Guidelines for Choosing an Executor

Video Transcript

"Guidelines for choosing an executor, very broad. The first thing you want to do is you want to choose somebody who's smart. It will be a lot of work. Being selected as an executor I think in some respects people think is a great honor. Oh, I've been chosen as executor, Mom and Dad must have loved me more than they loved you. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if the parents who selected that child as their executor didn't really hate that kid more than the others, because they're giving them so much work to do. Being an executor can be a pain. It can be a pain in the neck from the first time it starts all the way through, years later. Years later when the estate is finally settled. So select an executor, pick somebody who's smart. Pick somebody typically preferably who knows the family. Pick somebody typically or preferably that has assets. Why am I saying that, because the executor may mess this thing up. If the executor messes this thing up and the heirs of the other beneficiaries of this estate get harmed financially, the executor loses money, the executor misspends money, the executor kind of blows it. Then the family has some, some recourse because they can sue the person who's been selected as an executor and recover money from that individual or that company that's been selected as an executor for the money that the executor misspent, mis invested, lost, what have you. Selecting an executor is also important to make sure their the best interest of the beneficiaries in mind. Ideally it's somebody who knows the family, knows the quirks of the family, knows the strengths of the family, knows whose who, who makes decisions and how to deal with them. But ideally, finally, that he'd be somebody that know something about money. Being intelligent is a nice quality, and it's the first one I gave, but it's knowing something about money, being comfortable working with a CPA, being comfortable working with an attorney, comfortable working with a financial adviser. That may be the most important quality of all."