Common disputes and how executors can avoid them
The “passing of accounts” is the process whereby estate beneficiaries and the probate court review and approve the executor’s management of the estate. How should executors prepare?
Beth is trying to help her mother decide what to do with the sale proceeds of her house
Q: My elderly mother, 83, just sold the family home for $300,000. The bank seems to advise her to buy expensive financial products not best suited to my mother’s stage of life.
A will need not be probated. The power of an estate trustee derives from the will itself. However, in certain cases, a grant of probate (now awkwardly called a certificate of appointment of estate trustee with a will) is needed and the estate trustee will have no choice but to apply for probate and to pay the accompanying estate administration tax. For example, to sell a house on the open market requires probate to assure the buyer that she is, in fact, dealing with the personal representative of the estate and buying the house from the estate (i.e. the sale is bona fide).
Remember the day that you signed off on your mortgage papers at the bank? You were probably overjoyed with the purchase of your new home and ready to start choosing paint colours and fabrics. That was likely the same day that the bank associate assisting you recommended you purchase mortgage insurance.