Can You Request A Change Of Personal Representative In A Probate Case?

Family businesses aren’t for everyone.  You might enjoy getting together with your siblings on weekends and holidays, playing crazy eights and quoting old movies, but the idea of having to include them in your financial decisions or counting on them to meet deadline is more stressful than you care to think about.  Working in high-pressure situations with people you have nothing in common with is even worse.  How many business majors have switched to the college of arts and sciences after one too many classes were almost the entire grade was based on group projects?  If those situations don’t sound nerve-wracking enough, add death into the mix, and you will get an idea of what probate court is like.  Disputes between the personal representative of an estate and the beneficiaries of a will are not pretty, but that happen frequently.  In the most extreme cases, the court might even remove the personal representative from the case and appoint a new one.  If the estate of a family member of yours is in probate, and the personal representative is not doing their job properly, contact a Tampa probate attorney.

What Makes a Personal Representative of an Estate Legally Unsuitable?

Nothing provokes sibling rivalry than one sibling being in charge of all the purse strings until the estate settles and all the family members can get their inheritance.  Likewise, dealing with incompetent bureaucrats is infuriating.  Whether the personal representative of the estate is your good-for-nothing sibling or a lawyer that your deceased relative trusted, the fact that the personal representative gets on your nerves is not enough to justify relieving them of their duties.  The probate courts do everything possible to honor the decedent’s requests as indicated in the will, even if the beneficiaries are not happy with the decedent’s choice of personal representative.

You can petition the court to remove the personal representative from the case if you have a legally valid reason to do so.  You can do this if the personal representative has been convicted of a felony, does not reside in Florida, or cannot fulfill the duties of the personal representative because of a serious illness or disability.  You can also remove a personal representative who has a financial conflict of interest or who is not forthcoming about the estate’s finances.

How to Remove the Personal Representative From the Estate

The procedure for removing a personal representative from an estate works similarly to divorce proceedings.  First, you file a petition with the court and serve the personal representative with a copy of the petition.  Then there is a hearing to see if the parties can resolve their differences.  If that does not work, then the case proceeds to trial, and the court decides whether to remove the personal representative from the estate and appoints a new one.

Contact David Toback With Questions About Trouble With Personal Representatives

A Central Florida probate lawyer can help you seek appropriate remedies if the personal representative is not doing a good job of managing the estate.  Contact David Toback in Tampa, Florida to set up a consultation.

Sources:

leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0733/Sections/0733.304.html