Get to know about the responsibilities and liabilities of an executor of will!
An executor of a will is a legal person chosen by a deceased person to take the responsibility of administering the provisions of a will regarding his or her estate. To be legally qualified to act as an executor of will, you must be at least eighteen years of age or older and of sound mind, in addition to having no previous felony convictions. In a majority of cases, executors of will are normally accountants, trusted family members and lawyers. If for one reason or another the deceased person had not chosen an executor of will, maybe because there was no legally written will at the moment of death, then the responsibility of appointing an administrator for the deceased estate lies with the courts.
The appointed administrator is given the same responsibilities as a legal settled for executor, though he or she may not be the most suited for the said appointment. There are a variety of reasons as to why he or she may not be the most suited person for the job. For example, the appointed executor or estate administrator as he or she is called may not have the best education in matters regarding the administration of deceased people’s estates, besides having no knowledge on how the deceased would have preferred to dispense his or her assets to the heirs and the likes. When a deceased person settles for his or her own executor, those left gets to know exactly the type of a memorial service he or she would prefer.
Generally, the duties and responsibilities on an executor of a will starts right at the time of the death until the last state and federal taxes have been prepared and submitted. Apart from this, accounting for the deceased assets and their final distribution as to the will of the deceased to the beneficiaries also fall under the executors or estate administrators shoulders.
If an estate is vast enough, therefore may pose problems when being handled over to its beneficiaries, one or several co-executors maybe opted for. For example, a company of certified public accountants, a lawyer and a financial advisor may be chosen with an aim of guiding the settled for executor through the process. Normally, in the will, a successor executor of will is also named. If the original executor of will due to one reason or the other is unable to take upon the responsibilities given to him or her or predeceases the deceased, then a successor executor executes the responsibilities as directed by the deceased through the will.
When the will is being prepared, both the primary executor and successor executor of will have to be notified and upon acceptance, their legal names and not nicknames or abbreviations should be used. Anyone of them or both may accept or decline the legal liability of will executing responsibilities and subsequent duties. Apart from this, the executor of a will should be made aware of where the will is to be stored or preferably have a copy of the same.
As an executor of will, you must at all time act with utmost impartiality, scrupulousness and honesty on behalf of the deceased and his or her beneficiaries. You decisions should not favor any party but should go according to the death will of the deceased.
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