3B:12-61 Power of guardian to act as personal representative of the estate of a deceased incapacitated person.

3B:12-61. Power of guardian to act as personal representative of the estate of a deceased incapacitated person.

If within 40 days after the death of an incapacitated person, no other person has been appointed personal representative and no action for an appointment is pending in the Superior Court or Surrogate's court of the county where the incapacitated person resided at his death, the guardian may apply to the Superior Court for authority to exercise the powers and duties of a personal representative so that he may proceed to administer and distribute the decedent's estate without additional or further appointment. Upon application for an order granting the powers of a personal representative to a guardian, after notice to all persons interested in the incapacitated person's estate either as heirs or devisees and including any person nominated executor in any will of which the applicant is aware, the court may order the conferral of those powers, upon determining that there is no objection, and may enter judgment that the guardian has all of the powers and duties of a personal representative. The making and entry of a judgment under this section shall have the effect of an order of appointment of a personal representative, except that the estate in the name of the guardian, after administration, may be distributed to persons entitled to the decedent's estate under his will or the laws of intestacy without prior retransfer to the guardian as personal representative.

Amended 2005, c.304, s.43.