The person a court authorises to wind up an estate - a job with real duties, real personal exposure, and a right to be paid.
The executor - called the personal representative or administrator in many states, and administrator specifically where there is no will - is the person appointed by a probate court to gather the deceased person's assets, deal with debts and taxes, and distribute what remains. Being named in a will is a nomination, not an appointment: the authority comes from the court, and the document that proves it is usually called letters testamentary or letters of administration. Until those are issued, banks, brokerages and land registries will generally not deal with anyone, which is why the first weeks feel like a wall.
The work is roughly sequential. Secure the property and obtain certified copies of the death certificate; file the will and open the estate; obtain letters; notify beneficiaries and known creditors and publish notice where required; inventory and value the assets; open an estate account and keep estate money strictly separate; pay valid debts, taxes and administration expenses in the priority the state sets; file final personal and any estate income tax returns; account to the beneficiaries or the court; and distribute. Where a house or a business is involved the middle of that list can take a long time, and the executor is responsible for insuring, maintaining and sometimes selling it in the meantime.
The exposure is the part nobody explains before the job is accepted. An executor is a fiduciary, which means the duties of loyalty, impartiality between beneficiaries, prudence and accounting are legal obligations rather than good manners. Distributing to beneficiaries before creditors and taxes are resolved can leave the executor personally liable for the shortfall, and the federal claim against a representative who pays other debts before the government is statutory. Self-dealing - buying estate property, hiring one's own company - is restricted or requires approval. Poor record-keeping is the ordinary route into a dispute, because an executor who cannot account is presumed to be in the wrong.
Two counterweights are also true and are underused. An executor is entitled to reasonable compensation under state law and to reimbursement of proper expenses, including legal and accounting fees paid from the estate; doing the job unpaid is a choice, not a requirement. And an executor may decline the appointment or resign with court approval - which is the right answer where there is a family conflict, a business the person cannot run, or simply no time. The alternate named in the will, or a person the court appoints, then serves instead.
Ask three questions before accepting: what is actually in the estate, is it solvent, and is the family in agreement. An estate with a house, a business, property in another state, unclear debts, a disinherited relative or beneficiaries who are not speaking is a lawyer-assisted administration, and the fees are ordinarily payable from the estate rather than by the executor personally - so declining help to "save money" usually saves the executor nothing and exposes them to a great deal. Many states offer a simplified or summary procedure for small estates that avoids most of the above; ask whether the estate qualifies before opening a full administration. If you are already serving and it has gone wrong - money moved before you were appointed, an asset you cannot value, a beneficiary threatening to sue - get advice promptly rather than at the accounting stage, because the remedies available narrow as the administration proceeds.
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