Choosing Who Protects Your Money Made Easy

This is my third post on how to choose the right executor. Read Make Sure Your Executor Isn’t Dracula and The Right Executors Save You Money.

You appoint an executor to manage your estate for your loved ones. I’ll share my secrets to get the right choice for you. You want someone trustworthy and competent to handle your money. But who should you choose?

Remember, everyone has different needs when choosing executors. What is good for your brother or sister may not be right for you.

The steps to choose the right executor are easy to follow. But they are too often overlooked. You won’t make the common mistakes by following the steps in my series. When I finish the series, you can download my free guide Choose Executors Wisely.

The Steps to Choose Executors

The first post of my series was Make Sure Your Executor Isn’t Dracula. In this post, I explained why choosing executors is important.

The second post was The Right Executors Save You Money. In this post, I explained what an executor must do.

Here is a summary of what your executor must do:

• Take charge of your estate
• Protect your property
• Hire a lawyer
• Probate the will
• Pay taxes and creditors
• Keep records
• Distribute the estate

Sometimes you overlook your best choice of executor. People make mistakes and choose the wrong executor.

You won’t make mistakes if you use my checklist. Use it to consider all of your possible choices.

Checklist for Your Executor Choices

Every estate is different. That’s why your choice of executor is different from everyone else’s.

Ask yourself if you will require your executor to handle any of these duties:

1. Special Duties

– Sell a home
– Deal with collections
– Locate missing relatives
– Operate or sell a business
– Manage unhappy beneficiaries

2. Estate Assets

– Sell or manage investments
– Distribute contents of a home
– Sell or rent property
– Handle unique items, pets and collections
– Manage assets in multiple jurisdictions

3. Distribution Plans

– Manage immediate outright distribution
– Handle special trusts for children or spouse
– Collect rent or mortgages
– Deal with guardians
– Hold assets for several years

4. Conflicts of Interest

– Spouse who may make claims
– Your business partner
– Children who don’t get along
– Second-marriage rivalries
– Backup beneficiary of trust

Your family can challenge your choice of executors in court. They can argue in court about why your chosen executor should be disqualified. That happened in the King of Soul James Brown’s estate.

This legal action can keep your estate frozen. Bills won’t be paid and everyone lawyers up and goes to court. The lawyers argue until your family can agree on appointing a neutral executor (i.e., a lawyer, accountant or trust company).

Invest in the Right Executor

The best investment is to pick the right person as your estate trustee.

I often get hired by family members who are mistreated by executors. These family members wonder why they were not chosen. They figure anyone would be better than the person named in the will.

So far, you have identified potential executors. The next step is to decide who the right choice is from among your options.

How do you do that?

Don’t worry. I’ll show you how to score your possible choices next in my next post, Who is the Right Person to Protect Your Money. That way you will get the right person to protect your money.

Need a consultation to get the right executor? Contact me now.

About Edward Olkovich

Executors facing estate challenges call upon Ed Olkovich who is a Toronto estate lawyer and Certified Specialist in Estates and Trusts Law. Ed is an author and edits Carswell’s legal guide Compensation and Duties of Estate Trustees, Guardians and Attorneys. He has resolved estate disputes and probate problems since 1978.