Module 7

Administering the estate: the personal representative’s duties and liability, debts and their order, tax in outline, distribution and accounts, disputes and estates across borders

A will says who gets what. It does not say who finds the assets, pays the funeral bill, answers the creditors, files the tax return and writes the cheques. That work falls to the personal representative, a person who is often a bereaved relative with no legal training, and who may be personally liable for mistakes. Administration is where succession law becomes practical, and it is where most of the legal work in a typical estate is done. This module follows the work in order, from the first week to the final accounts. It covers the duties and the standard the law sets, the order in which debts must be paid, tax in outline, the problems of distribution, what beneficiaries can do when things go wrong, and the particular difficulty of an estate with property in more than one country.

General education on the law of wills and succession, using invented people and estates. It states common principles in simplified form and does not describe any one country’s law, which differs and changes; rules on wills, intestacy, family claims and probate are strict and local. It is not legal advice. Consult a qualified lawyer in the place that matters.