Representing Out of State Executors

Biggest question you should have: “Can I effectively represent my mom or dad’s Estate even though I live out of state?” The answer is ABSOLUTELY! Many of the Executors we represent at Jet Probate live in a different state than their parents. And, none of the states where Jet Probate practices precludes an Executor who lives out of state. This article will explain why this doesn’t present any barriers or limitations.

Next big question is: “Which law firm should I hire?” Let me answer this by suggesting which law firm you shouldn’t hire. The law firm that caused your parent’s Estate to have to be Probated. If the Attorney drafted a Will that ended up in Probate, then the Attorney should have recommended a Trust. If the Attorney drafted a Trust, and there is still a need for Probate, then this means that the Attorney didn’t properly help your parent “fund the Trust”. (Retitle all of the assets into the Trust). And I wouldn’t recommend hiring a law firm that has no other attorneys and only one paralegal. That is an attorney that is understaffed, and you will not have the quick response time that the Estate needs to be able to open it up quickly, administer it quickly and then shut it down.

How many times will you have to travel to Arizona or California, or the State where your parent’s died? If there isn’t a home or other real estate asset in the Estate, you probably will not have to travel at all. If there is a home, then certainly you will want to come out at least once, and in some cases twice. Rarely any more than that. And your travel expenses will be covered by the Estate as well as your time spent doing Estate tasks and completing Estate responsibilities.

What about Court appearances? In most cases, we can file for “Informal Probate” where everything is neat and clean, no disputes, etc. In those cases, no need for you to appear in Court. For a Formal Probate, there will be a Hearing, but many Counties where the Probate is filed would allow for you to appear either telephonically or via Zoom. Covid had many positive impacts on the way that Probate is practiced.

With a home, you will want to come out and secure the home, make a plan for selling the home, take an inventory of the Tangible Personal Belongings and figure out a plan for the vehicles (give it to one of the beneficiaries, sell it, or drive it back to where you live). Jet Probate can help you with all of those tasks, especially the task of getting the home properly listed with a licensed real estate agent, and in some cases presenting you with cash offers. And, if you can’t come out at all, then we can help you with these tasks virtually.

With respect to having “boots on the ground”, we can refer you to licensed Private Fiduciaries who are regulated through the Arizona Supreme Court and are licensed and bonded. And, you will be paid an appropriate hourly rate from the Estate to help supervise the activities of the Private Fiduciary. These licensed fiduciaries can help and with hourly rates that are much cheaper than having the lawyer or a paralegal do these tasks. Most Private Fiduciaries I know have hourly rates that are cheaper than our paralegal hourly rates. Don’t let the law firm charge their time to help with these tasks. Such tasks a Private Fiduciary can help with are:

1. Disposing of the tangible personal property through an Estate Sale, or having items packaged and delivered to you.
2. Help with the clean-up of the home and getting it ready for sale.
3. Making sure all of the expenses related to the home and other assets are properly paid during the administration of the Estate.
4. Help with the Accounting that will be required at the end of the Probate.
5. Selling the vehicles.
6. Getting a locksmith over to the house to change the locks.

What about determining the assets, where they are located and what are the values. There are some Estates where mom and dad had the assets properly listed in a neat tidy spreadsheet somewhere that includes account numbers, institutions and people to contact. If your dad or mom was an engineer or an accountant this is probably the case. But, for other parents, maybe they weren’t so organized and trying to figure out the assets is like putting together a “jig saw puzzle”. But you don’t have to be in Arizona or California to figure this out. We can help you have the mail redirected to your out of state residence. So, monitoring the bank statements and other mail that comes in is critical. Also, we can contact the CPA for your parent and get a copy of last year’s income tax return. Since I am also a CPA, I can read this income tax return to help figure out the banks and financial institutions where cash, stocks or bonds are held. Anything that is throwing off taxable income will be reported on that return. And, if you don’t know who the CPA was or you can’t find the income tax returns, no worries. We can contact the IRS for you and get copies of the past three years returns that were filed. Once again, hiring a law firm that is also experienced in tax law can help in Probate in a lot of different ways. (see our article about selling the home out of the Estate)

When we take you on as a client, then our job is to protect you from liability from a beneficiary who wants to second guess all of your decisions. In other words, we make sure you administer the Estate in a way that complies with all of your “fiduciary duties” of fairness, without conflicts of interest, etc. And before you distribute any money to the beneficiaries, we will make sure that you are properly “Released of all Liabilities” in carrying out your duties as the Executor. We do that by sending the beneficiaries a “Proposed Plan of Distribution” which details the timing and the amounts they will receive. We then procure from them a Release of Liability and in some cases a Waiver of Final Accounting. And, after we have you properly protected, then and only then will we let you distribute the assets to the beneficiaries.

Now, in some cases you are the sole beneficiary and the sold Executor. In that case then we can skip many of the steps outlined above. You don’t need to protect yourself from yourself. We can distribute the assets to you much quicker and without the formalities of some of the steps above.