Serving as trustee or executor
What the first months look like
Nobody expects you to know this already. This is the order we usually take things in; how long it runs depends on the estate and on whether a court is involved.
Step 1: A first meeting, with the papers
You bring the trust or will and the death certificate. We read them with you and write down what you have been asked to do.
Step 2: Notices and a trust account
We send the notices the law requires, help you get a tax number for the trust and open an account in its name.
Step 3: An inventory
Together we list what your parent or relative owned and what each item was worth on the date of death.
Step 4: Bills, taxes and the paper trail
We pay what is owed from the right account and keep the records a beneficiary may later ask to see.
Step 5: An accounting and a distribution
We prepare the accounting, collect sign-offs where they are needed and distribute what is left.
What stays yours, and what we take on
You decide
Whether to sell the house, who gets which keepsake when the papers leave it open, and how often you update the family. We lay out the options and you choose.
We handle
The letters to banks and beneficiaries, the forms, the deadlines and the file of records. When a question needs a court, we say so early and explain why.
Your own risk
A trustee or executor can be held responsible for mistakes. That is the main reason people ask for help with the first few steps and the final accounting, even when the rest feels manageable.
Questions from trustees and executors
Do I have to hire a lawyer?
Not always. But the role carries personal responsibility, and many people want a lawyer at the start and again at the end.
May I be paid for the work?
Usually a trustee or executor may take reasonable pay or choose to waive it. The document and the law set the terms, and we explain which apply to yours.
Does everything go through court?
A trust often does not. Disputes, a missing asset or a will with no trust can bring a court in. We tell you if yours might.
My brothers and sisters do not agree with me.
Tell us early. A plain letter to everyone, and a clear record, settle more of these than anything else.
Handed the job and not sure where to start?
Call or write, and bring the papers if you have them. We will say what comes first.