The executor you name in your will is the person your family will rely on at one of the hardest moments of their lives. They will manage your assets, pay your debts, navigate probate, and distribute what remains. The choice matters, and most people make it without fully understanding what the role actually involves.
What an Executor Actually Does
Before choosing someone, it helps to understand what the role actually involves. Over the weeks and months following a death, an executor typically must:
- File the will with the Probate and Family Court and open the estate
- Identify, locate, and inventory all assets, bank accounts, investments, real estate, personal property, retirement accounts, life insurance
- Notify beneficiaries, creditors, and relevant government agencies
- Manage estate assets during the administration period, paying bills, maintaining property, managing investments
- File final income tax returns and, if required, estate tax returns
- Pay valid debts and creditor claims
- Resolve disputes among beneficiaries if they arise
- Distribute assets to beneficiaries according to the will's instructions
- File a final accounting with the court and close the estate
For a simple estate, this process might take six to twelve months. For a complex estate, significant assets, real property, a business, or contentious beneficiaries, it can take years. The executor is the person responsible for managing it from start to finish.
The Qualities That Matter Most
Organizational Ability
Administering an estate involves tracking deadlines, managing paperwork, filing documents, and keeping meticulous records. Someone who handles their own affairs in an organized, systematic way is far better suited than someone who struggles with administrative tasks.
Financial Literacy
The executor will deal with financial institutions, tax filings, creditor claims, and investment accounts. They don't need to be a financial expert, they can hire professionals, but they need to be comfortable enough with financial concepts to oversee the process.
Availability
Estate administration takes time. A busy executive, a person caring for young children, or someone living across the country may struggle to devote the time the role requires. Physical proximity to Massachusetts matters: under M.G.L. c. 190B §3-602, a personal representative who resides outside Massachusetts must formally appoint an in-state resident agent to accept service of process on their behalf, adding procedural steps that a local executor avoids entirely.
Emotional Stability
The executor will be grieving too, while also managing the expectations, and sometimes the demands, of other beneficiaries. The ability to remain calm, act fairly, and make clear-headed decisions under emotional pressure is essential.
Trustworthiness
The executor has access to everything, accounts, property, personal effects, financial records. They have a legal fiduciary duty to act in the estate's interest, not their own. This is a position of significant trust, and it should be held only by someone who fully warrants it.
Ability to Handle Family Dynamics
If your beneficiaries include family members with existing tensions, the executor will be in the middle of those dynamics. Someone respected and perceived as neutral by all beneficiaries is far better positioned than someone already embroiled in family conflict.
Common Choices, and Common Mistakes
The Oldest Child
Many people name their oldest child as executor by default, without much analysis. Sometimes this is the right choice. Often it isn't. Seniority within a family does not necessarily correspond to organizational ability, availability, or the temperament for the role. If appointing one sibling as executor would create resentment among others, and if the choice is based on birth order rather than ability, it's worth reconsidering.
The Financially Successful Sibling
Financial success is not the same as being good at administering an estate. A highly successful person with a demanding career may have less time available, and less patience for the administrative detail, than a sibling with a more flexible schedule. Wealth is not a proxy for executor suitability.
Everyone Equally, Co-Executors
Naming multiple co-executors is sometimes done to avoid the appearance of favoritism. In practice, it can create serious problems. Co-executors must generally act jointly, which means every decision requires agreement. If they disagree, the estate can stall. If the relationship between co-executors is already strained, the role formalizes and amplifies that tension. Unless you have specific reasons to name co-executors, or one primary and one backup, a single executor is typically cleaner.
The Beneficiary Who Also Wants the House
An executor who is also a significant beneficiary, and who has a personal financial stake in particular assets, has an inherent conflict. They may not act with the impartiality the role requires. This doesn't automatically disqualify them, the overlap is common, but it's worth being thoughtful about, particularly when other beneficiaries may scrutinize every decision.
Always ask first. Before naming someone as executor, have a direct conversation with them about the role and confirm they are willing to serve. An executor who is surprised by the appointment, or who privately doesn't want the responsibility, is not an executor who will serve your estate well. Consent matters.
Professional and Institutional Executors
For complex estates, estates with no obvious family candidate, or situations where family dynamics make a personal appointment inadvisable, a professional executor may be appropriate. Options include:
- An attorney, An estate attorney can serve as executor and handle legal and administrative tasks together. This is efficient for complex or contentious estates.
- A bank trust department or corporate trustee, Large institutions offer professional administration services, typically charge a fee based on a percentage of the estate's value, and can manage assets over long periods. This is more common for large or complex estates.
- A trusted advisor, An accountant or financial advisor who has managed the decedent's affairs for years may be a natural choice, provided they are willing to serve and have the organizational capacity for the role.
The Successor Executor
Your will should name not only an executor but a successor executor, someone who steps in if your first choice is unable or unwilling to serve when the time comes. People predecease their testators, become incapacitated, move away, or simply decide they cannot take on the responsibility. Without a named successor, the court appoints one. Name a backup and update it over time.
When to Revisit Your Choice
Your executor choice should be reviewed any time circumstances change significantly, when the named executor moves out of state, when their own health changes, when family dynamics shift, or when significant time has passed and you are no longer certain your original choice reflects your current wishes. A will is not a one-time exercise; it is a living document that should be reviewed periodically.
If you have questions about choosing an executor or reviewing your estate plan, contact Brigantine Law. We guide North Shore families through these decisions regularly and are happy to help you think through the right choice for your situation.
The best executor is not necessarily the person closest to you. It is the person who can handle complexity, communicate clearly, and act without being paralyzed by grief.