Estate Administration | Executor Organization | Estate Team | Professionals of After Loss Services | Estate Talks
Most executors begin an estate with more questions than answers. There may be property to secure, documents to locate, accounts to identify, family members to communicate with, professionals to contact, and decisions that have never come up before.
You do not need to know everything at the beginning.
But you can begin the estate strong by putting some basic structure around the work before becoming consumed by individual tasks.
In an Executorium Estate Talks conversation, Executorium Publisher George Compton asked Jasmine Hathaway, co-founder of Professionals of After Loss Services (PALS), for three things an executor should understand at the outset of an estate.
Her advice provides three useful foundations:
- Create an organizational system.
- Build the estate team.
- Establish the destination.
These are not simply three tasks to complete on Day 1. They are three working disciplines an executor can establish early and use throughout the administration of the estate.
Original Estate Talks: 3 Things an Executor Should Know Day 1 | Watch the Estate Talks interview on YouTube
1. Create an Organizational System
Hathaway’s first recommendation is to get and stay organized.
That sounds simple, but there is an important distinction between trying to be organized and actually creating a system for the estate.
An executor can quickly accumulate court documents, account statements, bills, property records, insurance information, tax documents, valuations, receipts, correspondence, contact information, passwords, notes from conversations, and an expanding list of unfinished tasks.
Give the estate a home.
That home might be a physical binder, a set of digital folders, a spreadsheet, an estate-management platform, or some combination. The tool is less important than establishing a consistent place where estate information can be recorded, found, updated, and followed.
Build the Basic Workflow
An executor might begin with:
- A master estate task list
- A preliminary inventory of assets and accounts
- A contact list for heirs, beneficiaries, institutions, and professionals
- A calendar of important dates and deadlines
- A log of calls, meetings, correspondence, and important conversations
- A file for invoices, receipts, statements, reimbursements, and estate expenses
- A running list of questions that require professional guidance
The value of this structure becomes more apparent as the estate gets longer and more complicated. What seemed easy to remember in the first week may be difficult to reconstruct six months later.
Organization also supports accountability. Executors may need to explain transactions, document expenses, account for property, report activity, and provide information to attorneys, accountants, beneficiaries, courts, or others involved with the estate.
The goal is not a perfect filing system. The goal is an estate record that can be followed.
Why This Perspective?
PALS — Professionals of After Loss Services — trains and educates professionals who help executors and families with the administrative, logistical, and practical work that follows a death.
After-loss professionals may work alongside an executor as consultants, coordinators, contractors, or experienced guides — a kind of estate “sherpa” who understands the terrain and can help the executor identify tasks, organize the work, find appropriate resources, and keep the estate moving forward.
They do not replace the estate attorney, accountant, financial professional, or other specialists an estate may require. Their perspective is valuable because their profession is centered on understanding the work of estate settlement and helping families manage it.
Learn more about Professionals of After Loss Services (PALS).
2. Build the Estate Team
The executor may be responsible for administering the estate, but that does not mean the executor should personally perform every task.
“You do not have to do this alone.”
— Jasmine Hathaway, Professionals of After Loss Services
That may be one of the most important organizational understandings an executor can establish early.
Some estates have family members or friends who can appropriately help with certain tasks. Other responsibilities require specialized experience or professional advice.
Depending on the estate, the team might include:
- Probate or estate attorneys
- Accountants and tax professionals
- Financial advisers or other financial professionals
- Real estate professionals
- Personal property or real estate appraisers
- Insurance professionals
- Auctioneers and estate-sale professionals
- Cleanout, moving, storage, maintenance, or property-service providers
- After-loss professionals
Every estate is different. A small estate with cooperative beneficiaries and uncomplicated assets will not require the same team as an estate involving multiple properties, a business, valuable collections, difficult tax questions, or family conflict.
The important idea is to recognize the gaps.
An executor does not have to become an expert in probate law, tax, banking, investments, real estate, insurance, personal-property valuation, liquidation, and family dynamics overnight.
Professionals can help flatten that learning curve.
Instead of repeatedly asking:
How am I supposed to do this?
Try asking:
Who understands this part of the estate and can help me move it forward?
Before engaging professionals or paying expenses from estate funds, executors should discuss the estate’s particular circumstances with the estate attorney or other appropriate professional and maintain clear records of authorized expenses.
3. Establish the Destination
Once the work begins, it is easy for an executor to become absorbed by whatever task happens to be immediately in front of them.
Hathaway’s third principle is broader: think about the end.
The purpose of estate administration is not to remain busy. The purpose is to move the estate from where it is now toward a proper settlement.
That perspective can help an executor establish priorities.
Not Everything Needs to Happen Today
Some matters require immediate attention. Property may need to be secured. Insurance may need to be maintained. Legal deadlines may apply. Bills and documents may need attention.
Other matters can wait until the executor has better information, professional guidance, authority to act, or a clearer understanding of the estate.
The ability to distinguish between urgent and merely unfinished can reduce unnecessary pressure and help the executor work in a sensible sequence.
Remember the People in the Estate
There is another reason to keep the destination in sight.
Estate administration involves people as well as assets.
Grief, money, personal property, family history, expectations, and longstanding disagreements can collide during settlement. A dispute over an object or decision can sometimes become larger than the object or decision itself.
Hathaway’s advice is to consider not only what needs to be accomplished, but what life may look like after the estate is finished. Relationships that matter should remain part of the executor’s field of vision.
Ask Where the Estate Is Going
As decisions arise, useful questions may include:
- What ultimately needs to happen with this asset or responsibility?
- What truly requires attention now?
- What can reasonably wait?
- What information is missing?
- Whose professional expertise is needed?
- Who needs to be informed?
- How does this decision help move the estate toward settlement?
The executor is not simply completing tasks. The executor is moving an estate toward a destination.
A Strong Beginning Is About Structure, Not Speed
There can be tremendous pressure at the beginning of an estate to start doing things immediately.
Action matters. But a strong beginning is not necessarily the fastest beginning.
Taking some time to establish an organizational system, identify the people and professionals who can help, and understand where the estate ultimately needs to go can make the work that follows more manageable.
Think of these three foundations as part of the estate’s operating structure:
ORGANIZE: Create a system where estate information and activity can be followed.
ASSEMBLE: Build the family and professional team needed to address the work.
AIM: Understand the destination so individual decisions continue moving the estate toward settlement.
You will learn more about the estate as you go. New questions will arise. Plans may change. Additional professionals may become necessary.
That is normal.
The objective at the beginning is not to know everything.
It is to build a framework that helps you handle what comes next.
Watch: 3 Things an Executor Should Know Day 1
This article revisits an Executorium Estate Talks conversation between Executorium Publisher George Compton and Jasmine Hathaway. The episode was originally broadcast on November 22, 2023.
Watch directly on YouTube: Three Things an Executor Needs to Know Day One
Read the original Estate Talks article and edited transcript: Estate Talks Podcast: 3 Things an Executor Should Know Day 1
About Jasmine Hathaway
Jasmine Hathaway is the founder of Compass Coordinators and a co-founder of Professionals of After Loss Services (PALS). Her work focuses on helping families navigate the decisions, logistics, administration, and practical responsibilities that arise after a loved one dies.
PALS trains and supports professionals working in the emerging field of after-loss services and seeks to expand the practical support available to executors and families navigating estate administration.
Professionals of After Loss Services | Compass Coordinators
Executorium provides general educational information for executors and estates and is not a substitute for legal, tax, accounting, financial, or other professional advice. Executors should consult appropriate professionals regarding the circumstances and requirements of a particular estate.
The opinions expressed by Estate Talks hosts and guests are not necessarily the opinions of Executorium.com LLC, its principals, or its employees.