The Duties of a Personal Representative in Maryland, D.C., and Virginia

Links to outside sources open in a new tab.

If a will names you to settle someone’s estate, or a court has already appointed you, you are now a fiduciary. That word carries real legal weight. A personal representative, also called an executor, gathers the decedent’s assets, notifies heirs and creditors, pays valid debts and taxes, files reports with the court, and distributes what is left. Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia each set their own deadlines for those steps, and the differences matter when an estate crosses a state line.

Talking with a Maryland estate administration attorney early reduces the risk that a missed filing turns into a personal liability problem. This guide walks through each duty in the order you will face it, gives the deadline in all three jurisdictions, and explains what happens when a personal representative falls short.

What Does a Personal Representative Actually Do?

Maryland law states the job plainly. A personal representative is a fiduciary with a general duty to settle and distribute the estate in accordance with the will and the estates of decedents law, as expeditiously and with as little sacrifice of value as is reasonable.

That single sentence generates a long task list:

• Secure and value the decedent’s property
• Notify heirs, beneficiaries, and creditors
• Open an estate bank account and keep clean records
• Review and pay or dispute creditor claims
• File the decedent’s final tax returns and any returns the estate owes
• Represent the estate in legal disputes
• File inventories and accounts on schedule
• Distribute the remaining assets

D.C. and Virginia reach the same destination through different machinery. The core obligations look alike. The paperwork, the supervising office, and the calendar do not.

How Do You Get Legal Authority to Act?

Being named in a will is not authority. Until a court acts, you cannot sell a car, close an account, or sign for the estate.

Maryland

The person holding the will files it with the Register of Wills in the county where the decedent lived. Filing the will does not open an estate. You must petition for probate and be appointed, and Maryland’s filing clock runs from the date of that appointment. The Orphans’ Court is Maryland’s probate court and has authority to direct the conduct of a personal representative.

Washington, D.C.

In D.C., decedents’ estates go to the Probate Division of the Superior Court through the Register of Wills. D.C. then splits the road in two. In supervised administration, the personal representative is responsible to the court as well as to the interested parties and files inventories and accounts with it. In unsupervised administration, no inventories or accounts are filed with the court, and the personal representative is generally subject only to orders entered on a failure to satisfy filing requirements or after a narrow issue is brought to the court’s attention.

Virginia

In Virginia, you qualify before the clerk of the circuit court, and your deadlines run from that qualification or from the order conferring your authority. Ongoing oversight runs through the commissioner of accounts, a court-appointed attorney who has general supervision of all fiduciaries who qualify there and who settles their accounts.

Who Must You Notify, and How Soon?

Notice is the duty most new personal representatives underestimate.

Maryland

After appointment, the Register has a notice of the appointment published in a newspaper of general circulation in the county once a week for three successive weeks. The notice announces your appointment and address and tells creditors to present claims. You then file a certification that the notice was published.

Washington, D.C.

Within 20 days after appointment, you must publish notice of the appointment once a week for two successive weeks, state whether the administration is supervised or unsupervised, and file a certification with the Register specifying the date and content of the notice. Within the same 20 days, you must send by registered or certified mail, to the heirs and legatees and to every creditor whose identity is known or reasonably ascertainable:

• The text of that first notice;
• Court-developed information about a personal representative’s typical duties;
• How estate administration fees are determined; and,
• The rights of heirs and legatees.

Within 90 days after appointment you certify to the Register that those mailings went out.

Virginia

Within 30 days after qualification or probate of the will, you send written notice to the surviving spouse, the heirs at law, and the living, ascertained beneficiaries. Within four months you record an affidavit in the clerk’s office showing who received notice and when. The commissioner of accounts will not approve a settlement until that affidavit is recorded, and can summon a fiduciary who has not recorded it.

When Is the Inventory Due in Each Jurisdiction?

The inventory is the estate’s opening balance sheet, and every later filing is measured against it.

Maryland gives you three months after appointment to file an inventory listing each item in reasonably descriptive detail at its fair market value as of the date of death, along with any encumbrance. Virginia gives you four months after the date of the order conferring your authority to return an inventory to the commissioner of accounts, valued as of the date of death.

D.C. also requires a verified inventory within three months of appointment, using date-of-death fair market value. In a supervised administration, it is filed with the court along with a certificate that a copy was mailed or delivered to all interested persons within the previous 15 days, with notice of the date the inventory will be filed.

Each of these statutes carries limited exceptions, so confirm your own filing schedule with the Register or the commissioner. And plan for appraisals early. Real property, closely held business interests, and collectibles all take longer to value than people expect, and the clock does not pause while you look for an appraiser.

How Do You Handle Debts, Claims, and Taxes?

Creditors do not get paid simply because they ask. Your job is to review each claim, pay what is valid, and dispute what is not.

Maryland

Maryland sets a hard outside limit for most claims. A claim against the estate is barred unless presented within the earlier of six months after the date of death, or two months after you mail or otherwise deliver the creditor the statutory notice. Sending that notice promptly can shorten the exposure window considerably. The bar does not reach everything: claims of the United States and the State are treated separately by statute, and actions to enforce a mortgage, pledge, judgment, other lien, or security interest on estate property are unaffected.

Washington, D.C.

In D.C., the published notice of appointment tells creditors to present claims on or before six months from the date of first publication, and a claim not filed by then is unenforceable.

Virginia

In Virginia, you do not have to wait passively for creditors to appear. As personal representative, you may elect to use Virginia’s streamlined “Notice to Creditors” process, which requires most pre-death creditors to present their claims to you by a statutory deadline. Once that deadline passes and estate assets have been distributed, your exposure for late-presented claims is substantially limited. The statute does not cover everything: claims of the United States, tax claims of the Commonwealth and its localities, contingent warranty claims tied to real estate conveyances, and existing mortgages and other liens on property are all treated separately and remain enforceable under other law.

Taxes Are Different

Taxes run on their own calendar. The estate may owe a final individual income tax return for the decedent, an income tax return for the estate itself, and death taxes that are not handled identically in all three jurisdictions. Confirm with a tax professional which returns are due before you distribute anything, because assets paid out early can be very hard to claw back.

At Thienel Law, tax planning, preparation, filing, and defense all sit with one advisor, which keeps the estate’s tax position and its probate filings in the same hands.

When Must You File an Account?

An account shows the court or the commissioner what came in, what went out, and what remains.

Maryland

The first account is due within nine months from the date of appointment, then within six months after that account and every six months until the final account. Maryland also ties distribution to that schedule: unless the court extends the time for good cause, you must distribute the assets you control within the time allowed for rendering the first account.

Washington, D.C.

A supervised personal representative renders the first account within one year and one day of the first publication of notice, then within nine months of each account until the final one. An unsupervised personal representative is not required to file accounts with the court at all, which is the practical difference between the two tracks.

Virginia

Within 16 months from qualification, you exhibit to the commissioner of accounts a statement of everything received, charged, and disbursed during the first 12 months. After that first account is settled, each succeeding 12-month account is due within four months after that period closes.

What Happens If You Breach Your Fiduciary Duty?

The consequences are real, and they land on you personally rather than on the estate.

Conduct that gets personal representatives into trouble tends to look the same everywhere:

• Using estate funds for personal expenses
• Missing filing deadlines
• Keeping poor records
• Ignoring requests for information from beneficiaries
• Holding distributions longer than the schedule allows
• Leaving assets exposed to loss

Maryland’s Orphans’ Court can direct the conduct of a personal representative and issue the orders required in the course of administering an estate. In D.C., a supervised personal representative is responsible to the court as well as to the interested parties, and an interested person may petition the court to impose supervision on an unsupervised estate. In Virginia, the commissioner of accounts has general supervision of every fiduciary who qualifies in that court and settles their accounts.

How Should You Choose a Personal Representative?

If you are writing your own estate plan rather than serving in someone else’s, choose for temperament, not for rank in the family.

Look for someone who is willing to serve and has agreed in advance, organized enough to track filing dates, honest and transparent with beneficiaries, and able to communicate calmly with people who may be grieving and suspicious at the same time. Formal financial training is not what makes someone effective in the role. That said, an estate with a business interest, out-of-state real property, or a complicated tax picture will lean heavily on professional help.

Think carefully before naming co-representatives. Virginia requires every account to be signed by all fiduciaries, coordination slows routine decisions, and a genuine disagreement between co-representatives can end up in front of the court.