The Personal Representative’s Role in Gathering Assets

The personal representative of your estate will have a variety of responsibilities after your death. Among these responsibilities is the collection, organization and distribution of assets to your beneficiaries.

The process of gathering assets can be complicated. Here is an overview of what you should know to help your personal representative with this task:

• Identification: Make sure you identify all of your assets that you care to be passed to specific beneficiaries. Listing items in an estate plan are especially important to safeguard your assets until distribution can occur. Having a clear list of items will be very helpful to your personal representative.
• Instructions: Provide your representative with instructions about where or how they can find particular assets. Physical assets should be listed along with their location and any access instructions, such as safe combinations. Accounts should be listed with online passwords and information about brokers or agents.
• Maintenance: Provide instructions for maintaining the assets after they have been located. Some physical assets will require upkeep, while accounts and insurance policies will need to be kept current with the use of estate assets until they can be transferred or paid off.

The personal representative will also be tasked with submitting an accounting of all of the assets of the estate to the probate court. The more assistance you can provide the representative in the instructions you leave behind, the better.

To learn more about the tasks your personal representative will have to take on in administering your estate, contact an experienced Tampa, FL estate planning lawyer at BaumannKangas Estate Law.