Michigan Laws 700.3703 – General duties; relation and liability to persons interested in estate; standing to sue; accounting
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Terms Used In Michigan Laws 700.3703
- Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
- Beneficiary: includes , but is not limited to, the following:
(i) In relation to a trust, a person that is a trust beneficiary as defined in section 7103. See Michigan Laws 700.1103Child: includes , but is not limited to, an individual entitled to take as a child under this act by intestate succession from the parent whose relationship is involved. See Michigan Laws 700.1103 Claim: includes , but is not limited to, in respect to a decedent's or protected individual's estate, a liability of the decedent or protected individual, whether arising in contract, tort, or otherwise, and a liability of the estate that arises at or after the decedent's death or after a conservator's appointment, including funeral and burial expenses and costs and expenses of administration. See Michigan Laws 700.1103 Decedent: A deceased person. Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another. Distributee: means a person that receives a decedent's property from the decedent's personal representative or trust property from the trustee other than as a creditor or purchaser. See Michigan Laws 700.1103 Estate: includes the property of the decedent, trust, or other person whose affairs are subject to this act as the property is originally constituted and as it exists throughout administration. See Michigan Laws 700.1104 Intestate: Dying without leaving a will. Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases. Minor: means an individual who is less than 18 years of age. See Michigan Laws 700.1106 Personal representative: includes , but is not limited to, an executor, administrator, successor personal representative, and special personal representative, and any other person, other than a trustee of a trust subject to article VII, who performs substantially the same function under the law governing that person's status. See Michigan Laws 700.1106 Proceeding: includes an application and a petition, and may be an action at law or a suit in equity. See Michigan Laws 700.1106 Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership, and includes both real and personal property or an interest in real or personal property. See Michigan Laws 700.1106 Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims. Settlement: means , in reference to a decedent's estate, the full process of administration, distribution, and closing. See Michigan Laws 700.1107 State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or a territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Michigan Laws 700.1107 Supervised administration: means the proceedings described in part 5 of article III. See Michigan Laws 700.1107 Survive: means that an individual neither predeceases an event, including the death of another individual, nor is considered to predecease an event under section 2104 or 2702. See Michigan Laws 700.1107 Testacy proceeding: means a proceeding to establish a will or determine intestacy. See Michigan Laws 700.1107
(1) A personal representative is a fiduciary who shall observe the standard of care applicable to a trustee as described by section 7803. A personal representative is under a duty to settle and distribute the decedent‘s estate in accordance with the terms of a probated and effective will and this act, and as expeditiously and efficiently as is consistent with the best interests of the estate. The personal representative shall use the authority conferred by this act, the terms of the will, if any, and an order in a proceeding to which the personal representative is party for the best interests of claimants whose claims have been allowed and of successors to the estate.
(2) A personal representative shall not be surcharged for acts of administration or distribution if the conduct in question was authorized at the time. Subject to other obligations of administration, an informally probated will is authority to administer and distribute the estate according to the will’s terms. Whether issued in an informal or formal proceeding, an order of appointment of a personal representative is authority to distribute apparently intestate property to the decedent’s heirs if, at the time of distribution, the personal representative is not aware of a pending testacy proceeding, a proceeding to vacate an order entered in an earlier testacy proceeding, a formal proceeding questioning the personal representative’s appointment or fitness to continue, or a supervised administration proceeding. Nothing in this section affects the personal representative’s duty to administer and distribute the estate in accordance with the rights of a claimant whose claim has been allowed, the surviving spouse, a minor or dependent child, or a pretermitted child of the decedent as described elsewhere in this act.
(3) Except as to a proceeding that does not survive the decedent’s death, a personal representative of a decedent domiciled in this state at death has the same standing to sue and be sued in the courts of this state and the courts of another jurisdiction as the decedent had immediately prior to death.
(4) The personal representative shall keep each presumptive distributee informed of the estate settlement. Until a beneficiary‘s share is fully distributed, the personal representative shall annually, and upon completion of the estate settlement, account to each beneficiary by supplying a statement of the activities of the estate and of the personal representative, specifying all receipts and disbursements and identifying property belonging to the estate.