Westchester Executor Fees

Are you curious about executor theft, dealing with an executor who steals, executor malfeasance, and the total amount of executor commissions that can be paid? New York statutory law outlines how much executor commissions can be paid out to a person who serves in the role of an executor. If a problem occurs, any of your petitions have to be filed directly with the Surrogate Court through the help of your lawyer.

A Westchester executor fees lawyer will assist you with bringing forward a petition for an accounting on a case or getting other details necessary to pursue a claim. The executor is a personal representative of a deceased individual. The executor will be named in that deceased person's will and has numerous responsibilities associated with closing out the decedent's estate.

These responsibilities include collecting unpaid salary, commission and benefits, and obligations like filing final tax returns and getting a tax payment. The executor has an additional responsibility of handling the distribution and transfer of assets once these initial requirements have been met. The probate estate includes various assets; however, some assets are left outside of probate estate for the classification of executor payments. Executor fees are based on New York State laws as outlined under New York Surrogate Court procedures section 2307.

Executor fees are based on the total value of the probated estate and these fees can range as low as 2% to as high as 5%, depending on the total amount of money included inside the estate. The testator can also determine their own individual fee and specify it in the will. If an executor is also a beneficiary of assets inside the will, typically, the executor will waive his or her fee serving as the executor.

If more than one executor is appointed by the will, fees must be divided up based on the individual roles played by each. The procedures are slightly different when a corporate executor is involved. The fee for a corporate executor could be based on a published fee schedule or a percentage or specific amount named in the will. An executor fee lawyer in Westchester will assist you with identifying whether or not malfeasance has occurred.

If you can show that the executor breached his or her fiduciary duty; meaning their legal obligation to represent the best interests of the beneficiaries in the case, this information can be used to have the executor removed. Typically, this begins by requesting a formal accounting of the estate.

An executor is responsible for complying with a formal accounting as it will used to show what happened to the assets inside the estate and how they were spent. An executor must comply with the statutory requirements associated with his or her fee payments and if this has been broken or if the executor has engaged in any other type of fraud or questionable activity, the estate accounting is likely to reveal the necessary evidence for a beneficiary to bring forward a claim. An experienced executor fee lawyer will be able to help you file paperwork if you believe that the estate fiduciary charged more than was allowed by statutory requirements.

Calculating executor fees requires the insight of an experienced attorney and a beneficiary who believes that he or she has been harmed by executor mismanagement or inappropriate charging of fees should gather evidence and consult with an experienced attorney as soon as possible about next steps and eligible rights. The sooner that you gather the support of an attorney, the easier it will be to bring forward a case.