November 25, 2024 • 9 mins
It’s not easy – it’s not hard – it’s somewhere in between. It’s making choices/decisions.
A. Broad Duties of an Executor:
1. Follow instructions in a Last Will and Testament.
2. Hire professionals.
3. Work with family.
4. Pay taxes and bills.
5. Distribute assets.
B. Specific Duties of an Executor:
1. Find the Will and Review its contents
a) Locate and review the Will with a lawyer.
b) Determine if probate is necessary.
c) File the Will with Probate Court.
d) Notify beneficiaries.
2. Secure Assets:
a) Insure valuables or property.
b) Conduct an inventory and get an appraisal, if needed.
c) Determine if there are any non-probate assets included in the estate (such as trusts). This is property that can be transferred outside of the Probate Court. Example: life insurance, TOD/POD assets, retirement accounts, joint and survivor assets.
3. Manage Finances:
a) Cancel credit cards, bills and subscriptions.
b) Freeze accounts and terminate contracts.
c) Inform banks, brokers, landlord, tenants, doctors/health care professionals, post office, Social Security Administration and employer/employees of the testator’s passing.
d) Open estate account.
e) Collect benefits or outstanding payments.
f) Give notice to creditors and determine if claims are valid.
g) Sell assets or property if necessary.
h) Pay outstanding debts (including funeral costs).
4. Close the Estate:
a) File a final account with Probate Court and beneficiaries.
b) Pay the attorney.
c) Pay the executor.
5. Disperse the Remaining Assets According to the Will:
a) Protect all assets until they are ready to distribute.
b) Donate to organizations or charities if called for.
c) Deliver gifts to individuals named in the Will.
d) Divide remaining estate among beneficiaries as specified in the Will.
A. Broad Duties of an Executor:
1. Follow instructions in a Last Will and Testament.
2. Hire professionals.
3. Work with family.
4. Pay taxes and bills.
5. Distribute assets.
B. Specific Duties of an Executor:
1. Find the Will and Review its contents
a) Locate and review the Will with a lawyer.
b) Determine if probate is necessary.
c) File the Will with Probate Court.
d) Notify beneficiaries.
2. Secure Assets:
a) Insure valuables or property.
b) Conduct an inventory and get an appraisal, if needed.
c) Determine if there are any non-probate assets included in the estate (such as trusts). This is property that can be transferred outside of the Probate Court. Example: life insurance, TOD/POD assets, retirement accounts, joint and survivor assets.
3. Manage Finances:
a) Cancel credit cards, bills and subscriptions.
b) Freeze accounts and terminate contracts.
c) Inform banks, brokers, landlord, tenants, doctors/health care professionals, post office, Social Security Administration and employer/employees of the testator’s passing.
d) Open estate account.
e) Collect benefits or outstanding payments.
f) Give notice to creditors and determine if claims are valid.
g) Sell assets or property if necessary.
h) Pay outstanding debts (including funeral costs).
4. Close the Estate:
a) File a final account with Probate Court and beneficiaries.
b) Pay the attorney.
c) Pay the executor.
5. Disperse the Remaining Assets According to the Will:
a) Protect all assets until they are ready to distribute.
b) Donate to organizations or charities if called for.
c) Deliver gifts to individuals named in the Will.
d) Divide remaining estate among beneficiaries as specified in the Will.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
You're listening to simply when he presented by all Worth Financial,
I mean me, whagn're along with Steve Ruby. Years ago,
my very best friend asked me if I would be
executor of their estate someday, and I was like, sure,
of course, I will anything for.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You, right, And then we started to talk.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
In more detail to my good friend Mark Reckman from
the law firm of Wood and Lamping, our state planning expert,
about what actually is required. I haven't said no, I'm
not going to do this anymore, but I do appreciate
the detail of what I have signed up for Mark.
I think you know from many people it's like, of course,
of course I'll do that for you. But really what
you need to be thinking through is, first of all,
(00:43):
if you're the person who's asking someone to be executor
of your estate, are they a good fit for this?
And for that person, am I a good fit for this?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Right? Well? That's right. You know, the job is not easy,
it's not hard. It's somewhere between. It's a making difficult decisions.
It's about being able to follow up and follow through
getting things done. You know, there's an old expression, if
you want something done, give it to a busy person,
which I always found humorous. But over the years I've
(01:13):
learned the wisdom of that people who are effective and
getting done are the kind of people you want to
ask to be your executor. It's partly about good judgment,
it's a largely about honesty, but there's a big moonent
of this is people who get stuff done.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
So let's talk about some of the broad duties of
an executor. Let's say somebody comes to you and asks you,
just like happening to Amy, to be an executor an
event that something happened to them with their family. You know,
what are what are you really signing up for in
that situation when you agree to it.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well, most most people who die with the will, they
leave specific instructions and they leave authority to do those
things in their will. So the first thing to do,
of course, is to read the will and follow the
instructions in the will. There are also lots of laws
on the books in all of the three states in
the tri state area that also give you insight as
(02:08):
to what your duties are. But I think the most
important thing the place to start is hiring professionals. Call
your lawyer, your CPA, You're going to need a relator.
If there is real estate involved, you're going to need
an appraiser. If there is unusual assets involved, like artwork
or antiques or perhaps real estate, you may need an auctioneer.
(02:29):
You may need someone, You may need a mover. There
are all kinds of jobs you don't need. An executor
does not need to personally do all the work. The
executor is the boss, and so the executor needs to
know how to delegate, how to manage people, how to
get after people when they're not doing their job, and
to get the job done. So hiring professionals is the
(02:52):
starting point.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
So you ready to do that.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I was just going to say, actually, I'm a bossy person,
so bossing people is actually to understand why she chose
me for this role. You know what, Mark, when you
think about it, you're tying up the loose ends of
someone's life and there's a lot involved in that. And
this is not going to be I'm going to get
this done in a day type of a situation. I
(03:17):
think you've got to have a lot of patience. You've
got to be someone who's extremely organized. It's something you've
got to stay on.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Top of, and it's helpful to have someone who has
some experience who understands how to review a bank statement
or a financial statement with stocks and bonds, how to
read a life insurance policy. All of these kinds of
things have to be followed up on. You've got to
take an inventory. An inventory, of course, is a list
of all the assets the person owned at the time
(03:46):
of their death. You've got to send the notification out
to all the beneficiary. Generally the lawyer will do for you,
but you signed that letter. You've got to check to
be sure that all your valuables are insured. Of the
first things I tell all of my executors call to
be sure that the insurance is paid up on the house.
If you're If the person who died died following an
(04:09):
extended illness, there may be some outstanding problems like that,
like lapsed taxes or lapsed insurance. So the starting point
is to be sure that they're current on their taxes
and that everything is properly insured before you proceed. Because
that house is now empty and it could be burned
to the ground, or it could be robbed, that things
stolen from in it, so we want to be sure
(04:31):
everything's insured. So that's a starting point at the beginning.
Secure those assets, get them under control. Do an inventory,
which is a list of all the assets. Determine if
there are any non probate assets. Meeting assets that don't
go through probate court. The common ones are life insurance, annuities,
(04:52):
retire Most retirement accounts don't go through court, but frankly,
retirement accounts are often the biggest asset in the entire estate.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, you got to make sure that beneficiary is on
there in life to avoid probate. That's extremely important. So
you know the person that you choose as the executor.
If you agree to be an executor, it's important to
realize that there's going to be a lot of major
responsibilities here. You know, managing finances is a big part
of that as you're helping with this transition.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
And the starting point for managing your finances I think
is collecting the credit cards. Be sure you get all
your credit cards collected, You get them cut up and
destroyed so that there can be no abuse of credit.
And be sure that you get their credit card bills
so that you can get them paid during the administration
of the estate. Be sure to freeze bank accounts terminate
(05:42):
any outstanding contracts, let the banks know that there's been
a death. Now you have to be wise about when
and how you let the banks know. It may not
be the first call you make. You may want to
wait a week or so to let some checks clear
so that everything gets into the accounts and get settled.
But at some point you've got to put the bank
(06:03):
on notice. You want to give notice to the creditors.
You want to at some point put a value on
the property and start the process of liquidating. Either the
assets will go to a beneficiary, or in most cases,
some of the assets are going to be sold, and
that could involve a real estate agent, it could involve
in an auctioneer, or in a state appraiser, or it
(06:26):
can involve a jump man mark.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I also want to bring up the point that this
can be sometimes an emotional position from the standpoint of
if you're the executor and there's a large family, several children, siblings, whatever,
that looks like the person who made the decisions about
how everything is dispersed is no longer here and you
(06:52):
have now become the punching bag. I mean, you are
the person who is left behind. And I have actually
seen this become kind of sticky sometimes, right when people
aren't about how this is you know, how the estate
is distributed, or what they're getting, or it's not what
they thought. You're the person who's left behind to manage
those expectations with the rest of the family, and it's
(07:12):
not always easy.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
It's not easy, and often it requires absorbing some of
the grief and misbehavior of the beneficiaries. People who may
be disappointed in what they got, or many people who
are upset because they have unresolved emotional business with the
deceased that may be played out against the executor. A
wise executor will take the punches, absorb it and move on,
(07:39):
not make it worse, not exaggerate. Now, I'm not suggesting
that you give in to people who don't have a
right to receive things, but you don't have to fight
back if they misbehave.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Mark quickly for someone who is maybe setting up their
estate plan for the very first time thinking through this, like,
what would you say, hey, listen the top three criteria
or where you should be looking to find an executor?
What should they be thinking through?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I think you start with people who are financially involved,
so that I would start with my list of beneficiaries,
do you have beneficiaries who were good at this? And,
by the way, your favorite people, your most honest people,
the people who you're closest to, may not have the
qualities that you need. The qualities you need would include decisiveness,
it would include thoroughness and follow up. I've done a
(08:24):
number of estates over the years where we've had favorite
brothers or daughters or sons who were just wholly not
qualified emotionally to do the job, and things just dragged
out for you know, sometimes over a year. These things
amy take minimum of six months, generally more like nine
to twelve. You don't normally extend things past a year
(08:47):
unless you've got some unusual property you can't sell, or
maybe you've got an unresolved dispute with the irs, something
like that that takes time. But generally you'd like to
get these estates done in a year or less. You
need peopeople who are going to keep at it and
not lose interest about halfway through. So if you don't
have a family member who is good at follow up,
(09:09):
then you want to look at professional executors like the
banks and trust companies around town.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
So a lot goes into this thought process right. Whether
you're deciding for your own estate planning or you've been
asked to be an executor, it's good to know exactly
what's required.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Here.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Great perspective as always from our estate planning expert, Mark
Reckman from the law firm of Wood and Lamping. You're
listening to Simply Money, presented by all Worth Financial here
in fifty five KRC the talk station
You're listening to simply when he presented by all Worth Financial,
I mean me, whagn're along with Steve Ruby. Years ago,
my very best friend asked me if I would be
executor of their estate someday, and I was like, sure,
of course, I will anything for.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You, right, And then we started to talk.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
In more detail to my good friend Mark Reckman from
the law firm of Wood and Lamping, our state planning expert,
about what actually is required. I haven't said no, I'm
not going to do this anymore, but I do appreciate
the detail of what I have signed up for Mark.
I think you know from many people it's like, of course,
of course I'll do that for you. But really what
you need to be thinking through is, first of all,
(00:43):
if you're the person who's asking someone to be executor
of your estate, are they a good fit for this?
And for that person, am I a good fit for this?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Right? Well? That's right. You know, the job is not easy,
it's not hard. It's somewhere between. It's a making difficult decisions.
It's about being able to follow up and follow through
getting things done. You know, there's an old expression, if
you want something done, give it to a busy person,
which I always found humorous. But over the years I've
(01:13):
learned the wisdom of that people who are effective and
getting done are the kind of people you want to
ask to be your executor. It's partly about good judgment,
it's a largely about honesty, but there's a big moonent
of this is people who get stuff done.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
So let's talk about some of the broad duties of
an executor. Let's say somebody comes to you and asks you,
just like happening to Amy, to be an executor an
event that something happened to them with their family. You know,
what are what are you really signing up for in
that situation when you agree to it.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well, most most people who die with the will, they
leave specific instructions and they leave authority to do those
things in their will. So the first thing to do,
of course, is to read the will and follow the
instructions in the will. There are also lots of laws
on the books in all of the three states in
the tri state area that also give you insight as
(02:08):
to what your duties are. But I think the most
important thing the place to start is hiring professionals. Call
your lawyer, your CPA, You're going to need a relator.
If there is real estate involved, you're going to need
an appraiser. If there is unusual assets involved, like artwork
or antiques or perhaps real estate, you may need an auctioneer.
(02:29):
You may need someone, You may need a mover. There
are all kinds of jobs you don't need. An executor
does not need to personally do all the work. The
executor is the boss, and so the executor needs to
know how to delegate, how to manage people, how to
get after people when they're not doing their job, and
to get the job done. So hiring professionals is the
(02:52):
starting point.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
So you ready to do that.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I was just going to say, actually, I'm a bossy person,
so bossing people is actually to understand why she chose
me for this role. You know what, Mark, when you
think about it, you're tying up the loose ends of
someone's life and there's a lot involved in that. And
this is not going to be I'm going to get
this done in a day type of a situation. I
(03:17):
think you've got to have a lot of patience. You've
got to be someone who's extremely organized. It's something you've
got to stay on.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Top of, and it's helpful to have someone who has
some experience who understands how to review a bank statement
or a financial statement with stocks and bonds, how to
read a life insurance policy. All of these kinds of
things have to be followed up on. You've got to
take an inventory. An inventory, of course, is a list
of all the assets the person owned at the time
(03:46):
of their death. You've got to send the notification out
to all the beneficiary. Generally the lawyer will do for you,
but you signed that letter. You've got to check to
be sure that all your valuables are insured. Of the
first things I tell all of my executors call to
be sure that the insurance is paid up on the house.
If you're If the person who died died following an
(04:09):
extended illness, there may be some outstanding problems like that,
like lapsed taxes or lapsed insurance. So the starting point
is to be sure that they're current on their taxes
and that everything is properly insured before you proceed. Because
that house is now empty and it could be burned
to the ground, or it could be robbed, that things
stolen from in it, so we want to be sure
(04:31):
everything's insured. So that's a starting point at the beginning.
Secure those assets, get them under control. Do an inventory,
which is a list of all the assets. Determine if
there are any non probate assets. Meeting assets that don't
go through probate court. The common ones are life insurance, annuities,
(04:52):
retire Most retirement accounts don't go through court, but frankly,
retirement accounts are often the biggest asset in the entire estate.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, you got to make sure that beneficiary is on
there in life to avoid probate. That's extremely important. So
you know the person that you choose as the executor.
If you agree to be an executor, it's important to
realize that there's going to be a lot of major
responsibilities here. You know, managing finances is a big part
of that as you're helping with this transition.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
And the starting point for managing your finances I think
is collecting the credit cards. Be sure you get all
your credit cards collected, You get them cut up and
destroyed so that there can be no abuse of credit.
And be sure that you get their credit card bills
so that you can get them paid during the administration
of the estate. Be sure to freeze bank accounts terminate
(05:42):
any outstanding contracts, let the banks know that there's been
a death. Now you have to be wise about when
and how you let the banks know. It may not
be the first call you make. You may want to
wait a week or so to let some checks clear
so that everything gets into the accounts and get settled.
But at some point you've got to put the bank
(06:03):
on notice. You want to give notice to the creditors.
You want to at some point put a value on
the property and start the process of liquidating. Either the
assets will go to a beneficiary, or in most cases,
some of the assets are going to be sold, and
that could involve a real estate agent, it could involve
in an auctioneer, or in a state appraiser, or it
(06:26):
can involve a jump man mark.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I also want to bring up the point that this
can be sometimes an emotional position from the standpoint of
if you're the executor and there's a large family, several children, siblings, whatever,
that looks like the person who made the decisions about
how everything is dispersed is no longer here and you
(06:52):
have now become the punching bag. I mean, you are
the person who is left behind. And I have actually
seen this become kind of sticky sometimes, right when people
aren't about how this is you know, how the estate
is distributed, or what they're getting, or it's not what
they thought. You're the person who's left behind to manage
those expectations with the rest of the family, and it's
(07:12):
not always easy.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
It's not easy, and often it requires absorbing some of
the grief and misbehavior of the beneficiaries. People who may
be disappointed in what they got, or many people who
are upset because they have unresolved emotional business with the
deceased that may be played out against the executor. A
wise executor will take the punches, absorb it and move on,
(07:39):
not make it worse, not exaggerate. Now, I'm not suggesting
that you give in to people who don't have a
right to receive things, but you don't have to fight
back if they misbehave.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Mark quickly for someone who is maybe setting up their
estate plan for the very first time thinking through this, like,
what would you say, hey, listen the top three criteria
or where you should be looking to find an executor?
What should they be thinking through?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I think you start with people who are financially involved,
so that I would start with my list of beneficiaries,
do you have beneficiaries who were good at this? And,
by the way, your favorite people, your most honest people,
the people who you're closest to, may not have the
qualities that you need. The qualities you need would include decisiveness,
it would include thoroughness and follow up. I've done a
(08:24):
number of estates over the years where we've had favorite
brothers or daughters or sons who were just wholly not
qualified emotionally to do the job, and things just dragged
out for you know, sometimes over a year. These things
amy take minimum of six months, generally more like nine
to twelve. You don't normally extend things past a year
(08:47):
unless you've got some unusual property you can't sell, or
maybe you've got an unresolved dispute with the irs, something
like that that takes time. But generally you'd like to
get these estates done in a year or less. You
need peopeople who are going to keep at it and
not lose interest about halfway through. So if you don't
have a family member who is good at follow up,
(09:09):
then you want to look at professional executors like the
banks and trust companies around town.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
So a lot goes into this thought process right. Whether
you're deciding for your own estate planning or you've been
asked to be an executor, it's good to know exactly
what's required.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Here.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Great perspective as always from our estate planning expert, Mark
Reckman from the law firm of Wood and Lamping. You're
listening to Simply Money, presented by all Worth Financial here
in fifty five KRC the talk station
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