Executor duties: what an executor does, step by step

Marcus was named executor of his father's will the way most people are: his dad mentioned it once at Thanksgiving, years ago, and Marcus said "sure" before the pie came out. Then his father died in August, and Marcus found himself in the parking lot of the funeral home holding a folder he didn't know what to do with. The will was in there. So was a bank statement, a car title, and a sticky note that said "call Ed about the boat."

If you've just learned you're the executor, you're probably feeling some version of that parking lot moment. Executor duties aren't secret, but nobody hands you the list. This guide goes through what an executor actually does, roughly in the order you'll do it, so you can see the whole shape of the job before you start. Laws vary a lot from state to state, and estates vary even more. Use this as a map, and consider talking with a probate attorney in the state where the person lived before you make any big moves.

What an executor is responsible for

An executor is the person named in a will to wrap up someone's legal and financial affairs after they die. In practice, that means settling their bills and then passing whatever's left to the people the will names.

The legal term for what you've become is a fiduciary. It means you have to act in the best interest of the estate and its beneficiaries, not your own, and you have to be able to show your work. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a free set of guides called Managing Someone Else's Money that explains fiduciary duties in plain language. It's aimed at people with power of attorney and trustees, but the core rules (keep their money separate, keep records, don't benefit yourself) apply to executors too.

If the person died without a will, the court appoints someone to do the same work. That person is usually called an administrator, and almost everything in this guide applies to them as well.

You also don't have to say yes. Being named in a will isn't a legal obligation. If you can't take this on right now, you can decline before you've started acting for the estate, and the alternate named in the will (or someone the court picks) steps in. It's a reasonable choice, and it's far better than accepting and then stalling for a year.

The first few weeks: getting authority

Before you can do much of anything, you need the court to confirm you're in charge. Until then, banks won't talk to you and you can't sign for the estate.

The first steps usually look like this:

1. Find the original will. Copies generally aren't accepted. Check the person's files, a home safe, a safe deposit box, or the office of the attorney who drafted it.
2. Order certified death certificates. You'll need them for the court, the banks, the insurers, and the IRS. Our guide on how to get a death certificate covers how many to order. Ten is a reasonable start for most estates.
3. File the will and a petition with the probate court in the county where the person lived. Many states expect the will to be filed within about 30 days of death, even if probate itself moves slowly.
4. Receive your letters testamentary. This is the court document that proves you're the executor. Every institution will ask for a copy, so get several.

Some small estates can skip full probate entirely and use a simpler affidavit process, depending on the state and the value of the assets. Our explainer on what probate is and how it works goes into when that's possible. The California Courts self-help guide is a good example of what a state's own walkthrough looks like, and most states have something similar on their court website.

While you wait for the court, there are a few protective things you can do. Lock up the house if it's empty. Make sure someone is feeding the cat. Forward the mail to yourself, because a surprising amount of what you need to know about an estate will arrive by envelope over the next twelve months. Marcus found his father's second credit card and a small pension that way, both in the first six weeks.

Gathering and protecting the assets

Once you have letters testamentary, your next big task is figuring out what the person owned and keeping it safe. This is usually the most time-consuming part of the job.

Start by getting the estate its own tax ID number, called an EIN. You can apply for an EIN online with the IRS for free, and it takes a few minutes. Then open an estate bank account using the EIN and your letters. Every dollar that comes into the estate goes in there, and every estate bill gets paid from there.

Keep the estate's money separate from yours. Even if you're the only heir, even if it's only a few hundred dollars, don't deposit estate money into your personal account. Mixing funds is one of the most common ways executors get into legal trouble, and it makes your final accounting much harder.

Next comes the inventory. Go through bank and brokerage statements, retirement accounts, real estate, vehicles, and anything else of real value, like jewelry, collectibles, or that boat Ed apparently knew about. Some of it will pass outside the will entirely. Life insurance, retirement accounts with a named beneficiary, and jointly owned property usually go straight to the named person and aren't yours to distribute. They're still worth noting so you understand the full picture.

Many states require you to file a formal inventory with the court within a few months of being appointed, sometimes with appraisals for real estate or valuable items. Take photos and keep a running spreadsheet from the start. It's much easier than reconstructing it later.

If there's a house, it's now your responsibility to maintain until it's sold or transferred. That means keeping homeowner's insurance active (tell the insurer the owner has died, since some policies lapse on vacant homes), paying the utilities, and checking on it.

Paying debts, bills, and taxes

The estate pays the person's debts before anyone inherits. Your job is to find out who's owed money, decide which claims are valid, and pay them in the order your state requires.

Most states have a formal creditor notice process. You notify known creditors directly and, in many states, publish a notice in a local newspaper. Creditors then have a fixed window to file claims, often three to six months. When that window closes, late claims are generally barred. This is one of the main reasons estates take as long as they do.

Pay valid bills from the estate account, never from your own money. If the estate doesn't have enough to cover everything, state law sets a priority order, and things like funeral costs and administration expenses usually come first. Family members generally don't inherit the debt. Our guide to what happens to debt when you die explains how that works and what to say to an aggressive collector.

Taxes belong on this list too. You'll likely need to file the person's final income tax return, any prior-year returns they missed, and possibly a separate return for the estate if it earns $600 or more in income. It's also smart to file IRS Form 56 so tax notices come to you. The details are in our walkthrough on filing taxes for a deceased person.

There's one trap worth repeating here. If you distribute the inheritance before the debts and taxes are paid, you can end up personally responsible for what's left unpaid. When siblings are asking when they'll get their share, it's tempting to hurry. Hold back a reserve until the creditor period has closed and the tax returns have been accepted.

Distributing what's left and closing the estate

Distribution is the last real step: transferring what remains to the beneficiaries named in the will, then asking the court to formally close the estate.

Before you hand anything out, you'll usually prepare a final accounting. It shows everything that came into the estate, everything that went out, and what's left. Beneficiaries can review it, and in many states the court reviews it too. This is where all those receipts and that spreadsheet pay off.

Then you transfer the assets. Money is the easy part. Real estate needs a new deed, vehicles need their titles transferred, and investment accounts need to be retitled or sold. For personal belongings that the will doesn't specifically assign, families sometimes take turns choosing or agree on a simple system ahead of time. It helps to have a conversation about the sentimental things before anyone walks through the house with a box.

You'll typically have each beneficiary sign a receipt confirming what they received. Once everything is distributed, you file the closing documents with the court and close the estate bank account. Most straightforward estates get here somewhere between nine months and a year and a half after the death. Estates with a house to sell or a family disagreement can take longer.

Can an executor be paid for all this? Usually, yes. Most states allow a reasonable fee, and a few set it by formula based on the estate's value. Many family executors waive it, especially when they're also a main beneficiary, but you're allowed to take it. Talk to the other beneficiaries early if you plan to, so it doesn't land as a surprise in the final accounting.

What makes the job harder (and what helps)

Most of the stress of being an executor comes from things the person didn't leave behind, rather than from the legal steps themselves. When nobody knows which drawer holds the car title or which bank the old savings account was at, every task takes three times as long.

The emotional load is real too. You're doing paperwork about someone you loved, often while grieving them, and sometimes while relatives second-guess you. If things get tense, a probate attorney can be worth the cost, and their fees are typically paid by the estate. Keeping beneficiaries informed with a short update every month or two heads off a lot of suspicion before it starts. People get anxious when they hear nothing.

It's also fine to go slowly. Apart from a handful of court and tax deadlines, very little in an estate has to happen this week. Marcus told his sister he spent the first month mostly sitting with the folder and making lists, and that this turned out to be the right speed. The boat, for the record, was a 14-foot fishing skiff stored in Ed's barn. It took two phone calls and a title transfer, and his sister got it in the end, which their dad would have liked.

If you're the one who'll need an executor someday

Reading this from the other side, as someone writing your own will, is useful too. The kindest thing you can do for your executor is ask them properly (more than a passing comment at Thanksgiving) and then leave them a clear trail.

That trail doesn't need to be elaborate. A list of your accounts and where statements arrive, where the original will is kept, who your attorney and tax preparer are, and any "call Ed about the boat" notes that only make sense in your head. If you'd like a place to keep all of that, When I Die Files lets you store the practical details for your executor next to the personal letters you want your family to read, so whoever ends up holding the folder in the parking lot has a little more in it than Marcus did.