Steps after Appointment of PR

1 Notify Heirs or Devisees

Step 1 - If the estate was opened informally, notify Heirs and Devisees of the Appointment of the Personal Representative

A.R.S. §14-3705 requires that the PR send out a Notice to Heirs and Devisees of her appointment.  Heirs are defined in ARS 14-2103  In a formal proceeding, this is still required if the heir or devisee was not noticed for the hearing on probate of will or appointment of personal representative.

Notice must be given within 30 days of appointment of the personal representative by the court.  This document is created with the initial batch of probate pleadings.

Send the following documents (all created with the initial batch of Probate Pleadings ) with the Notice to Heirs:

1. Copy of the Application for Informal Probate
2. Copy of the Will, if any
3. Copy of the General Order
4. Notice to Heirs and Devisees (does not need to be conformed)

File a proof of notice that the above items were mailed or delivered. Proof of Notice

 

2 General Order

Step 2 - File a Sworn, Notarized Statement that Copy of General Order was Mailed

The General Order itself provides at paragraph 6 that a copy of the General Order be mailed to all heirs in intestate estates, all devisees in estates with wills, and to all persons who have filed a demand for notice. Sworn Statement Re Mailing or Deliver of General Order

 

3 Creditors

Step 3 - Notice to Creditors

Notice to creditors is goverened by A.R.S. § 14-3801  We have already prepared a Notice to Unknown Creditors with the initial probate petition. This must be filed with the Court in every case, and a copy sent to Territorial Publishers for Publication.  Transmittal Letter to Territorial Publishers.  When Territorial publishes a notice, it will prepare an original and a copy of the affidavit of publication and send them to us.  Note the date of the original publication in Access.  File the Original Affidavit of Publication with the Court and request a conformed copy.  Scan the original affidavit of publicaton and save it to the matter. Place the copy in the paper file.

 A.R.S. § 14-3801 requires the personal representative to send a Notice to Creditors to each known creditor.  The language of the notice differs from that of the Notice to Unknown Creditors. The notice shall also notify all known creditors to present the creditor's claim within four months after the published notice, if notice is given as provided in subsection A, or within sixty days after the mailing or other delivery of the notice, whichever is later, or be forever barred. You can only prepare this Notice to Known Creditors after you have received back from the newspaper the affidavit of publication.  The reason is that the Notice to Known Creditors requires you to state the date of first publication of the Notice to Unknown Creditors, as it figures into the time limit for a known creditor to file her claim.

Whether you ascertain that their are no known creditors, or after you send out the Notice to Known Creditors, file a Proof of Notice to Known Creditors (which must be Verified by the Personal Representative)  with the Court.

If the decedent was receiving ALTCS or AHCCCS,  and was older than age 55 A.R.S. §36-2935(B) requires that we inform AHCCCS within 3 months of the decedent's passing.  Click here for the Notification to AHCCCS.  Best practice is also to send them a Notice to Known Creditors  When you have sent these items, file a Proof of Notice regarding the Notification to AHCCCS and include AHCCCS as one of the creditors listed on the  Proof of Notice to Known Creditors

When you receive creditor's claims, refer to the instructions at _________________

 

4 Tax ID

Step 4 - Apply for Tax Identification Number

In order to open an estate checking account, you will need a tax identification number, and a certified copy of the letters testamentary.  To get a tax identification number online click here

Upon obtaining the tax identification number, download from the Arizona Department of Revenue a Form 210 Notice of Assumption of Duties in a Fiduciary Capacity

Transmit Form 210 to Client for Signature

5 Checking Account

Step 5 - Open an Estate Checking Account

You may open the estate checking account at any bank, though we prefer National Bank of Arizona at 335 N. Wilmot.  Here is the Information form that the bank requests. Bank Info Form If the client has consented to allow us to manage the checking account, request that she receive duplicate monhtly statements.  If the client is managing the estate checking account, request that we receive duplicate monthly statements.

Upon opening the estate account, a decision needs to be made whether to close out other bank accounts of the decedent, or whether to allow them to remain open.  If the other accounts have a joint owner or a POD designation or an ITF (in trust for) designation, do not allow the personal representative to take possession of them for the estate -- they are not probate assets.  The PR can take possion of accounts that do not have beneficiary designations.  If the estate is going to have unknown creditors or unknown tax obligations (meaning that the PR will not be making an early or substantial partial distribution), and if the other bank accounts or securities accounts of the decedent are earning a substantial rate of interest, do not liquidate those accounts.  Instead, retitle them in the name of the personal representative, as personal representative of the Estate of _________

6 Protect Titled Assets

Step 6 - Protect Other Titled Assets

The general order seems to say that the PR should retitled all property in his name as personal representative of the estate.  This makes no sense as regards real property.  It does make sense to record a certified copy of the PR's letters in every county where the estate owns land.

14-3798(A) says "except that any real property or tangible personal property may be left with or surrendered to the person presumptively entitled to it unless or until, in the judgment of the personal representative, possession of the property by the personal representative will be necessary for purposes of administration."

Any motor vehicles should be retitled immediately to the name of the person to whom they are specifically devised in the will OR that the PR should retitle them in the name of the estate an take out adequate insurance on them covering liability, comprehensive and theft.

Send the Asset Protection Letter to the PR.@@@@@@@@@

7 Statutory Allowances

Step 7 - Determine Statutory Allowances

Send the letter to the client determining statutory allowances under A.R.S. §§14-2402, -2403, and -2404.

Start an Excel Distribution Spreadsheet@@@@@@@@@

8 Inventory

Step 8 - Prepare an Inventory

A.R.S. §14-3706 governs inventories.

Prepare an Inventory  form in draft to send a client with the accompanying letter asking the client to list the inventory on the form.

Send Letter to Client asking her to fill out the inventory form.

When you receive the inventory back from the client we have the choice 1) to file the original of the inventory with the court and send a copy of the inventory only to interested persons who request it; or, 2) if he elects not to file the inventory with the court, he must deliver or mail a copy of the inventory to each of the heirs in an intestate estate, or to each of the devisees if a will has been probated, and to any other interested persons who request it. A.R.S. §14-3706(B)

In most cases, we will elect NOT to file the inventory with the court and we will mail a copy to the heirs in an intestate estate or to the devisees in an estate with a will.

Upons mailing the inventory to the heirs or to the devisees, we must file a Proof of Notice  indicating that we have done so.

Step 9 - Letter to PR Explaining Standard of Care

Mail to client the Standard of Care Letter to PR

 

Life Insurance Search

Ask the client if he or she wants to pay a $75 fee for a search for life insurance through MIB Solutions Policy Locator Service www.policylocator.com/estate

10

Nulla ultricies ornare erat, a rutrum lacus varius nec. Pellentesque vehicula lobortis dignissim. Ut scelerisque auctor eros sed porttitor. Nullam pulvinar ultrices malesuada. Quisque lobortis bibendum nisi et condimentum. Mauris quis erat vel dui lobortis dignissim.