INDUSTRY INSIGHT
Estate Administration
SPONSORED CONTENT
Responsibilities
of Executors
W
hen you are named as an executor
in the Will of a friend or relative, before
accepting the appointment, you should
be familiar with the duties and responsibilities that the
position entails, as well as the basic procedures involved.
The appointment process in Pennsylvania is relatively simple.
A form, Petition for Probate and Grant of Letters, must be prepared
and presented along with the original Will and a death certificate
to the Register of Wills of the county where the decedent lived (in
Allegheny County, the elected position of Register of Wills has been
eliminated and replaced by the Department of Court Records-Wills/
Orphans’ Court Division). You are sworn in, and at that time you can
obtain your “short certificates” which are the official documentation
of your appointment.
As soon as you are appointed you should obtain an Employer
Identification Number from the IRS; this is the equivalent of a Social
Security number for the estate and is required to open an estate
checking account.
You should also have the decedent’s mail forwarded to your
address or to your attorney.
It is your responsibility to collect all of the decedent’s assets;
checks, cash, and proceeds from the sale of other assets must be
deposited into the estate checking account.
You must also pay the legitimate debts and expenses of the
estate. In order to ensure that all claims are timely received, the
estate must be advertised in a newspaper of general circulation and
the legal newspaper of the appropriate county.
If there is any doubt as to whether there will be enough money to
pay all of the debts and expenses, don’t pay any until establishing
with the help of your attorney the proper priority of payments.
There are several documents that must be filed during the course
of the administration, the most important of which are the Inventory
and the Inheritance Tax Return; a discount is available on the
amount of inheritance due for payments made within 90 days of the
date-of-death. The Return is due 9 months from the date-of-death.
There are several ways to conclude the administration of the
estate; the appropriate one will depend upon the circumstances and
will be determined with the advice of your attorney.
The responsibility of administering an estate is a serious one, but
in conjunction with an experienced attorney, not one to be feared.
This Industry Insight was written by Betty Dillon.
She received her law degree from the University of
Pittsburgh. She is a member of the Pennsylvania
Bar Association; also of the Allegheny County Bar
Association, where she is a member of the Family Law
Section, the Probate and Trust Section and the Elder
Law Committee.
For further information, call 412.835.0933 or go to
www.bettydillonlaw.com online.
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