In Murrysville, Pennsylvania, probate is a legal procedure that a court must go through before giving effect to a will. Before putting a will into effect, a court has to decide that it is legitimate.

In the probate process, a Murrysville, Pennsylvania probate court has many duties, including ruling on a will's validity, making an inventory of the estate's assets, and making note of all the decedent's debts. Once the will is decided to be valid, the court will distribute the property according to its clauses.

The executor of the estate is often named in the will. If not, the probate court in Murrysville, Pennsylvania will name will appoint a person to serve as executor. This is normally the person who stands to inherit the most under the will.

The executor is the individual who initiates probate proceedings. The person who stands to inherit the most from the will is normally appointed the executor, because they will have the most incitement to help the process go as quickly as possible, so they can get their inheritance.

Duties of the Executor in Murrysville, Pennsylvania

Executors of estates have a many distinct responsibilities. First, the executor must start the probate proceedings. Probate almost always needs to be done before the property in an estate can be released according to the terms of the will.

Furthermore, the executor has to make sure that the decedent's relatives and other people named in the will have notice of the testator's death, normally through the filing of a copy of the official death certificate.

The executor will also have to gather and make accessible a list of all of the decedent's debts and assets, as well as a list of those who stand to inherit from the decedent.

Because the executor serves as the living personification of the decedent's estate, they are solely accountable for proving the validity of the will. This is a lot of work, but because executors are normally chosen based on how much they stand to inherit from a will once its validity is confirmed, they have a good incentive to see the process to finalization.

How Can A Murrysville, Pennsylvania Lawyer Help?

Because of the intricacies involved in probate, it would be smart to hire a seasoned Murrysville, Pennsylvania probate lawyer, especially if you are the executor of an estate and unsure how to proceed.