Roles & Responsibilities of an Executor

Pamela Seley - Having an Estate Planning Attorney in your corner is the best advice ever! In the example you gave, it was the best case scenario!

Anthony Vosilla - thanks for adding some valuable information that others could benefit from as well!

Kimo Jarrett - you have added valuable advice to my post. Thank you! I can't think of any executor who wants to be personally liable for any breach of fiduciary duty or care. We all pay creditors our own way, but when the duty of responsibility has been appointed by the Courts of Law to an Executor, there's added responsibility and risk! It isn't a glamorous or well paying job either.  

Kat Palmiotti and Myrl Jeffcoat - I remember talking to my Aunt shortly after my mother passed away. By then, I was an adult. She told me she was so glad my parents didn't die when I was a kid because she didn't want to be responsible for the house, all the kids, pets, flats (parent's rentals), vehicle, etc., and she certainly didn't want to dig through my parents drawers to find their records either! She told me she begged my mother to take her name off the Will but my mother never did and she worried about it until the last kid was grown up. However, she never knew if my mother changed the Will and she worried about it until the day my parents were both deceased.  

Theresa Akin - Long distance Executors rarely get to oversee all the things that needs to be done. I listed a home once and the executor was out of state. Communicating over the phone in different time zones wasn't easy. Even though there was a blood relative in good communication with me, I made sure to copy and document everything, including taking pictures of everything in the house and outside the property, sending it to the executor. He told me thank you because he didn't even think about it but appreciated it very much. 

As a sibling myself, I can only imagine how stressful your experience was with your brother. Leaving an estate to an adult who isn't prepared, experienced, or knows what to do is as dangerous as leaving an infant alone at home with a couple of toddlers running around wild and free. Unfortunately, I think many people don't know who to appoint and even though they have good intentions, there's always something or someone who needs legal advice or the experience of authority who is able to share the right information and provide guidelines.

Eric Kodner - Oh I'm 99.9% sure you're right! There has to be a lot of shenanigans by troubled and jealous siblings and other family or extended family members too. I would hate to see the statistics of trespassing on property after the executor is appointed. And the worst part is, many Executors can't be trusted either! 

Yikes Gene Riemenschneider the word Executor is not what most people imagined. Your poor wife! She must have been so glad to have it over! There really should be a better way, for example, when a person dies, all their debt goes away and let the family decide among themselves who does what without making everything so complicated. But as we know, disfunctional families is the 80% or more of the 80/20 principle.