Chapter 15 - Foreign Fiduciaries
Where a non-resident decedent owned property located in Pennsylvania, the personal representative appointed in the jurisdiction of decedent's domicile may obtain authority to exercise the powers of a fiduciary in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania under Chapter 41 of the PEF Code. In order to qualify under Chapter 41, the foreign fiduciary must file (1) an exemplified copy of the probate proceeding pertaining to his appointment; and (2) an affidavit on a form supplied by the Register (Appendix A, Form No. 10) stating that the decedent was not indebted to any person in Pennsylvania, and that the foreign fiduciary will not exercise any power which he would not be permitted to exercise in the jurisdiction of the original appointment. The Register will issue short certificates evidencing the authority of the foreign fiduciary to act.
Where the foreign fiduciary cannot qualify or does not deem it desirable to qualify under Chapter 41, Ancillary Letters Testamentary or Ancillary Letters of Administration may be obtained. The procedure for obtaining Ancillary Letters is similar to the procedure for obtaining Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration. If the original Will has already been offered for probate in a foreign jurisdiction, the Register will accept an exemplified copy of the Will and the appearance of the witnesses is unnecessary. If it is inconvenient for the foreign fiduciary to appear before the Register, the Register may be requested to issue a commission directed to a counterpart in the foreign jurisdiction to complete the probate proceedings. To obtain Ancillary Letters, the applicant should use the normal forms for the Petitions for Grant of Letters modified to indicate that Ancillary Letters are requested.