When Can a Personal Representative be Replaced?
When a personal representative mishandles estate affairs, the superior court may intervene, upon the request of a person interested in the estate. Interested persons may bring a petition for a report on the affairs of the estate (RCW 11.68.065) or a citation (RCW 11.68.070, 11.96A.060) in which proceeding the court issues a show cause order to the personal representative to answer the well-documented allegations of the interested party. The court may limit or revoke a personal representative’s non-intervention powers, under appropriate circumstances, or even replace the personal representative. Adequate reasons for removing a personal representative are waste of estate assets, embezzlement, mismanagement of estate assets, or any other reason satisfactory to the court. RCW 11.28.250.
A removed personal representative must account to the court for his management of financial assets during his tenure, and deliver all assets and paperwork of the estate to the successor personal representative. RCW 11.28.290. In probate matters, a court may assess the attorney’s fees and costs of the proceedings to any party involved or the estate. RCW 11.96A.150. It is likely that a court will assess (surcharge) to a personal representative whose actions have damaged an estate a sum sufficient to make the estate financially whole, which sum shall be paid from the personal representative's own pocket. Baker-Boyer Nat'l Bank v. Garver, 43 Wash. App. 673, 686, 719 P.2d 583, review denied, 106 Wn.2d 1017 (1986). See also RCW 11.106.070.
An interested party may also bring a TEDRA petition (Trust and Estate Dispute Resolution Act), by which means an interested party can compel a personal representative to mediate issues that have arisen and/or to arbitrate those same issues. RCW 11.96A.260-320.
At Lancaster Law Office, we find that most estate disputes mask underlying family arguments and distrusts. We encourage voluntary mediation of these issues, and, when appropriate, the involvement of collaboratively trained professionals to facilitate that mediation.
Brad Lancaster works as a Seattle divorce attorney, and Seattle probate attorney, and Seattle elder law attorney, serving King County and Snohomish County, including Seattle, Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Edmonds, Woodway, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Alderwood, Brier, Kenmore, Woodinville, Mukilteo, Mill Creek, and Everett. Brad provides collaborative solutions to human conflict.
