E342 Thank You to Our Listeners!
Anthony S. Park
Based on feedback from you, the audience, we're pausing these episodes and will focus on writing instead: Our blog: Our books on Reviews always appreciated! Thank you for sharing all your amazing questions and stories, and thank you for listening!
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E341 How Long to Transfer Real Estate After Death
Anthony S. Park
There is no legal time limit to transfer real estate after death. It could happen quickly, or it could take years. We’ve seen cases where the real estate doesn’t get transferred until generations later. A fast sale is ideal, because problems can emerge in the meantime. There is a lag between the date of death and when the executor gets legal authority to handle the property. So, even “fast” isn’t very fast. How long does it take to get preliminary letters? The executor does not have full authority over the estate until he gets letters testamentary (or letters of administration) from...
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E340 Reasons Not to Make a Loved One the Executor
Anthony S. Park
We’ve talked before about not making a loved one your executor. I recently read an article titled, “.” Here, we’ll add our own perspective for why it’s not a great idea. Being executor can be emotionally difficult It is a duty that begins almost immediately after the death of your loved one. You are grieving the loss while facing a list of daunting tasks. Even normal probate is a lot of work and can be tough while grieving. In a somewhat difficult probate, you . If you are also family and friends with these people, it can be awkward. They will continually ask you when they will...
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E339 Why Sharing Your Seed Phrase is a Bad Bitcoin Inheritance Plan
Anthony S. Park
In this episode, we will talk about self-custodied bitcoiners (not those who have their coin on an exchange or with a third party). Some bitcoiners share their seed phrase with their spouse or adult children. Or perhaps they share their cloned wallet with those trusted individuals. It’s temptingly easy, essentially . But, as we’ll discuss, it can be insecure for reasons you may not think of. Sharing your seed phrase can be dangerously . Relationships change One reason that this plan is not flexible is because relationships change. Married couples can become divorced or...
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E338 Should I Sell My Home Before I Die?
Anthony S. Park
This is a very common question that we get from Solo Agers. We’ll review the pros and cons of making that decision. Reasons to sell your home before you die The biggest reason Solo Agers want to sell their home before they die is because they don’t want to leave a mess for their loved ones. Otherwise, there may be a lot of cleaning, maintenance, and packing for the heirs to do. Additionally, the before it is in sellable condition. Another reason is that Solo Agers may want to downsize anyway. Downsizing is a different topic, so we won’t focus on that here. Reasons to...
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E337 Who Owns a House During Probate?
Anthony S. Park
When someone dies, many folks are confused about who owns the house during probate, right after the death. Technically, the heirs own it immediately upon death, subject to debts and taxes of the estate. But, sometimes is not clear who the heirs are. The probate process decides who exactly are the heirs and places an executor in charge to sort out all those debts and taxes. So, the heirs own the house, but if it is not clear who the heirs are, then you kind of need to wait to see who really owns it. Understandably, this is a bit confusing. We’ll cover common questions on who owns the property...
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E336 Risks of Being an Executor
Anthony S. Park
What are the risks of being an executor? An executor has a lot of power and responsibility during probate, but is correspondingly accountable for everything that happens within the estate. We’ll cover how an executor has risk of even personal liability, how long that risk lasts, and how an executor can protect himself from these risks. Executor personally liable for debts and taxes The executor has personal liability for debts, taxes, and anything wrong with the estate. If an executor makes an error, the court’s first reaction is to deny payment of the executor's commission. If the...
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E335 Why a Letter of Instruction for Bitcoin Inheritance Will Fail
Anthony S. Park
A letter of instruction will likely fail for your bitcoin inheritance plan and should have only a marginal role in your plan, if any. Search for “bitcoin inheritance” and you will probably find lots of people advising you to write a letter of instruction for your heirs. We talked about this and even provided a . Now, having spent a bit more time delving into different approaches to bitcoin inheritance, we’re de-emphasizing a letter of instruction. Note: this applies to self-custodied bitcoin, not held through a third-party. Educate your heirs A letter of instruction is a subcategory the...
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E334 Why Hire a Professional Trustee?
Anthony S. Park
I do serve as a professional trustee, not just executor, or our Solo Ager clients. We’ll cover why our Solo Ager clients are looking for a professional trustee, why they don’t use banks, and how much it costs to hire a professional trustee. Disputes between trustee and beneficiary Why are our Solo Ager clients looking for a professional trustee? The main reason is because of potential disputes between the trustee and the beneficiaries. Unfortunately, this kind of conflict is very common, even more so than between heirs and executors. A trust creates a much longer relationship: an estate...
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E333 Seller Credit When Selling Probate Real Estate
Anthony S. Park
This happens when the buyer agrees to a higher contract price, but the seller also agrees to credit back a set amount to the buyer, so the net purchase price is lower. For example, if the buyer wants the house for $250,000, they would set the contract price at $300,000 with a side agreement that the seller would credit $50,000 on the closing statement, effectively making the price $250,000. Why not just a price reduction? Co-ops (and sometimes condos and homeowners’ associations) want the closing price to be (artificially) higher to maintain their average price per square foot. They don’t...
info_outlineCould you imagine doing a ton of work and not getting paid? It’s frustrating, but it happens. One of the drawbacks of nonprofessional executors is they are more likely to lose their executor fee, despite doing months, even years, of work for the estate.
In this podcast, we are going to discuss a few real-world instances where this happened. We want to help you see that this can happen and that you don’t want to take on the executor role expecting a nice piece of change for your hard work. It sounds like a decent payday, but as we’ve discussed before, the ratio of hours worked to amount paid is not equal, and you may not even get a penny.
Family changed their minds, denied his executor fee
In this case, “Joey’s” aunt passed away and the aunt was survived by siblings. Joey was not even an heir and didn’t even live in New York, but he was younger and financially savvy. He was in a position to defer his job offer to focus on being an executor. Of course, his family “graciously” agreed to have him serve as executor.
So, Joey moved from California to New York and deferred a legitimate job offer. He put in three years of hard work administering the complex estate. In the end, his uncles objected to Joey getting paid. Literally at the very end, right as disbursement checks were being written out. Yes, he did have the right to fight for this executor commission, but it would put the family at odds with each other. So, for the sake of preserving family harmony, Joey didn’t fight. He walked away.
For those that think this would never happen to them or to their families, we hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it happens often, unfortunately. Family drama can happen when you’re dealing with emotions and money.
Contested will, contested executor commission
In this second situation, “Linda” was named as executor in her aunt’s will. Some family members contested the will, and after a lengthy and expensive litigation, the family settled on a revised breakdown of their inheritance. Side note – this was a good case where the decedent should have made a better plan to omit them.
During all this time, Linda, as the executor, was doing all the grunt work for over a year to vacate, repair, and sell her aunt’s dilapidated house. She also had to deal with the very stressful process of evicting bad tenants.
She did a great job.
Again, at the very end, right as checks were about to be sent out in accordance with the negotiated settlement agreement, the contesting family objected to Linda getting an executor commission. So, the family litigated that too, and Linda unhappily eventually settled on a reduced commission because the legal fees would’ve kept adding up to keep fighting. We watched her work so hard to eventually get less than deserved. Could you imagine working your normal full-time job to then get notice of a large reduction at the end of the year?
Court denied her executor compensation
“Kristy’s” good friend named her executor because Kristy happened to be a lawyer (though not a probate lawyer). Her friend made a DIY will.
Only when her friend passed and Kristy began probate did she learn that since she’s a lawyer (even though she wasn’t a probate lawyer and wasn’t acting as a lawyer for her good friend), the will needed certain additional paperwork and affidavits. In the absence of this paperwork and affidavits, the Court cut Kristy’s executor compensation in half!
Kristy spent multiple stressful years dealing with her friend’s estranged yet demanding heirs, banking issues, and other complications. In Kristy’s own words, she said that being an executor was “not worth it,” and she was a little embittered to her friend for putting her in such stressful role.
These are a few reasons that we talk about professional executors. If using a professional executor, family dynamics wouldn’t be a factor and there would be less of a debate by the family regarding the executor receiving their fee.
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To learn more about hiring a professional executor, so this doesn’t happen to a friend or family member, check out my book, “How to Hire an Executor,” available on Amazon!
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