What it means
This is the personal representative's job description. A PR is a fiduciary who must observe the standards of care applicable to trustees. The core duty: settle and distribute the estate in accordance with the will and the Probate Code, as expeditiously and efficiently as is consistent with the best interests of the estate — using every authority for the best interests of interested persons, including creditors.
Subsection (2) adds a shield. A PR is not liable for an act of administration or distribution that was authorized at the time: a probated will is authority to administer by its terms, and an appointment order is authority to distribute apparently intestate assets to the heirs — unless the PR is aware of a pending challenge.
- A personal representative is a fiduciary held to the standards of care applicable to trustees.
- The duty: settle and distribute as expeditiously and efficiently as the estate's best interests allow.
- Authority must be used for the best interests of interested persons — including creditors, not only beneficiaries.
- No liability for acts of administration or distribution authorized at the time they were done.
- Distributing apparently intestate assets is protected unless the PR is aware of a proceeding challenging intestacy, the appointment, or fitness to continue.
How it plays out
Both halves of this section do work in our cases. The trustee standard is the hook for every surcharge claim, and 'expeditiously and efficiently' is the phrase we quote when an administration drifts into a second year with no accounting filed. For our PR clients we build the subsection (2) shield deliberately: act on the probated will, on court orders, and on documented facts, and hindsight liability closes off.
Related sections
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