Serving as an Executor is not easy. It requires organization, time management, diplomacy, and patience. It also requires a basic understanding of property law, wills and trusts, accounting principles, and taxes. Most individuals nominated to serve have never experienced anything to prepare them to serve as an Executor. They are also often grieving the loss of family member or friend, which makes the work even harder.
Most people nominated to serve as an Executor underestimate two things before qualifying. First, they underestimate the way grief may impact their behavior. An Executor’s job is to follow the law, to follow the terms of the will, and to be fair to all of the beneficiaries. Grief can cloud a person’s judgment and cause them to make hasty, impulsive decisions. Conflict often arises during the administration of an estate as the Executor and/or the beneficiaries stubbornly take irrational positions based on emotion and not on reason.
Second, they underestimate how time consuming and emotionally exhausting it can be to serve as an Executor. Estate administration is a marathon, which can last anywhere from six months to several years. Estate administration involves the tedious work of gathering the decedent’s personal items, reviewing financial records and filing tax returns, spending hours on the phone with cell phone carriers and other companies to cancel services, and accounting for every dollar spent and received by you as Executor in a formal spreadsheet to the Commissioner of Accounts.
Executors are often completing these tasks in the evenings or on their days off because have their own jobs, families, and lives. They are also having to diplomatically communicate with the beneficiaries of the estate, who are typically relatives or close friends. These beneficiaries are grieving and want clarity during an uncertain and emotional time, which can drain the Executor emotionally. Fortunately, a person nominated to serve as an Executor has options for seeking assistance.
First, an Executor may hire an attorney to advise them through the estate administration process and, in most cases, these legal fees and expenses may be paid from the estate. An experienced estate administration attorney can provide guidance, streamline the process, and serve as the Executor’s representative to the beneficiaries. An attorney can also serve as the Executor’s representative to answer questions and communicate unpopular decisions to the beneficiaries. Executors often like this arrangement because they remain in control and retain ultimate decision-making authority, while also having a professional advisor to assist them with difficult decisions as well as the many filing deadlines and procedural aspects of estate administration.
Alternatively, a person nominated as Executor may (with the agreement of all legal heirs and beneficiaries), decline to serve and nominate an attorney to serve instead. In this case, the attorney would take over control of the estate administration process and the person originally nominated as Executor would have no role (unless he or she is also a beneficiary). The attorney would be entitled to all of the Executor’s compensation but would be able to streamline the process to make administration of the estate as seamless and easy as possible.
Those nominated to serve as an Executor should think long and hard before accepting the role and qualifying. The death of a family member or friend is incredibly difficult, and grief causes emotions that are hard to explain until you have experienced it first-hand. Those nominated should seek the assistance of a professional to advise them through the estate administration process or even consider turning over all the responsibilities to a professional. With the assistance of a professional advisor, the Executor will be relieved of the burden of the administration process and able to focus on celebrating the life of their loved one with family and friends.
If you have been nominated to serve as the executor of a family member or friend’s will and you are in need of assistance, please contact us today at (804) 270-1300 to schedule a consultation with one of our attorneys.