Who Should Be My Personal Representative?

I encourage testators to select persons who qualify under the statute as their personal representatives, and also have some financial capabilities, as well as understanding of their family’s dynamics.  One should choose a person whom one trusts, since she will be charged with executing your intentions in your absence.  Your personal representative will become a fiduciary with respect to your beneficiaries, and, in failing those duties, can create for herself a substantial amount of trouble.  A personal representative should be honest, impartial, diligent, communicative, and occasionally decisive.

Where no one in your family may qualify, or if you do not wish to put family members to the task of administering your estate, some professionals act as personal representative, under appropriate circumstances.  Lancaster Law office occasionally consents to act as personal representative for a client.