On 8/11/2014 8:24 AM, Dave Smith wrote:
> On 2014-08-11 7:49 AM, jmcquown wrote:
>
>> There's a heck of a lot involved, that's for sure. I can't think of one
>> good reason anyone would *want* to be the executor of an estate.
>>
>>
>
> My brother has a friend who is a lawyer who ha a lot of elderly clients.
> He has written up wills for them and written himself in as executor. He
> starts off every morning checking out the obituaries. When he sees a
> client's name he locks up the house and sends in an assessor to
> calculate the value..... so he can claim his fee, which will be a
> percentage of the value of the estate.

When I worked in probate departments of some law firms, it was my job to
read the obits first thing in the AM and cross-check them against the
will file. Hearse chasing.

Processing an estate is a lot of work, especially when there are state
inheritance taxes and, not so much recently, but Federal estate taxes.
Often there are trusts to wind up which must be accounted for. Today
there are computer programs that do a lot of this, but still it's plenty
of work.
>
> For some reason, I agreed to be executor for my sister in law and her
> husband. He has said that if she goes first he won't allow the estate to
> be dealt with for at least a year. His family is totally dysfunctional.
> I will be charging a fee on that one and then pass it back to SiL.

You have a duty under the law to present the will for probate. You had
better check the state statutes.
>
> My brother was executor of my aunt's will. I had been her power of
> attorney. He was not going to collect a executor's fee on that but our
> cousin was such a pain in the ass that he ended passing the job off to
> his lawyer friend, and they both collected a fee. I don't blame him.
> She had annoyed me enough when I was PoA. No need to go into details
> about her problem, but nephews were entrusted with positions of PoA and
> executor over the only daughter.
>


--
From somewhere very deep in the heart of Texas