Letter of Authority  

What is a Letter of Authority and how to I get one?
Darren Findling of The Probate Pro explains the process step by step.
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Legal Disclaimer:
This video is for educational purposes only and is not to be considered legal advice. The Probate Pro, PLC, QuietTitle.com and any other entities of The Darren Findling Law Firm, PLC do not claim to be an “expert” or “specialist” in their legal practice areas.
This phone doesn't stop ringing from people asking about Letters of Authority. They really don't understand just the basics they want to know where they can just go and grab it from the internet or off the county's website hi I'm Darrin Findling from The Pobate Pro and we're going to spend some time discussing what is a letter of authority and how you get a letter of authority so a letter of authority is a document within the probate process that gives the personal representative the fiduciary the person in charge of the administration of the estate the legal authority upon which to act in Michigan there are specific rules about how you obtain those letters of authority so let's kind of break this down and unpack this process first the beginning of the process is by filling out some paperwork to establish and open up the probate estate that's done either by an application for informal probate or a petition for a formal proceeding to open up the estate once the court has appointed an individual or two individuals as personal representatives they have to qualify they have to say I accept the responsibilities that document is called an acceptance of appointment another form like a pre-approved form you fill out and you file with the probate court the court also may impose a bond which is a surety or a guarantee of the performance of the personal representative that's to make sure that the personal representative if they steal or do something wrong that the monies can be recouped from a surety company so once those documents are filed with the court then you are entitled to receive this document called a letter of authority again it's a one-page document with an embossed seal sometimes there's a gold seal that the court puts on it and it identifies that you now have the legal authority upon which to act on that same document there may be restrictions it's important that you carefully look at those restrictions it may have restrictions like that you can't sell real estate without then first going to the probate court and getting legal authority to act it could have other restrictions on there about your responsibilities within the estate for purposes of identifying whether you can do things or not but outside of those restrictions you have the full authority under Michigan law to act as the fiduciary that goes with it or with that goes the requirement of all the duties of loyalty duties to the estate to the beneficiaries or intestate heirs or testing heirs of the estate as well as creditors you have a responsibility to all and in fact in Michigan you have a responsibility to begin the estate and that also effectively closed the administration quite often people begin the process they gain access to the bank account where they sell the house and they figured well I'm done why should I bother closing the estate under Michigan law part of your responsibility is to begin it and part of it is to conclude it and failing to conclude it can subject yourself to liability in fact there's a sanction including court costs that the court can impose upon you for failing to appropriately close the administration now this document this letter of authority is usually a one-year document and then you have to go to the court if the estate exists beyond that one year or there's a need to keep it open beyond the year to give what's called a notice of continued administration a notice to all the heirs and to the court that you're going to keep the estate open up for another year for example all of the estate assets have not been resolved meaning you haven't sold maybe a house or maybe you're involved in litigation and it's going on for a long period of time those would be some examples of reasons to keep the estate open but those letters of authority for personal representative are really the key document that's the document you're trying to