Our Estate Planning Blog
My parents died five months apart. I am the executor. How is the executor fee calculated fairly?
As parents age, families sometimes struggle with how to best keep their parents’ financial affairs in order. One common approach is for aging parents to put one or more of their children on their investment accounts, bank accounts and real property.
We are programmed to contribute the “max” to our retirement accounts and we disregard, or do not understand, the pitfalls of an improperly filled-out beneficiary forms.
In past generations, families were very close, there were few estates that had any tax liability, and children respected their parents’ wishes, both before and after the parents passed away.
While it is an honor to be selected as an executor, executing a will takes more work than you might think.
Probate is not always an efficient process. However, it is the way to properly dispose of an individual’s property after they have died. It gives the necessary stamp of approval that the will is legitimate, and the executor has been confirmed.
Let’s face it: mortality is hard to think about and death is impossible to plan for. What is doable, however, is getting affairs and assets in order to prevent loved ones from inheriting a headache and legal fees in the event of an incident.
Your obligations to your family or loved ones do not stop, even if you have already passed on. If your family, especially your children, are still heavily dependent on you, you can still provide for them through proper estate planning, even if you are no longer present.
Copyright © IMS. All rights reserved. You may reproduce materials available at this site for your own personal use and for non-commercial distribution. All copies must include this copyright statement. Some artwork provided under license agreement.
