Arizona Laws 14-3703. General duties; relation and liability to persons interested in estate; standing to sue
A. Except as provided in the will of the decedent, a personal representative is a fiduciary who shall observe the standards of care applicable to trustees as described by sections 14-10804 and 14-10806 and the duties of accounting applicable to trustees as provided in section 14-10813, subsection C. A personal representative is under a duty to settle and distribute the estate of the decedent in accordance with the terms of any probated and effective will and this title, 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 title, the terms of the will, if any, and any order in proceedings to which the personal representative is a party for the best interests of successors to the estate.
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 14-3703
- Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
- Child: includes a person who is entitled to take as a child under this title by intestate succession from the parent whose relationship is involved. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
- Estate: includes the property of the decedent, trust or other person whose affairs are subject to this title as originally constituted and as it exists from time to time during administration. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Formal proceedings: means proceedings that are conducted before a judge with notice to interested persons. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- 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 a person who is under eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Personal representative: includes an executor, an administrator, a successor personal representative, a special administrator and persons who perform substantially the same function under the law governing their status. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Proceeding: includes action at law and suit in equity. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- State: means a state, territory or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See Arizona Laws 14-9101
- Successors: means persons, other than creditors, who are entitled to property of a decedent under a will or this title. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Supervised administration: refers to the proceedings described in chapter 3, article 5 of this title. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Survive: means that a person has neither predeceased an event, including the death of another person, nor is deemed to have predeceased an event under section 14-2104 or 14-2702. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
- Testacy proceeding: means a proceeding to establish a will or determine intestacy. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
B. 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 its terms. An order of appointment of a personal representative, whether issued in informal or formal proceedings, is authority to distribute apparently intestate assets to the heirs of the decedent 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 duty of the personal representative to administer and distribute the estate in accordance with the rights of claimants, the surviving spouse, any minor children, any dependent children and any pretermitted child of the decedent as described elsewhere in this title.
C. Except as to proceedings that do not survive the death of the decedent, 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 any other jurisdiction as the decedent had immediately prior to death.