How to Hire an Executor. For your loved one’s estate or your will.

E323 Top 5 Reasons They a Hire Professional Executor

E323 Top 5 Reasons They a Hire Professional Executor

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When we chat with new clients, we ask them why they chose to look for and hire a professional executor. Here are the 5 most common answers. Perhaps you will see yourself in one of these situations.

1.  There’s no one else

There’s no one else

There may not be any close family or friends due to old age or because the client is a Solo Ager. Or maybe a client does have close family and friends, but they do not live nearby, they have no time, or they are not financially savvy.

2. Went through being an executor and hated it

Went through being an executor, hated it

We have clients who served as executors and hated it. Because they hated being an executor, there is no way they want to burden a loved one with the task.

It could be the other way around: the friend or family member who they want to nominate was already an executor once and hated it, too.

3. Fees are the same, so you may as well get a professional

Fees the same, may as well get a pro

Once clients realize that the executor fee is exactly the same for a professional executor versus a family member or friend, they can’t believe it! In most states, the law is the same. Whether it’s your unemployed nephew who needs money to start a rock band versus a seasoned professional with an experienced staff versus a bank: If you have that choice and the fees are going to be the same, why wouldn’t you name a professional executor?

In fact, hiring a professional executor may even cost less. An experienced and professional staff can reduce costs due to economies of scale, better deals with vendors, etc. We minimize a lot of losses because we can often do things quicker.

4. Banks won’t take the client or charge fees or require certain investments

Banks won’t take, charge fees or require investment

Many come to us after being rejected by their bank/brokerage, even if they have plenty of money and have been loyal customers for years.

Or sometimes, they are in the process of getting the bank to agree to serve as executor. But there are so many layers of committees and approvals from the bank. Those people come to us because we provide a more personal experience. With a bank, you’ll never talk to the person who will be the executor; it’s just “the bank.”

Lastly, people don’t like the bank’s requirement that a certain amount of money must be invested with them to qualify. You probably need between $3 million and $5 million just to talk to the bank. The bank also requires very specific investments: your money has to be invested in Brokerage Account “A” and the underlying investments must be in the Brokerage’s created funds. To put it bluntly, this is how banks can charge more fees.

5. Age gap siblings

Age gap siblings

This is similar to our #1 reason above, but more often we are seeing age gap siblings. Since we’ve been seeing this specific situation more often, we thought it was worth mentioning as its own reason. For whatever family reason, we’re seeing clients whose next closest sibling is 25 years older or younger! They don’t have a tight relationship due to the large age gap.

On the other hand, we have clients whose siblings are almost the same age, which doesn’t give an elderly client much hope that a fellow elderly sibling will be able to fulfill the duties of an executor. You want someone who will survive you or be young enough to handle stressful situations.

These are all great reasons to check out my book, “How to Hire an Executor,” available on Amazon. If you are part of our monthly email list, we give away one free paperback copy a month!

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E319 Top 5 States Looking for Professional Executors

E319 Top 5 States Looking for Professional Executors

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As we’ve spoken about before, Anthony can be your professional executor, even if you don’t live in New York. We have been seeing many inquires from out of state lately, and these are the top 5 looking for Anthony to be their professional executor.

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E314 Nonprofessional Executors Don’t Get Paid

E314 Nonprofessional Executors Don’t Get Paid

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Could you imagine doing a ton of work and not getting paid? It’s frustrating, but it happens. One of the drawbacks of nonprofessional executors is they are more likely to lose their executor fee, despite doing months, even years, of work for the estate.

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E306 What Information Are Heirs Entitled To

E306 What Information Are Heirs Entitled To?

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What information are heirs entitled to, and how often can they request it? There is a delicate balance for executors to keep heirs in the loop without draining their time or estate resources in constantly responding to inquiries.

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E302 Minimum Estate Size for a Professional Executor

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What is the minimum estate size that a professional executor will accept? A few prospective clients have called asking, so we’ll review bank executor minimums, our minimums, and some exceptions.

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E296 How to Sell Probate Real Estate with Bad Neighbors

E296 How to Sell Probate Real Estate with Bad Neighbors

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We’ll discuss a recent case study of how bad neighbors can harm probate real estate sale, and how to deal with them.

Bad neighbor blames estate for water leak

Bad neighbor blames estate for water leak

I am the professional executor for an estate with real estate that needs to be sold. During this process, we’ve had a neighbor with complaints.

First, the neighbor blamed our unit for a water leak. He had water damage in his unit, and he thought it was coming from us. Water damage can lead to mold issues, so we took the complaint seriously. We responded immediately and gave him access to a plumber.

The real estate is in a co-op building, which, as we discussed before, are a different animal! In this situation, the co-op manager appreciated our fast response to the problem.

As it turns out, the bad neighbor was blaming us for no reason. It had nothing to do with our unit, and the water issue was completely internal to his unit.

Bad neighbor blames estate for insects

Bad neighbor blames estate for insects

Second, the bad neighbor blamed us for a sudden infestation of bugs in his unit. His theory was that when we cleaned out our unit, something was shaken which caused bugs to move to his unit. We took the complaint seriously again and responded by giving him access to an exterminator of his choosing.

When selling probate real estate, you need to try to get along with the neighbors and building management. Getting off on the wrong foot with building management can make things very difficult for the executor. Even though we felt that the neighbor was not being truthful (as we saw no indication of bugs in our unit), we responded promptly. Again, the co-op manager appreciated our fast response to the problem.

It turns out that the bad neighbor cried wolf again. The neighbor’s hired exterminator was so dismissive of the neighbor’s theory that he didn’t even bother to spray our unit. Even though the cost of spraying would have been low, the exterminator said there was no point.

Despite all of this, the bad neighbor threatened to block our probate sale by lobbying the co-op board to not allow our unit to sell. However, the co-op saw that the neighbor lied twice and that we had been cooperative throughout the process. Thankfully, we did not need to worry about the board preventing our sale.

Bad neighbor sends us a “buyer”

Bad neighbor sends us a “buyer”

Those were the last of the complaints, but oddly enough, the bad neighbor sent us a buyer. He suggested selling to someone, so we looked into it.  The bad neighbor “vouched” for an “investor,” which is odd because investors usually don’t do well with co-op rules.

The buyer turned out to be an inexperienced kid (late teens, early 20s) who apparently saw on Tik Tok how to flip probate properties. The kid offered a wildly high offer, which is unlikely to actually close at that price. As we’ve discussed before, if a wildly high offer does go through, it’s because the buyer nickel-and-dimes the price down to the asking price. This strategy is used to get the buyer’s foot in the door by making an attractive offer and thus eliminating the competition. (link to E291 What is a Strong Offer on Probate Real Estate?)

In this case, the heirs had been tracking the situation and understood that this buyer was recommended by the bad neighbor. Therefore, they were not bamboozled into demanding that we accept this “high” offer, like they might have been if they did not know the back-story. The bad neighbor actually helped us with this bad buyer. If we didn’t know who sent him, it would have taken more time and research to know to reject the offer.

This is a situation where a professional executor can help buffer and deal with curveballs. An inexperienced executor may get bullied with empty threats of blocking the sale, etc. Professional executors know what to look for and can help the heirs avoid the stress of threats. We continued to address the false alarms and adjusted our treatment of the bad neighbor accordingly.

To learn how a professional executor can help you avoid probate headaches, check out my book, “How to Hire an Executor,” available on Amazon.

Request your free consultation

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Sign-up for your free consultation using the form above, and I’ll be happy to email you a free chapter from Anthony’s best-selling book “How to Hire an Executor.”

 

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E280 Someone Died, But No One Wants to be Executor

E280 Someone Died, But No One Wants to be Executor

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E275 US Professional Executor for Federal Transfer Certificates

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E271 Non-Professional with Probate Real Estate

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Today we describe some real-world examples of mistakes made by non-professional executors dealing with probate real estate.

Making it personal with tenants

Often times, a non-professional executor is a family member or friend who has too much history with the tenants.

Making it personal with tenants

For example, one of our executors helped the decedent in her final years and felt that the tenants were taking advantage of the decedent (late paying rent, not cleaning up after themselves, poor property upkeep, etc.). So, when the decedent passed, the executor has lots of bones to pick with the tenants: where the tenants parked, the condition of property, etc.

If tenants want to be difficult, they can make probate very difficult. As we’ve talked about before, it can be very hard to get rid of bad tenants in probate, so picking a fight isn’t helpful. For the sake of probate, it’s often best to let it go and move on.

In our example, the executor got into huge fight with tenants and the tenants called the police. A huge production was made, and we had to spend months in litigation to get them to vacate.

When a professional executor is involved, he or she doesn’t have that blood-boiling history with tenants. A benefit of hiring a professional executor is that we don’t get emotionally invested.

Knowing what renovations are worth doing

Knowing what renovations are worth doing

In the past, we’ve discussed certain renovations that almost always make sense (Episode 254: Best Renovations to do Before Selling Probate Real Estate) These include a fresh coat of paint, cleaning out the home, etc.

We recently had an executor who believed the decedent’s home was fine to sell as-is. Let me tell you that the place was not fine. But the executor had the position that if “it was good enough for my aunt to live there, it’s good enough for buyers.” Perhaps it was something sentimental to her that the house looked a certain way, but that’s not what buyers are looking for.

Because of this, the executor declined even a basic paint job. It is almost certainly going to be a struggle to sell.

Choosing the right broker

Choosing the right broker is tricky, even with a normal sale. You need to pick the right fit for the property and the right demeanor as a seller. Of course, it’s even harder in probate.

Choosing the right broker

Even if you find an excellent broker for the neighborhood, you also need someone who understands probate issues. For example, I am dealing with a situation where neither the buyer’s broker nor the seller’s broker understood that the seller was in probate. So, the day before closing, they said they “need something called Letters Testamentary before we can proceed.” Only then did they learn that the heirs were not in agreement, so there was no property to be sold! It was a huge waste of everyone’s time.

That was an extreme situation, but there are many other nuance situations where if you don’t have a broker experienced with probate, time and money are wasted.

For example, we have an executor who hired the dreaded “friend” broker. Friend brokers can be great, but this is not the time to repay favors to a friend via estate work. Estates are complicated already. The second problem was that the broker was from out of state and didn’t understand local customs. Third, the broker listed the home at a high price. In probate, you want to sell fast, but listing at a high price psychologically pegged the executor’s mind to that unrealistic number. A probate-experienced broker would avoid that situation. High prices turn away buyers who know the area and know that the seller has unrealistic expectations.

When an offer finally came in, the out-of-state broker prepared a binding contract and had the executor sign it. (In New York, a lawyer usually prepares or reviews the contract, because there are a lot of nuances that can cause disadvantages and risk). As a result, this executor unknowingly made some big concessions and promises she didn’t need to make.

These are things we’ve seen a lot lately. We share these scenarios to help you avoid future problems and consider the importance of hiring a professional executor. If you are interested in learning more, please check out my book called, “How to Hire an Executor,” available on Amazon.

Request your free consultation

New Client v4 Free Executor Chapter

"*" indicates required fields

Sign-up for your free consultation using the form above, and I’ll be happy to email you a free chapter from Anthony’s best-selling book “How to Hire an Executor.”

 

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