If there is a Will, the Personal Representative is the Executor. If there is no Will (an Intestacy) then the Personal Representative is generally the next of kin. There is a statutory order which stipulates exactly who is entitled to act in this capacity. In certain circumstances, a residuary beneficiary or a creditor can also apply for a Grant of Probate.
To make matters a whole lot more fun, sometimes there can be what is called a partial intestacy. This occurs when a Will does not dispose of all of the assets of the deceased because it has been badly worded. In cases like this, all property not referred to in the Will is distributed according to the law of intestacy, which very broadly speaking means that the next of kin gets it (depending on how much it is and whether the next of kin is the surviving spouse or not). This is where winding up an Estate can take many years and can cost an absolute fortune. Imagine if your next of kin were your cousins (or their children, if the cousins had pre-deceased you). Do you know how to contact them? And if you have died, how are your Executors going to find them? This is one of the most common problems of the home-made Will. A person doesn't know exactly how to word the Will, makes a hash of it, and the end result is that the administration of his Estate takes several years and costs many thousands of pounds because he wanted to save himself a few pounds. Doesn't make sense does it?
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