Chapter 20 - § 20.1 • STATUTORY POWERS AND DUTIES

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 20.1 • STATUTORY POWERS AND DUTIES

The Code, as did former law, requires the personal representative to take possession of the estate of the decedent, real and personal, but permits him or her to allow persons presumptively entitled to ultimate ownership thereof to retain possession until the personal representative feels that orderly administration requires that he or she take actual possession. C.R.S. § 15-12-709. Under the Code, as under prior law, the representative is required to manage the property, pay taxes, and otherwise protect it, and may bring a suit to recover it or to determine title to it. The personal representative has all the powers conferred on him or her by the Colorado Fiduciaries' Powers Act unless denied by will or court order. C.R.S. §§ 15-12-711, -715, and 15-11-801, et seq. Also, if the probate lawyer has not studied the Powers Act to determine the wide variety of powers conferred, he or she should do so, although the more important of these powers are summarized in § 20.39.

The fact that a will...