Named Executor vs. Court-Appointed Personal Representative

“Executor” is the familiar consumer term. Michigan and Florida statutes generally use personal representative. Being nominated in a will is important, but nomination is not the same as court appointment.

Florida § 733.601 provides that a personal representative’s duties and powers commence upon appointment. Florida also recognizes a relation-back rule: beneficial acts performed by the person who is later appointed can receive the same effect as acts occurring after appointment, and the personal representative may ratify appropriate acts performed on behalf of the estate before appointment.

Executor Checklist: Personal Representative Duties From Start to Finish

What Are the Fiduciary Duties of a Personal Representative?

A personal representative is not merely the family’s organizer. The position is fiduciary.

Michigan MCL 700.3703 requires a personal representative to observe the trustee standard of care and settle and distribute the estate according to the probated and effective will and EPIC, as expeditiously and efficiently as is consistent with the estate’s best interests. Florida § 733.602 similarly requires the personal representative to settle and distribute the estate efficiently and expeditiously, consistent with the estate’s best interests and the will, while § 733.609 makes the personal representative’s fiduciary duty the same as that of a trustee of an express trust.

Personal Representative Duties: The 20-Step Roadmap

1. 1
   Locate the will and trust. Determine what instruments govern and locate originals where required.
2. 2
   Secure property. Prevent avoidable loss, theft, damage, lapse of insurance, or unauthorized distributions.
3. 3
   Identify interested people. Determine heirs, devisees, surviving spouse, beneficiaries, and other persons entitled to statutory notice.
4. 4
   Determine whether probate is necessary. Separate probate property from survivorship, beneficiary-designated, trust, and other nonprobate property.
5. 5
   Open the correct proceeding. Determine domicile, venue, administration type, and whether property in another state creates an ancillary issue.
6. 6
   Obtain appointment. Do not confuse nomination in the will with legal authority after appointment.
7. 7
   Review the letters and court orders. Identify restrictions before selling, borrowing, distributing, or entering transactions.
8. 8
   Establish estate administration systems. Obtain tax identification information where required, establish appropriate estate banking, and keep estate and personal money separate.
9. 9
   Locate every asset. Search financial records, mail, tax returns, deeds, business records, digital information, and other reliable sources.
10. 10
    Inventory and value property. Use date-of-death values and qualified appraisers when appropriate.
11. 11
    Give required notices. State law determines notices to beneficiaries, spouses, creditors, agencies, and others.
12. 12
    Administer creditor claims. Follow statutory publication, direct-notice, presentation, priority, allowance, objection, and payment rules.
13. 13
    Manage estate property. Preserve value, collect income, address insurance and expenses, and make prudent management decisions.
14. 14
    Handle real estate. Determine title, authority, liens, occupancy, sale requirements, and—in Florida—whether protected homestead is involved.
15. 15
    Address taxes. Identify required final individual, estate income, estate tax, property tax, and other filings without assuming every estate has the same obligations.
16. 16
    Keep beneficiaries informed. Provide notices and information required by law and communicate sufficiently to reduce avoidable confusion.
17. 17
    Maintain an accounting. Track every receipt, disbursement, sale, distribution, fee, and material transaction.
18. 18
    Plan distributions. Confirm claims, expenses, taxes, reserves, and the governing distribution scheme before releasing assets.
19. 19
    Complete final reporting. Use the closing, accounting, notice, receipt, waiver, or court procedures required for the particular administration.
20. 20
    Close and preserve records. Complete statutory closing steps and retain organized fiduciary records after administration.

Michigan vs. Florida Personal Representative Duties

Michigan Personal Representative Duties

Michigan’s Estates and Protected Individuals Code gives a personal representative substantial authority, particularly in unsupervised administration, but that authority is held in trust for creditors and interested persons—not for the fiduciary’s personal convenience.

Michigan creditor administration requires careful attention to MCL 700.3801 and related provisions. MCR 5.208 generally requires publication of notice to creditors and provides a four-month publication claim period, subject to statutory and rule-based exceptions. Known or reasonably ascertainable creditors may require direct notice under MCL 700.3801.

Michigan personal representatives are entitled to reasonable compensation under MCL 700.3719. The statute does not create the same percentage commission schedule used by Florida.

Beneficiary information and accounting: MCL 700.3703 also requires the personal representative to keep each presumptive distributee informed about the estate and, until a beneficiary’s share is fully distributed, to provide an accounting annually and upon completion of estate settlement showing receipts, disbursements, and property on hand.

Florida Personal Representative Duties

Florida’s Probate Code concentrates the principal statutory duties and powers in Chapter 733. Section 733.601 makes appointment the starting point for duties and powers; § 733.602 supplies the general administration duty; and §§ 733.607–733.613 address possession, powers, conflicts, transactions, and real-estate sales.

Florida’s fiduciary-liability statute is unusually explicit: § 733.609 states that the personal representative’s fiduciary duty is the same as a trustee of an express trust and imposes liability to interested persons for damage or loss resulting from breach.

Inventory deadline: Florida Probate Rule 5.340 generally requires the personal representative to file the estate inventory within 60 days after issuance of letters, unless an inventory was previously filed or the court grants an extension for cause. The rule requires real property appearing to be protected homestead to be listed and designated as such.

Assets, Inventory, Valuation, and Estate Banking

Administration should begin with a complete asset map. Do not assume everything the decedent owned belongs on the probate inventory. Title and beneficiary designations matter.

Creditor Claims: Do Not Pay Bills Randomly

One of the most consequential personal representative duties is administering claims according to state law. The person who calls most aggressively is not necessarily the creditor who should be paid first.

Michigan and Florida both impose statutory claim procedures, deadlines, priorities, and rules for allowance or disallowance. Before paying questionable claims—or distributing an estate that may be insolvent—determine the applicable creditor framework.

What Are the Executor’s Duties When the Estate Owns a House?

Secure and insure the property, determine title and occupancy, identify mortgages and liens, evaluate carrying costs, and determine whether retention, distribution, or sale best serves the lawful administration.

Michigan personal representatives can have broad authority under MCL 700.3715. Florida § 733.613 requires closer attention to whether the will grants a power of sale; if there is no power or it is insufficient, court authorization or confirmation can be required before title passes. Florida protected homestead is a separate issue.

See Selling a House in Probate, Florida Homestead After Death, and Michigan and Florida Ancillary Probate.

Beneficiary Communication, Accounting, and Distribution

Beneficiaries are not entitled to dictate every fiduciary decision, but neither should they be left unnecessarily in the dark. Required notices, inventories, accountings, and closing information differ by jurisdiction and administration type.

Keep contemporaneous records. A fiduciary accounting is much easier when each deposit, expense, sale, fee, transfer, and distribution is documented when it occurs rather than reconstructed months later.

Do not distribute merely because beneficiaries are impatient. First evaluate claims, administration expenses, taxes, reserves, contested issues, and the terms of the will or intestacy law.

Florida inventory rights: Section 733.604 requires the personal representative to notify each beneficiary of the beneficiary’s valuation-information rights. On written request, a residuary beneficiary or heir in an intestate estate is entitled to an explanation of how inventory values were determined, or a copy of an appraisal if one was obtained, for all inventoried assets. Other beneficiaries have that right for assets distributed or proposed to be distributed to them.

Can an Executor or Personal Representative Be Paid?

Yes, but Michigan and Florida approach compensation differently.

Compensation should be documented. A fiduciary should not treat estate funds as a personal checking account merely because compensation will eventually be due.

Can a Personal Representative Be Personally Liable?

Yes. Fiduciary authority comes with exposure when duties are breached.

Examples of potentially serious problems include self-dealing, unauthorized distributions, failure to protect assets, improper conflict transactions, misapplication of estate money, ignoring valid restrictions, and distributions that leave the estate unable to satisfy superior obligations.

Florida § 733.609 expressly imposes liability to interested persons for damage or loss resulting from breach of fiduciary duty. Section 733.619 separately addresses individual liability on fiduciary contracts, obligations arising from estate ownership or control, and torts. Michigan likewise subjects personal representatives to fiduciary standards, conflict rules, and remedies for breach.

10 Common Executor and Personal Representative Mistakes

Personal Representative Duties FAQs

Primary Legal Authorities

Publication audit: September 7, 2026. Reviewed against Michigan EPIC and Michigan Court Rules, the 2026 Florida Probate Code, and Florida Probate Rules current through July 16, 2026. This resource is educational and is not legal advice; duties can change with the will, administration type, court orders, asset type, and later legal changes.

About Darren Findling

Darren Findling is the founder of The Probate Pro. The firm focuses on probate, estate administration, trust administration, guardianship, and related estate matters. The Probate Pro publishes practical resources designed to make complicated probate procedures understandable to fiduciaries, families, and professionals.