A personal representative is someone who has been appointed to settle someone's estate during the formal process of probate.
What you need to know
A personal representative is in charge of interpreting a will and has a fiduciary duty to deliver an estate's assets to its beneficiaries.
Personal representative is just another word for executor.
Being a personal representative is a big responsibility, with hundreds of hours of work to complete.
Personal representative is another term commonly used for executor. Other terms include estate trustee, executrix, liquidator, custodian, agent and fiduciary.
These terms change depending on the jurisdiction of the estate administration duties and hold the same obligations in each region.
For example, if the deceased passed without a will (intestate), the court can appoint a personal representative to oversee the administration of the estate.
We've written at length on executors. Here are a few crowd favorites:
How Executors Succeed: Master Guide
A probate guide written for people who aren’t lawyers
Probate is notoriously confusing. Small estate affidavits, formal vs. simple administration, executors & executrixes— there’s more than enough jargon to make your head spin. We get it, and that’s why we made a probate guide that actually tells you what you need to know without assuming anything. You’ll walk away with a tangible timeline, actionable next steps and real clarity on what probate actually means for you and your family.
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Atticus Staff Writer
Atticus is a San Diego based fintech company committed to empowering families through the process of bringing a close to the financial life of a loved one. It’s groundbreaking probate & estate settlement product is a comprehensive, all-in-one platform that combines personalized guidance with intuitive, easy-to-use tools allowing families and their advisors to save time and money by navigating the estate settlement and inheritance process together.
Atticus is available nationally across the United States and Canada and is backed by a passionate team of industry experts including tax, legal, financial and fiduciary professionals.
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This could be you
Atticus values the expertise and professional experience of our partners and community of contributors. And we appreciate that's what makes the fiduciary industry so uniquely special.
After all, being a fiduciary isn't something that's just learned— it's a mindset that's demonstrated, tested and enduringly earned.
That's why Atticus is built around a community of passionate executors, attorneys, wealth advisors, probate clerks and other professional fiduciaries.
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