5 Common Executor Mistakes to Avoid
How to prevent estate mismanagement, disputes with beneficiaries, and other EXECUTOR MISTAKES you sometimes face.
Serving as the executor of an estate can be a large undertaking, even if you’re working from a simple, straightforward end-of-life documentation. As a designated executor, you must balance probate court appearances, communication with beneficiaries, property and business concerns, asset distribution, and more—all while processing your own grief. With so many different responsibilities to juggle, many first-time executors make mistakes in how they handle their obligations.
Mistakes during probate can have a snowball effect, hampering or tangling up the process, which may lead to mismanagement, contention with family members and beneficiaries of the deceased, and even forcible removal from your executor position. But you can avoid mistakes and ensure a smooth trip through probate by understanding the most common problem areas for executors and how to address them.
Mistake One: Not Understanding the Scope
New executors often feel a strong sense of duty to handle all responsibilities without fully grasping the complexity involved. Taking on too much can lead to burnout, communication breakdowns, disarray, and other serious executor mistakes that disrupt the probate process.
Before committing to the executor role, it’s crucial to research its demands thoroughly. Assess if it aligns with your schedule or if it might overwhelm you. Consider involving beneficiaries or family members who could assist with certain tasks. Additionally, services like junk removal, estate sales, and legal counsel are available to alleviate the burden. The estate covers these expenses, so your personal finances remain unaffected.
Even after exploring probate intricacies and delegation options, if you still feel unequipped for the executor role, remember: there’s no legal obligation to accept. Prioritize your well-being and boundaries above all else.
Mistake Two: Not Reaching Out for Help
Many executors often make the mistake of thinking they must navigate probate entirely on their own. Despite being the estate’s designated representative, there’s no legal barrier preventing you from seeking support from family members, beneficiaries, or probate attorneys when necessary. Particularly, probate attorneys can be invaluable in navigating intricate technicalities that may arise during the process.
Delegating tasks to willing and capable individuals streamlines your role as an executor. While probate cannot be hurried, reaching out for assistance ensures a smoother process, preventing potential obstacles and simplifying this already complex responsibility. Avoiding these executor mistakes by seeking help ultimately facilitates a more manageable approach to probate proceedings.
Mistake Three: Delaying Executor Responsibilities
An executor understandably needs to take some time after the funeral to work through the most difficult moments, but you can’t wait too long to start ushering the estate through probate, either. Begin executing your responsibilities as soon as you are able. Waiting too long can lead to serious problems, such as conflicts with beneficiaries and mounting costs as you deal with paying taxes and other expenditures out of the estate. Similarly, any repairs that may need to be made on properties before selling them could worsen (and end up costing more) if you take too long to address them.
Probate usually takes anywhere from nine months to a year to complete, so it’s important to get the ball rolling as soon as possible.
Mistake Four: Not Communicating
Serving in an executor role requires a lot of communication. Beneficiaries, family members, probate attorneys, probate court personnel, and any contractors you may need to hire for property repairs will all need to hear back from you in a timely manner. Failing to communicate clearly and punctually can compromise the estate. You may even be removed from your executor role if beneficiaries and probate court professionals believe you’ve grown derelict in your duties.
Keeping any scheduled phone calls, appointments, and court dates on your calendar and setting reminders beforehand so you don’t forget is one of the easiest ways to make sure you don’t miss any important milestones. Take notes, too, perhaps in a notebook dedicated specifically to probate. You might also want to consider setting up an email address specifically for estate-related matters to prevent overfilling your personal inbox.
Mistake Five: Disorganization
Probate involves a lot of paperwork in addition to routine probate court appointments and meetings with beneficiaries. Before officially starting your executor responsibilities, take some time to come up with an organization plan that best suits your style. Folders, planners, calendars, phone alerts, and email labels are all extremely handy tools when keeping up with everything probate entails. Even if you don’t need other people’s help to fulfill your duties, you’ll definitely help yourself, beneficiaries, and probate court personnel by always staying on top of things.
Find Success as a Georgia Executor
We created the Georgia Probate Resource website to provide peace of mind to executors needing a little guidance through the complexities of probate. Our blogs cover a wide range of topics to help you best navigate your role for a headache-free experience settling an estate. Other posts to get you started include the following:
I’m the Executor of an Estate. Now What?
How Does the Probate Process Work in Georgia?