What a Personal Representative Must Do
A California personal representative must inventory and appraise estate property within four months of letters, give notice to creditors, pay valid debts and taxes, and account before distributing. Full authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act still leaves defined acts requiring court approval.
The duties the code actually imposes
The first hard obligation is the inventory. Probate Code section 8800 requires the personal representative to file with the court clerk an inventory of property to be administered together with an appraisal, combined in a single document, within four months after letters are first issued to a general personal representative. Partial inventories are permitted, but everything must be filed before the window closes. Running alongside it is the creditor period: under section 9100 a creditor must file before the later of four months after letters or sixty days after notice of administration reaches them. Authority to act does not mean freedom from oversight. Even a representative granted full authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act must, under section 10501, still obtain court supervision for a defined list — allowance of their own compensation and their attorney’s, settlement of accounts, preliminary and final distribution and discharge, and any sale, exchange, or option over estate property running to the representative or their attorney.
Sources: Probate Code s.8800 - Inventory and appraisal, four-month deadline · Probate Code s.10501 - Acts still requiring court supervision under the IAEA · Probate Code s.9100 - Time for a creditor to file a claim · Verified 2026-08-20.
Taking control of the estate
Before any deadline runs, there is a duty to take hold of things. Probate Code section 9650 requires the personal representative to take possession or control of all property to be administered, collect debts owed to the decedent or the estate, receive the rents, issues and profits until distribution, pay taxes, and take all steps reasonably necessary for the management, protection and preservation of the estate in their possession. They are not accountable for debts that remain uncollected without their fault, and real or tangible personal property may be left with the person presumptively entitled to it unless possession is judged necessary for administration. Section 9600 supplies the standard the whole role is measured against: the representative has management and control of the estate and must use ordinary care and diligence, with what that requires determined by all the circumstances of the particular estate. The section cuts both ways — a power must be exercised where care and diligence require it, and must not be exercised where they require that it not be.
Sources: Probate Code s.9650 - Right and duty to take possession of estate property · Probate Code s.9600 - Personal representative duty of ordinary care and diligence · Verified 2026-08-21.
What that means in the first month
- Secure the residence and any vehicles; make sure insurance stays in force
- Redirect mail and stop automatic payments that no longer serve the estate
- Open an estate bank account and stop using personal accounts for estate money
- Obtain certified death certificates — several more than seems necessary
- Locate every account, policy and deed before valuing anything
What full authority does and does not cover
| Action | Court approval needed? |
|---|---|
| Ordinary sale of estate property to a third party | Often not, with full authority |
| Sale or exchange of estate property to the representative or their attorney | Always — §10501 |
| Allowance of the representative’s compensation | Always — §10501 |
| Allowance of the attorney’s compensation | Always — §10501 |
| Settlement of accounts | Always — §10501 |
| Preliminary and final distribution, discharge | Always, subject to §10520 |
Authority is not the same as freedom from notice. Many actions taken without prior approval still require notice of proposed action under §10580.
The deadlines a representative is actually on the hook for
| Obligation | When | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory and appraisal filed | 4 months from letters | §8800 |
| Creditor claim window closes | 4 months from letters, or 60 days from notice | §9100 |
| Allow or reject each claim, in writing | On filing of the claim | §9250 |
| Petition to distribute, or report status | 1 year, or 18 months with a federal estate tax return | §12200 |
Can an executor be paid?
Yes, on the same statutory schedule as the attorney — four percent of the first $100,000, three percent of the next, two percent of the next $800,000. On a $1,000,000 estate that is $23,000. But allowance of it is one of the acts section 10501 reserves to the court even under full independent authority, so it is applied for rather than taken. A representative who is also a beneficiary sometimes waives it, since the fee is taxable income while an inheritance generally is not. The fee schedule is set out in full here.
Where representatives get into trouble
Rarely through theft. Far more often through delay, informality, and self-dealing that nobody labelled as such.
Mixing funds
Paying estate expenses from a personal account, or estate money into one, makes every later accounting an argument. It is the easiest failure to avoid and one of the hardest to explain away.
Letting a relative occupy estate property
A sibling living rent free in the house is the estate losing rental value every month, and section 9650 puts receipt of rents and profits squarely on the representative. It is a standard surcharge fact pattern.
Paying claims that should have been examined
Allowing a doubtful claim is a decision beneficiaries can question later. Rejecting it in writing starts a ninety-day clock most marginal creditors will not fund a lawsuit to beat.
Letting the inventory slide
Everyone agrees there is no rush until there is. A late inventory is visible in the court file and it is the first thing an unhappy beneficiary points at.
Can a personal representative be removed?
Yes. Persistent failure to account, self-dealing, or simply not moving are grounds beneficiaries can act on, and the exposure is personal rather than institutional — a representative who mishandles the estate answers from their own assets, which is precisely what the bond exists to secure where one was required. Where the conduct looks deliberate rather than merely slow, it becomes contested probate.
Related: the whole process, what the representative and attorney are paid, the deadlines, selling property, and what beneficiaries can demand.