First, let’s review some of the basic elements of what it means to be an executor.
In brief – The executor is the person named/appointed in a will who takes on the legal responsibility to take care of the deceased person’s financial obligations and manage the deceased’s estate under the terms of the will.
The executor, under the terms of the will, distributes the deceased person’s assets and arranges for payment of debts and obligations.
If an estate is a complicated one, the duties of an executor can take longer than a year.
The court can remove a person as an executor if it can be shown that the person is not capable or competent of performing the required duties.
Back to the question of who might be selected as an executor…One might have a family member, a close friend or a professional executor. There are issues related to any of these choices.
A family member may be too close and suffering from extended grief to handle the affairs that need to be taken care of immediately. There could also be family conflicts that preclude choosing a particular family member over any other family. If an executor and co-executor are named, the two individuals may not have similar approaches to financial management issues.
Another concern might be that a family member is not close geographically; might not have the time to spend on executor duties; might travel extensively; or not have the knowledge base or be mature enough to handle some tasks.
If a friend is chosen as an executor there could be issues of whom might ‘gain’ from the will, or whether the friend might be influenced by their spouse; whether they are geographically close enough; or whether they have the appropriate knowledge base. (Note - an executor may be named in the will to receive assets.)
Having a professional executor might be a possible solution, but there are costs related to such professional services.
There is the possibility of have an executor and a co-executor. Although this might be a potential solution, consider whether the two individuals ‘get along’ and have the same values and approaches to handling the duties of executor.
In any situation, it is important to assign a ‘backup’ in the event the executor that you have named cannot take on or complete the tasks.
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