Estate Administration | 10-minute read
Estate Talks | 3 Things an Executor Should Know | Jasmine Hathaway

Main Link: Estate Talks Podcast: 3 Things an Executor Should Know Day 1

Executorium Publisher George Compton interviews PALS Co-Founder, Jasmine Hathaway to explore the subject of setting the estate up for success.  3 Things an Executor Should Know Day 1 takes a general approach to estate administration so executors get started on the right foot and proceed with the successful end in mind.

This episode of Executorium’s Estate Talks was broadcast on Wednesday, November 22, 2023.

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The following transcript has been edited for readability.

EX: Hello Jasmine.  This is George Compton and welcome to Estate Talks.  For those watching live and recorded, I’m the publisher of Executorium and I have with me today a guest, Jasmine Hathaway.

Jasmine is the co-founder of PALS – Professionals of After Loss Services.  She’s also the founder of Compass Coordinators.  Her businesses are focused on supporting families with logistics, decisions, and tasks after the loss of a loved one.

In 2021 she won first prize in the National Daring to Disrupt Contest for female entrepreneurs from Aly Financial, and Katie Couric Media, so welcome Jasmine.

JH: Thanks for having me.

EX: Well, it’s a pleasure to have you, and I can’t think of anyone better to talk about three things that an executor needs to know, so let’s dive right into it.

What is the first thing an executor should know on day one?

JH: This is a topic very near and dear to me my heart absolutely.  The very first thing I would say is, it’s so important to get and stay organized.  So, what that means is have some kind of place where you are keeping your important documents and keeping track of everything that you’ve done.

EX: Can’t stress that enough.  That sets you up for success and it saves you time because when you’re scrambling to find things in the heat of the moment and people ask you for information all the time.  You’re a fiduciary you’re bound to report, and know things, and provide transparency.  Organization is just key.

JH: That’s right and you think you’ll remember everything but it may very well be that you have trouble remembering what you’ve done who you’ve spoken to all kinds of different things that are important to keep track of during the course of your executive responsibilities.

EX: Especially if the estate administration goes long, and they always go longer than you think, you need to be able to backtrack and trace your steps.

I might be one of these people but any advice for the organizationally impaired Jasmine?

JH: I’m not gonna call you out at all I promise.

EX: Thank you.

JH:  If you did need some help – it really would be a great place to start just to have some kind of binder, some kind of chart to keep track of all the accounts that you need to contact and close or change account ownership, things like that.  So just some kind of running list.  Ideally, it’s all in one place, that’s really the key here. Try not to have little scraps of paper in a hundred different places that are impossible to track down when you’re actually looking for them.

EX:  Very good idea and conversations I find are important to journal and just record and just remember who was where at what time and what some of the main points of major conversations were.  That could always be helpful down the road.

JH: Yeah, great tip.

EX: What’s something else that executors should do early on?

JH: The second thing that executors should keep in mind, and start doing early on is build a team.  You do not have to do this alone and a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that everything is on them because they’re officially named the executor or administrator and it’s just not true.  So if there’s anyone in your family who can help you – siblings or cousins or anybody else who can sort of help shoulder this burden that can be huge.  Loop them in as early as possible so they understand what you’re facing.  Because a lot of people just really have no idea what an executive’s responsibilities are, so having these allies on your side is huge.  On the professional side there could be all kinds of different professionals who can help you depending on what the circumstance is.  Really early on just at least getting a consultation from an attorney, so that would be an estate attorney or an elder law attorney.  Maybe talking to a financial professional like a financial adviser or planner to help you make some decisions about things like life insurance or 401ks and different things like that.  Also, there are professionals who specifically focus on helping administrators like after loss professionals, so that’s a new category but something that can be a game changer for people who feel totally overwhelmed with this stuff.

EX:  That’s a great point and you’ve got a mountain of tasks you probably likely never been in the situation before.  Liquidation – you may have not even sold a house before, you may not have sold personal property before, you may not even know what personal property is, so these professionals can help just flatten the learning curve. I encourage anyone to get all the help you can.  When you pay a professional under the estate, it’s an expense of the estate.  You don’t pay the (estate) attorney bills, the estate does.  You don’t pay the for the accountant, you don’t pay for the assisting professionals such as Professionals of After Loss Services.  An appraisal you don’t pay for – the estate bears that expense, etc.  So don’t try to lift that giant weight all yourself. I think that is a great message.  Thank you, Jasmine.

What is the final thing that an executor should know?

JH:  Okay so I mean we could probably talk about this all day. But for the purposes of this, we basically just want to leave everybody with this final thought which is, it won’t always be like this.  So, it’s helpful to think about the end. Focus on what your end goal is with all of this and try to picture what that could look like.  A lot of times it can be easy to get kind of lost in the details and lose focus on the things that really matter at the end of the day.  So, in particular, I’m thinking like relationships that can be damaged by the high emotion of settling an estate.  Think about who is important to you, and who you want to value throughout this entire process.  Don’t make mistakes that you will regret later on just because you were not thinking about, “What it’s going to be like when we’re out of all of this.”

Another thing that’s important to keep in mind too is, it is not a, “Do everything at once” kind of a responsibility.” You have some time, and so you can think about what is truly most important to do now, and what can wait for a little bit.  So, you don’t have to feel quite so much pressure on yourself on day one.

EX:  I can’t put it any better than that.  Starting with the end of mind is so important and relationships are very important.  I use the analogy you know we’re fighting over the toy in the back seat of the car while Mom and Dad are in the front, and maybe Mom and Dad aren’t there anymore so it’s really up to us to figure out how to work this out and how important is the toy compared to the relationship and where the car is going.  So,   I really appreciate that third and last idea as well as the other two – just general ideas, but set up an executor for success in the best possible way.  So, thank you very much, Jasmine, I do appreciate your time.

I would ask executors for a moment to take a look at executorium.com.  I think perusing some of the different subjects that we’ve laid out on that website might just create an questions in your mind, to go and seek some of those professionals and get some answers, to read some articles. If you need help ask for it, for example, Professionals of After Loss Services that can just help make your life and the executor road a little bit easier. So, knowledge is your friend, and we appreciate the knowledge given today from Jasmine Hathaway.

Thank you, Jasmine.

JM: Thank you for having me.

Jasmine Hathaway

Bio

Jasmine is the founder of Compass Coordinators and co-founder of Professionals of After Loss Services (PALS).  Compass Coordinators provides services to assist after a loved one has died, logistics, decisions, administration, and support. PALS is an organization of professionals who are passionate about filling the gap in support for families struggling to manage the administrative and logistical tasks of settling an estate while grieving the death of a loved one.

Disclaimer:  The opinions of Executorium’s Estate Talks hosts and Estate Talks guests is not necessarily the opinion of Executorium.com LLC, its principals or its employees.