through the laws of intestacy or to the beneficiaries in the last will and testament. Other assets might need to be liquidated in order to pay creditor claims but likewise it is equally important to protect them and properly catalogue them. The second step of closing out a loved one’s estate is resolving claims from creditors. The second primary duty of an Idaho personal representative is to notify creditors about the opening of the estate and then figure out how to fix those claims.

A statutory process exists in Idaho in which unknown creditors can file a claim so that they are eligible to get paid before distributions to beneficiaries are made. This falls to the personal representative to evaluate the claims from the creditor to figure out if the claim is valid or not. If the personal representative questions the legitimacy of a creditor claim, they can challenge it in court and force that creditor to provide evidence and proof in the court about the debt.

The court will then evaluate the submitted evidence and determine whether or not the claim is legitimate. A personal representative also has the ability to resolve claims outside of court if that is possible to do with the creditor in question. The executor and creditor have discretion to determine if this is possible. The final stage of carrying out someone else’s probate is to make distributions from the estate.

This means taking any remaining assets inside the estate and reviewing the last will and testament if there is one. The will and testament should give details about the decedent intended for their property to be distributed to their heirs. In the event that there is no last will and testament it becomes the responsibility of the personal representative to pass on these assets based on the laws of intestacy.

This is the final stage of the probate process but it also requires appropriate accounting and submission to the court. The support of an experienced personal representative lawyer in Idaho can help to avoid many of the most common mistakes made by well-meaning executors and personal representatives. Because there are so many different steps to be managed, it is all too easy to make errors or omissions that could prove problematic and put the personal representative in the position of being exposed to personal liability.