Are You An Executor Of Will And Estate? Find Out What Types Of Responsibilities You Will Have

16 July 2019
 Categories: Law, Blog


If someone special to you just passed away, you may have received the news that you are the executor of his or her will. The executor has several important responsibilities to take care of to ensure that the deceased individual's requests are fulfilled after death. Because you have such a huge responsibility on your hands, you should not attempt to complete anything on your own. You should hire a probate lawyer to talk to you about what you are going to need to do while providing help along the way.

What Are the Responsibilities?

As an executor of the estate and will, these are some of the different things you will likely need to handle with the lawyer's help:

Pay for the funeral. If the deceased individual did not prepay for a funeral, you would use some of the funds from his or her estate to cover the cost of a ceremony and burial or cremation services depending on what the individual wanted.

Pay off the debt. Some people pass away before paying off all their debt. If this debt is not paid, you could be held responsible for it. Make sure to use funds to pay different lenders and creditors to avoid having any problems with debt in the future.

File tax returns for any income earned. If the deceased person was working throughout the year, you will need to file a tax return on behalf of him or her. A lawyer can help you gather the paperwork needed to file the tax return correctly. If taxes are owed to the IRS, they must be paid.

Distribute funds to those in the will. If certain people are in the will and the deceased person has requested to set up trust funds for them or give them a certain amount of money, you can distribute those funds to those individuals.

Why You Should Let a Probate Lawyer Help You

As you can tell, there are several essential steps you must follow. If you have no experience with handling these different tasks, a probate lawyer can explain the different scenarios and tell you where you need to go or what paperwork you would need to file to complete these different tasks correctly. The goal is to make sure everything is covered, including the cost of the funeral, the debt owed to different creditors, and any taxes. Because the probate lawyer specifically works on cases involving estates and wills of the deceased, the one you hire could break things down for you, making sure you fully understand everything you must do for the sake of your deceased loved one.

Reach out to a probate lawyer service to learn more.


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