Duties Executors often have include: responsibility for dealing with the deceased’s body, paying debts and funeral expenses of the deceased, preparing final income tax returns, gathering the assets and distributing them according to the instructions in the Will, filing a final accounting with the court once the Estate has been distributed in its entirety.

The person that the deceased has appointed who will distribute the assets and gifts to the beneficiaries, as per the deceased person’s instructions in their Will.

The Beneficiaries are the people that the deceased person has identified to receive the assets and/or gifts.

Duties Executors often have include: responsibility for dealing with the deceased’s body, paying debts and funeral expenses of the deceased, preparing final income tax returns, gathering the assets and distributing them according to the instructions in the Will, filing a final accounting with the court once the Estate has been distributed in its entirety.

Probating a Will is the process by which the Court reviews the Will and other documents to confirm that the Will is valid and grants authority to the Executor to deal with the deceased person’s Estate. This is called a grant of Letters of Probate to the Executor.

We suggest that when an Executor comes in to see a lawyer, they have a general sense of the deceased’s asset (i.e. knowledge of what property they own, the funds in their bank account, etc.); see above under “What does the Executor have to do?”

 

The process discussed above is much the same if the deceased has died intestate (without a Will). You should still make an appointment with a lawyer to discuss the deceased person’s estate. However, there are a few differences:

• Instead of an Executor, an Administrator must be appointed by the court. That person must be a blood relative of the deceased (i.e. a spouse, child or a sibling) in order to be appointed as Administrator of a deceased person’s estate. If there is more than one blood relative of the deceased who has the equal right to be appointed as the Administrator, one person must apply and obtain the consents of the other blood relatives who have an equal right to apply to be appointed by the court as Administrator;
• Instead of being granted Letters of Probate, the Administrator is granted Letters of Administration, which has the same function as Letters of Probate. The Administrator now has the power and authority to deal with the deceased persons estate;
• Two individuals have to act as sureties for the value of the Estate. This is done to protect the Estate from an Administrator acting unethically and improperly disposing of the deceased person’s estate. The sureties must be two individuals who are willing to each act as guarantors of one half of the value of the deceased person’s Estate. If the Administrator fails to properly distribute the deceased person’s estate according to law, the court will require the two sureties to each bring one half of the value of the Estate in cash into court for distribution to the beneficiaries; and
• Since the deceased has not left a Will containing their wishes for their assets, the Administrator must distribute the Estate according to the rules in the Intestate Succession Act. A lawyer will assist the Administrator in this matter.