If you’ve been appointed to be an estate executor, your job is to manage the estate’s financial affairs and carry out the deceased person’s final wishes. This a significant responsibility that involves a fair amount of organization, careful attention to detail, and good communication skills.
For more than two decades, Eddy & Schein Group has worked with many clients as they face challenging estate executor responsibilities, helping them administer their duties and minimize negative financial impacts.
In our four-part series about what you’ll need to do after someone dies, we address specifically the financial issues you will encounter as an executor. The following is not an exhaustive list; it highlights some of our experiences in assisting executors.
Here we offer suggestions for handling financial tasks and logistics efficiently to help you avoid time-consuming and costly problems. We also offer suggestions for avoiding difficulties through advanced planning and organizing.
Primary Tasks after a Death
Before you even start dealing with the estate’s finances, you’ll have a few critical estate executor duties once the death occurs.
Immediate Notifications
Doctor
The date and time of death and, where possible, the cause needs to be established. If the person dies in the hospital, the on-duty doctor does this. The body is then released to the funeral home or morgue. If the person dies at home, call the doctor, who may advise you to call 911 or the funeral home. If 911 is called, the police and the medical examiner will be dispatched.
If the body goes to the morgue, an authorized person will have to go to the medical examiner’s office to identify the body and complete paperwork.
Family, Friends, and Legal Representatives
Just after calling the doctor, inform immediate family and clergy, as well as attorneys or trustees. After the death, representatives through a Health Care Proxy or a Power of Attorney no longer have that responsibility.
Think about what you are going to say before you call. These calls are an opportunity to share feelings and briefly grieve together. You may need to help children, even adult children, cope with the death when you break the news to them.
Be prepared that a surviving parent may feel so bereaved that they’re unable to handle everything themselves. Ask for help from family members and close family friends.
Funeral Home
Next, you’ll need to inform the funeral home where to pick up the body and schedule an appointment to make funeral arrangements.
As the estate executor, you’ll want to follow the deceased person’s last wishes, so review their last will and testament for funeral or burial instructions, as well as religious preferences. Find out if the person established a funeral trust, which would list the person’s wishes and indicate funds set aside for the funeral expenses.
Funeral Arrangements and Expenses
The first expenses upon someone’s death are for funerals and burial or cremation. If a person has pre-planned their funeral, then the arrangements have been made, and the costs should largely be covered.
If there is no pre-plan, the estate executor or a family member will need to make the arrangements. They may have to pay funeral costs out-of-pocket and be reimbursed later from the estate.
Avoiding a Negative Outcome
Before Death:
- Make a contact list of those who need to be informed, including the doctor.
- Think about how you’ll inform family and friends.
- Find out where the will and any funeral pre-plan documents are kept. Review and discuss the will and any pre-planned arrangements with the person.
- If the person has not made any plans, encourage them to make funeral arrangements in advance to avoid leaving this expense for family members. They may even want to fund a bank account specifically for funeral costs or other critical expenses.
After Death:
- Be prepared to help family and friends cope with the death.
- If you don’t know the location of the will and funeral plan documents, ask family members or the deceased’s attorney.
Death Certificates
Death certificates are needed to close accounts, communicate with vendors, claim life insurance policies’ distributions, and so much more.
Some companies require original death certificates, while others may only need a scanned copy. If you run out of death certificates, you will need to request additional copies. This can cause a delay in the work you are doing on behalf of the estate.
The funeral home will collect the information about the decedent and get the death certificates from the Health Department or Office of Vital Statistics. Be aware that the deceased may have used different names over the course of their lifetime, which can result in confusion. The death certificate should include any other names in the “AKA” section. Find out more in this article, “Is that really you on your ID?”
Death certificates also list the decedent’s gender. For transgender people or those who identify as non-binary, you may have to advocate for documentation reflecting the decedent’s identity.
Avoiding a Negative Outcome
Before Death:
- Identify any previously used names and locate the birth and marriage certificates, as well as any court documents for name and gender verification.
- If the person made a funeral pre-plan, they would have given the vital information that will be used on the death certificate. Review the form they completed to be sure it is current and accurate and includes any additional names and gender designation.
After Death:
- Get at least 10-15 death certificates because there are usually surprises as to who requires an original death certificate.
- When communicating with organizations, ask if they will accept a scanned copy. If not, then ask that they return the original.
Gaining Access
Certain circumstances, such as when a decedent is found by a neighbor or landlord, may require a decedent’s house or apartment to be sealed. This is done to protect evidence as well as the estate’s assets. However, until the court has established their authority, even the designated estate executor is not permitted to remove any contents. And the process of gaining access to the apartment takes legal processing and eats up valuable time.
A host of problems can arise when the decedent’s home is sealed, or access is restricted. Important documents could be trapped inside, such as the decedent’s original will, funeral wishes, property deeds, and other important documents, as well as devices needed to receive multi-factor authentication (MFA) codes from financial entities.
Avoiding a Negative Outcome
Before Death:
- Make sure that the original copy of the will is not in the person’s home or safe deposit box.
- Many attorneys keep clients’ wills in their vaults. If this is the case, be sure you know the name of the attorney and confirm that they are still practicing.
- Add an email address that the executor can access to the decedent’s online account profiles for their financial institutions and other services to facilitate access to MFA codes.
After Death:
- Ask relatives, friends, and attorneys about the location of documents.
- Work with an attorney to submit a Petition to Unseal the Residence and Examine the Apartment to get temporary access to the residence.
Curbing the Expense of Rented Equipment
You’ll want to mitigate unnecessary rental expenses for equipment that’s not returned right after the death. These could be cable boxes, medical equipment, phones, etc., that you’re unable to access in the sealed apartment.
Avoiding a Negative Outcome
Before Death:
- Identify the vendors and make a list of the equipment, account numbers, and company contact information.
- Take steps to minimize unnecessary rental equipment and services in the home.
After Death:
- Inform the appropriate companies about the death and cancel their services and equipment rental agreements.
- Ask about backdating the service cancellation and equipment rental to the date of death or, at least, the date of your call.
- When you regain access to the home, coordinate with anyone cleaning out the apartment to be sure the equipment is returned.
Access to Mail
Without access to the decedent’s mailbox, you may not know what bills need to be paid. You also won’t know if they’ve received any checks or legal documents after their death. This can cause delays, and possibly extra expense, in your administration of the estate.
Avoiding a Negative Outcome
Before Death:
- Be sure to get the location, access codes, and extra keys to the person’s mailboxes.
After Death:
- On the Post Office website, you can have the decedent’s mail forwarded. You’ll need to pay the nominal fee with a credit card that’s associated with either the decedent’s address or the new address. Alternatively, you can submit a forwarding request card to the Post Office.
- Sign up for USPS Informed Delivery so you’ll receive a daily email showing you what mail and packages are coming to the decedent’s address. (If you don’t already use this service yourself, sign up… it’s quite handy.)
- In buildings that have door attendants with whom you’re familiar, you can sometimes rely on them to hold mail for you.
Digital Assets
Wills are more often authorizing the estate executor to handle the decedent’s digital affairs, such as bank accounts, email, and social media. The list of affected digital assets can be long and varied. The challenge is finding the credentials for accessing and closing accounts, eliminating unnecessary charges, communicating with providers, retaining content, and the list goes on… and on.
Avoiding a Negative Outcome
Before Death:
- Get a list of usernames, passwords, and security question answers for all accounts, even those without financial ties.
- Add the executor’s cell phone number and an accessible email address in all account profiles to facilitate MFA.
- Encourage the person to set their social media accounts in advance to be deleted after their death. Many social platforms have this setting available.
After Death:
- Monitor the decedent’s email account(s) for a year to identify any bills that are sent digitally.
- Request that the decedent’s social media accounts are deleted. There are settings in most platforms where you can request this: Facebook & Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. They’ll request a scanned death certificate or proof that you’re the executor.
- Retrieve stored content from cloud services before canceling payment and deleting the account.
Paying Immediate Expenses
There will most likely be bills that need to be paid before you establish the estate bank account. You might need to access outside sources of funds to handle these expenses, even if the decedent had considerable means, until the estate account is available. Once an estate account is set up, be aware that there will be ongoing financial issues and challenges.
Learn more in our four-part series: “An Estate Executor’s Financial Challenges – Advice from Personal Finance Managers.”
Part 2: Checks Received after a Death
Part 3: Debts, Bills, and Banking
Part 4: Estate Assets