View source for Social:Personal representative

{{short description|Person appointed by a court to administer the estate of another}}
In common law jurisdictions, a '''personal representative''' or '''legal personal representative''' is a person appointed by a court to administer the estate of another person. If the estate being administered is that of a deceased person, the personal representative is either an [[Social:Executor|executor]] if the deceased person left a will or an administrator of an intestate estate.<ref>Hayton & Marshall (2005) '''1-127'''-'''1-128'''</ref> In other situations, the personal representative may be a guardian or trustee, or other position. As a [[Social:Fiduciary|fiduciary]], a personal representative has the duties of [[Social:Loyalty|loyalty]], candor or [[Philosophy:Honesty|honesty]], and [[Philosophy:Good faith|good faith]]. In the United States, ''punctilio of honor'', or the highest standard of honor, is the level of scrupulousness that a fiduciary must abide by.<ref>''Meinhard v. Salmon'', 164 N.E. 545 (N.Y. 1928).</ref>

In either case of a deceased estate, a probate court of competent jurisdiction issues a finding of fact, including that a will has or has not been filed, and that an executor or administrator has been appointed. These are often referred to as "'''letters testamentary'''", "'''letters of administration'''" or "'''letters of representation'''", as the case may be. These documents, with the appropriate [[Social:Death certificate|death certificate]], are often the only license a person needs to do the banking, stock trading, real estate transactions, and other actions necessary to marshal and dispose of the deceased's estate in the name of the estate itself.

==Types==
There are a number of types of personal representatives, including:<!-- Please respect alphabetical order -->
* Administrator
* Administrator ''de bonis non'' - one acting without complete authority
* Alternate executor
* Ancillary administrator
* Conservator
* [[Social:Executor|Executor]] or executrix (term for females)
* [[Social:Legal guardian|Legal guardian]]
* Overseer - an assistant to an executor, now mostly obsolete
* Public administrator

==U.S. Department of Defense==
In the U.S., the Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants appointed a Personal Representative (CSRT) to meet with each captive who was still being held in extrajudicial detention in the {{wipe|United States}} Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, in August 2004, when the Supreme Court forced the Department of Defense to  start convening Combatant Status Review Tribunals.  Such a personal representative is more like a ''guardian ad litem''.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
*{{cite book |author1=Hayton , D. |author2=Marshall, C. |name-list-style=amp |year=2005 |title=Commentary and Cases on the Law of Trusts and Equitable Remedies |publisher=Sweet & Maxwell |location=London |isbn=0-421-90190-X |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/commentarycaseso12edhayt }}

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[[Category:Legal terminology]]



{{Sourceattribution|Personal representative}}