Being an Executor of an Estate: Part I
The other day I was listening to a call-in radio show about money management on a Christian station. It is a program that has been on for years but under different "management" and names, so to speak. A caller asked about being the executor for his mother's estate; his mother was still alive but he wanted to know what to prepare for.
This is the kind of topic best done in blog posts, rather than a book. Why? Because there are 50 states in this country, and each one is slightly different in regard to such matters. I should know. I have executed estates in two different states and live in a third, where I have a will.
As the host of the show was given his answers, I said several times, "No." "No." "No." It wasn't so much that his answers were wrong, but they were quite generic and incomplete. So I'm here to give some advice from experience. It will take several blog posts, and I'll be crossing the benchmark of 2200 blog posts in this process.
I have executed in Tennessee and South Carolina, and I live in Georgia. Tennessee and South Carolina were pretty different. In Tennessee, I had to go before a representative of the court (who was standing in for a judge). In South Carolina, I just took the paperwork in to a clerk. In Tennessee I was called "executor;" in South Carolina, "personal representative." The circumstances of the will were quite different. My mother had a reverse mortgage and a house I needed to sell and a disabled son for whom she was guardian; my mother-in-law in SC wanted her home to be kept for her son to live in (there's a technical term for it). My mother-in-law's will was not really correct but we had to go with what it said; my mother had unpaid debt I had to take care of.
My first piece of advice: Only study this matter in terms of the state you are executing in. Any other information is pointless.
My second piece of advice: Try to know what you're getting into ahead of time. You cannot be too prepared to do this. I was not the closest family member for my mother-in-law, but the closest was not well herself and asked that I do it.
My third piece of advice: Take a fee for doing it if you can. Pay yourself out of the estate, since you are going to give up time and money to do it. My mother's estate had no money to pay myself from; after everything was paid for, there was nothing left.
I don't write this last one to say "take an inheritance you aren't willed." I'm saying keep track of expenses so you are not taken advantage of.
More next time.
This is the kind of topic best done in blog posts, rather than a book. Why? Because there are 50 states in this country, and each one is slightly different in regard to such matters. I should know. I have executed estates in two different states and live in a third, where I have a will.
As the host of the show was given his answers, I said several times, "No." "No." "No." It wasn't so much that his answers were wrong, but they were quite generic and incomplete. So I'm here to give some advice from experience. It will take several blog posts, and I'll be crossing the benchmark of 2200 blog posts in this process.
I have executed in Tennessee and South Carolina, and I live in Georgia. Tennessee and South Carolina were pretty different. In Tennessee, I had to go before a representative of the court (who was standing in for a judge). In South Carolina, I just took the paperwork in to a clerk. In Tennessee I was called "executor;" in South Carolina, "personal representative." The circumstances of the will were quite different. My mother had a reverse mortgage and a house I needed to sell and a disabled son for whom she was guardian; my mother-in-law in SC wanted her home to be kept for her son to live in (there's a technical term for it). My mother-in-law's will was not really correct but we had to go with what it said; my mother had unpaid debt I had to take care of.
My first piece of advice: Only study this matter in terms of the state you are executing in. Any other information is pointless.
My second piece of advice: Try to know what you're getting into ahead of time. You cannot be too prepared to do this. I was not the closest family member for my mother-in-law, but the closest was not well herself and asked that I do it.
My third piece of advice: Take a fee for doing it if you can. Pay yourself out of the estate, since you are going to give up time and money to do it. My mother's estate had no money to pay myself from; after everything was paid for, there was nothing left.
I don't write this last one to say "take an inheritance you aren't willed." I'm saying keep track of expenses so you are not taken advantage of.
More next time.
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