For those of you who have been executors, must you wait the full 90 days after publishing the notice to creditors before making any inheritance distributions?
I would - I’ve had odd bits of claims come through like dr bills way beyond 90 days.
I was the executrix for my mom. Best thing I did was hire a lawyer who specialized in elder law, estates, and the like. She was fabulous.
We had no real estate to deal with, and what was viewed as a simple estate. Most accounts were joint with me. Even with that, it took over a year to close the estate. No other children or a spouse…so that was a help too.
My lawyer was fabulous. She allowed me to give her accountings of all accounts and assets. I did this on a spreadsheet and gave her the supporting documentation. This saved me hundreds of dollars in paralegal fees.
Things my lawyer suggested:
- Change of insurance....because the apartment was unoccupied. We did this ASAP.
- She suggested removing small valuables from the apartment...like jewelry. We inventoried it and gave her a list. It didn't really matter, because I was the only heir. But we did that...and put the jewelry in a safer place than an unoccupied apartment.
- We only had 60 days to clear out of the apartment...it was a senior building and once the person dies, you get only 60 days to vacate. Our lawyer advised us what we could get rid of (clothing, dishes, etc). She also advised us what do do with things we planned to keep.
- Remember...we had a simple estate. We used 20 death certificates..all certified ones.
- Bills...we had a lot of outstanding medical bills...with Medicare first, and a supplement that paid 100% after (thank goodness). But this took care...I kept a notebook with the bills, EOBs, and Medicare statements. Believe it or not, there was one bill still outstanding when the estate closed. Money was put someplace for that in the event it was requested. It never was.
- Utilities. The utilities were in my name anyway...but I had the mailing address changed to my own so I could pay those bills for the 60 days.
Honestly, best money spent was that lawyer who walked me through every detail
Everyone here seems to think that of course one will spend $$$ for an estate attorney. What if an executor doesn’t want to hire one? My sister will be Dad’s executor and she is all about cheap. She has NO idea what is going to be involved and will follow in my mom’s footsteps and fudge numbers. She also doesn’t realize that repairs must be made to put the house on the market, utilities, taxes, etc. will have to be paid until Dad’s house sells (and the market is terrible), and there will be no cash flow for that. She doesn’t have $ to front those expenses. Do judges/probate officers actually look at the estate accounting?
Estate will not be large – his primary residence, whatever is left in a small IRA, plus a fully-paid for home (about 60% of the estate), that he is giving my sister. The four other sibs will get what’s left. My dad thinks this is an equitable distribution. My other sibs are going to be angry and devastated. It is not life-changing $ to me, but represents real $ to my sibs. My annoyance is directed at the conflict this is all going to trigger.
DH (attorney and sufficiently detached) offered to take on the job. Had a long talk with Dad about the implications of his decisions going forward. Dad went with my sister.
At this stage, if there is something in the house one of us wants and he’s ready to pass it on, Dad will let us have it. He also has a list of some specific bequests. I’ve told my other sibs to ask Dad for the things they would like now. We all know exec sis will raid the house as soon as Dad’d gone (she’s local). I got the sentimental items I wanted from our time living in Europe. That’s all I need.
@CountingDown, Depending on your state, if an executor fails to follow the will or law for distribution, or pay bills, or fail to preserve value of the estate(collecting debts owed or not maintaining property) , an heir or person listed in the will could petition the court to review and possibly replace the executor.
Yes, I have had my fitness challenged as an executor! By a minor heir’s parent who wanted the job herself, and claimed that the named executors in the will (me and my brother) were unfit. We both have undergrad business degrees, I have an MBA, and we both run small businesses. The judge ruled that we were fit, so the challenge did not succeed. But sometimes they do.
The executor has a fiduciary responsibility and must follow state and federal laws when carrying out their position. You can challenge their fitness and/or their actions if they don’t.
However, to me it sounds like your dad has made his choice clear and his will is clear – it just doesn’t seem like an equitable distribution to you. Probably not worth disputing for you.
The probate judge in my case reviewed the accounting of the estate.
Our estate was supervised by the court (believe me, you do not want to be there – the judge decided it should be after the challenge to executor fitness). Our accounting was scrutinized. But most estates don’t get detailed attention unless someone complains to the court.
When my father died, I handled everything regarding the estate for my mother. We did not use an attorney. Since almost all of their assets were held jointly and the house was actually in my mother’s name–she inherited it from her brother–it was fairly simple. The people at the probate court were incredibly helpful. The one problem we eventually ran into was that my father had some small savings accounts in his own name. Because an executor did not need to be named according to CT law, the bank in question–Wells Fargo in NC–refused to release DOD values on them. The probate court allowed us to use the amounts on the last back statements instead.
One thing I noticed that was missing from your original list was that you have to place an advertisement in the local paper for creditors. We did need all of the 20 death certificates. They were provided by the funeral home. (My mother chose direct cremation, and it was inexpensive.)
Depending on the size of the estate, you may not need to file an official inventory with values. We had one done on the --bad–advice of my BIL, an attorney who deals with estates. A couple of thousand down the drain.
I would go talk to the local probate people before spending money on accountants and attorneys for a simple estate.
I did hire a lawyer to get the initial estate tax return filed - I had no idea - estate was just brushing up against the estate tax in NJ (one of only states that has a low threshold still in place) and he wisely advised getting an official (not just real estate) appraisal of estate. Actual value brought everything below and was well worth the lawyers/my time to pursue. And our probate court was nothing but non-helpful actually. Glad someone had a different experience.
I felt the lawyer also gave me some stability in the first few months when I didn’t have a clue what I should or shouldn’t be doing. Didn’t cost much and gave piece of mind.
BIL’s CPA did estate tax returns. The estate attorney was helpful in making sure everything was done properly and helping executor as needed. We paid for all of these folks from a checking account we set up after the deceased died. The final disbursements were only made once after ALL payments had been made and the special checking account closed. Not sure when 1st disbursements were made from the estate, but there were more than enough assets to pay all debts, so I don’t think it would have been a problem to have made some smaller disbursements right away to beneficiaries to help cover travel or other expenses.
The whole point is to be SURE all creditors will get their bills paid from the estate – if they receive full payment (or whatever parties agree to), there is no one to complain. If disbursements to beneficiaries occur “early” and the estate runs out of assets to pay all bills, the creditors can go after the executor and beneficiaries to get their bills paid–messy!
I don’t know that you need an attorney when the first parent dies. But you definitely need one when the second one dies. We had no idea of the different returns that needed to be filed. It was totally worth the fee.
And kudos to those of you who sat down with siblings and said nothing is worth damaging a relationship over. But that sibling then apparently didn’t go and behave in ways that did undermine and insult the executor and want to keep some of the “stuff” just because s/he wanted it, regardless of the prior conversation 
Agree that attorney is primarily needed when the second person in couple dies. When not much is left in the way of assets, it can just be for double-checking it’s ok to wind down things and that tax return gets filed, etc.