(a) If a protected person dies, the conservator shall deliver to the Court for safekeeping any will of the protected person which may have come into the conservator’s possession, inform the personal representative or beneficiary named in the will of the delivery, and retain the estate for delivery to the personal representative of the decedent or to another person entitled to it.
(b) If a personal representative has not been appointed within 40 days after the death of a protected person and an application or petition for appointment is not before the Court, the conservator may apply to exercise powers and duties of a personal representative in order to administer and distribute the decedent’s estate. Upon application for an order conferring upon the conservator the powers of a personal representative, after notice given by the conservator to any person nominated as personal representative by any will of which the applicant is aware, the Court may grant the application upon determining that there is no objection and endorse the letters of conservatorship to note that the formerly protected person is deceased and that the conservator has acquired all of the powers and duties of a personal representative.
(c) The issuance of an order under this section has the effect of an order of appointment of a personal representative. However, the estate in the name of the conservator, after administration, may be distributed to the decedent’s successors without retransfer to the conservator as personal representative.