The duties personal representatives owe in administering an estate, the statutory powers they exercise, and the personal liability they risk when administration goes wrong.
A misstep in administering an estate falls on the personal representative personally, which is why the law pairs every duty with a route to protection or relief. This chapter starts with who personal representatives are — executors and administrators, when their authority arises, and the position of an executor de son tort — before working through the fiduciary and administrative duties, including self-dealing, impartiality, devastavit and the obligation to collect in assets, together with the limits on delegating functions to agents. It then covers the statutory order for paying debts, the timing of distribution and the family provision risk, the protections available against unknown creditors and missing beneficiaries through statutory notices and Benjamin Orders, and how liability is shared and relieved when a breach occurs. The final sections set out the statutory powers of appropriation, maintenance and advancement, and the rules on inheritance and capital gains tax, removal for misconduct, and accounting to residuary beneficiaries.
