How to Serve as an Executor

By Jonathan Berohn

A death in the family is never a pleasant experience.  When the tragedy of death is compounded by the obligation of settling the deceased’s estate, the responsibilities and emotions can easily get overwhelming very fast.

Fortunately, serving as an executor doesn’t have to mean compounding grief with aggravation.  A few simple steps can help ensure that you don’t get swamped in a quagmire of legalese and paperwork.

Get a Lawyer

The first thing to know about probating an estate is that you can’t do it yourself.  I suppose this isn’t necessarily true.  If you feel like spending months reading up on the procedures of probate law and have nothing better to do than fill out forms and run them around to various courts and offices, then by all means give it a shot.  The old time and money adage quickly comes into play here, though.  In the long run, it just makes sense to have a lawyer to both guide you through the process and take care of the paperwork and red tape.  For detailed advice on finding and selecting a lawyer, see my other article “Getting the Most from Your Lawyer.”

Learn the Process

Once you have found a lawyer, don’t simply turn everything over to your lawyer and count on him or her to get everything done.  When it comes down to it, you—as executor—are responsible for the disposition of the estate.  Bound by such responsibility, you need to make sure that you understand what exactly it is that that probating an estate involves.  This process varies by state, but there are some basics you should expect: itemizing all the assets in an estate, paying estate and income tax, distributing assets to heirs.  Your lawyer should be able to give you a more complete step by step, and you should insist on this sort of briefing.  In other words, your lawyer should be able to and should be willing to share with you exactly what the process is.

Set up a Bank Account

One of the first things you should do is set up a separate checking account for the estate.  This will enable you to keep the best possible records in terms of money coming in and going out.  Then, as much as possible, pay estate expenses only out of the estate account.  Certainly, most estates are resolved amicably, but in the unlikely event that one of the heirs challenges your performance, one of the things that stands out is reimbursement to you for expenses.  That’s not to say that you shouldn’t reimburse yourself for legitimate expenses.  You should, though, try to avoid the whole issue by paying these expenses directly from estate assets.

One way to keep legal fees to a minimum is to collect the estate’s assets on your own.  For most estates, this won’t be too daunting of a task, and it will eliminate the frustration of shelling out $150 (and more) per hour for someone to go to the bank or brokerage house.

Locate and Retrieve Assets on Your Own

To collect the estate’s assets, you will need 2 things: a copy of the death certificate and a copy of your executor appointment papers.  These generally have to be official copies, so to make things easier on yourself, get about 20 copies at the start of the whole process.  Then it’s simply a matter of tracking things down.  For banks this is pretty straightforward.  Show up and close the accounts.  For stocks and bonds, you may be able to sell or reassign them directly through the mail, or you may have to use a brokerage house.  In any case checking out the company’s web site (for stock holdings) is a good place to get the initial information that can tell you what to do next.

Compensation

One thing you many people don’t know about serving as an executor is that you are entitled to get paid for your time.  States set out a schedule that determines how much you can get paid base on the size of the estate.  Of course, accepting compensation for performing your duties can be a touchy situation among the heirs, but it is something for you to consider.  Estates can take up a serious amount of time, and legally you are allowed compensation for your efforts.  If you think that this might become an issue you don’t want to deal with, you can always decline compensation or decline to serve as executor.  Often, once the heirs who might object to executor compensation realize the amount of work involved in the duties fall to them they tend to be a little more flexible and understanding.

For More Information:

There are numerous resources on the web that you can consult for more information on both what to expect as an executor and how to navigate the probate process.  The federal government publishes a brief overview.  Remember, though, that wherever you get your information, you are still dealing with the court system, and most people will end up much happier with the outcome if they hire a professional to help them pass through more easily.