Assuming the role of personal representative for the estate of a family member or friend in Woodland Hills means making a huge commitment of both your time and effort. If you are not familiar with estate or probate law, you may have to put in additional hours of research on top of the time spent actually performing your duties. Many come to at The Law Offices of Alice A. Salvo asking if they can be paid for agreeing to be a personal representative. The payment guidelines for your services as a personal representative have been detailed in the blog before. This post will address which of your expenses may be reimbursable.
On top of the all of the time you will invest in helping to administer your loved one’s estate, you will also likely have additional expenses associated with this role, such as clerical costs, postage fees, and possible even travel expenses. According to the probate guidelines for Los Angeles County, you cannot ask to be reimbursed from the estate’s assets for any following expenses:
- Photocopies and postage
- Secretarial services
- Local telephone charges
- Local travel costs (including mileage)
Notice how, when referring to telephone costs and travel, the world “local” is used. Depending on what sort of assets and properties make up your loved one’s estate, or where his or her designated beneficiaries reside, you may have to incur higher costs in order to reach them by phone or travel. Thus, the County does allow you to submit long distance travel and telephone costs for reimbursement, as well as extraordinary postage expenses and air courier or messenger service fees. Parking costs and translation services are also reimbursable expenses.
You can find out more about the details of being a personal representative by continuing to explore our site.