by Benjamin Berkley
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Product Description
A step-by-step guide to settling a loved one's estate.
Being an executor or personal representative is no easy task. For many, the job comes at a time of high emotion and is something that has never been done before. The Complete Executor's Guidebook is here to help ease this troubling time and make this overwhelming task manageable.
It gives you everything you need to navigate through all the paperwork and responsibility that comes with this role. It takes you step-by-step though all of the legal and financial matters that must be completed and provides you with a plan to timely settle an estate. With it you will feel confident that you are doing everything you need to do, such as:
- Preparing for your role as an executor or trustee
- Making claims for insurance, social security and other benefits
- Understanding the will or trust provisions
- Handling situations when documents are missing
- Going to court
- Dealing with taxes
- Finding your state's laws
- Working with lawyers, accountants, insurance agents and others
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Average Customer Review:
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
By reading this book an executor will definitely be an educated consumer when consulting with an estate attorney!, 2008-04-30
I liked this book. It is one of the better books available to help an estate administrator better understand her job as Executor, Successor Trustee, or both. The book is split into four sections and 21 chapters and includes five appendices:
§1. Preplanning and transition (1-7)
§2. Estate administration (8-21)
§3. Appendix (A-G)
§4. Glossary of Terms
0. Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
1. Plain English definitions: Wills, Probate, Trusts
2. Making sure the shoe fits to be the Executor
3. Preplanning: A conversation with your loved one
4. When death is imminent
5. At the time of passing: Your first steps
6. At the time of passing: Managing the surviviors
7. At the time of passing: Notification and getting organized
8. Locating, organizing, itemizing, and categorizing the assets and liabilities of an estate
9. Navigating the sea of probate
10. Formal probate: The next steps
11. When there is no Will (laws of intestate succession)
12. Interpretting and enforcing the language of the Will
13. When a formal probate is not required
14. Managing the assets and liabilities of an estate
15. Obtaining benefits for the estate (life ins, SS, retirement, etc.)
16. Personal and estate taxes
17. Your right to compensation
18. Your role as an advisor
19. Revocable trusts and trust management
20. Do I need an attorney?
21. Words of thanks
A. Representative's Checklist
B. Notification - List of contacts to notify upon decedent's passing
C. State-by-state summary of probate laws
D. Unclaimed property
E. Sample forms: Final Accounting Report, and Order on Accounting
F. Blank forms: 5 included. (#4) Accounts & Debts Organizer, (#5) Personal Data & Record Locator
G. Resources
Probate laws vary from state to state. I especially liked the information provided in Appendix C regarding state-by-state summary of probate law. And it was nice to see the author reference two relevant IRS publications: Publication 559 and Publication 950. But Chapter 16 regarding taxes was too short for my liking.
At page 115 there is a great overview of an Executor's responsibilities. Why wasn't it moved to the front of the book? I would have liked it better there. And I would have liked to see some talk of self-proving wills and disclaimers. But none was to be found. And at pages 8 and 205 there is some mention of "fiduciary." But this is such an important concept with regard to executors that I felt it should have been fully defined and explained. Does an executor work for the estate or the beneficiaries under the Will? Does the executor owe a duty to the estate? Does he owe a duty to the beneficiaries under the Will?
In a way I found this book sloppily written. The outine of chapters could most certainly be redone so the material would flow better and be easier for the reader to understand. For example, chapters 2, 20, 17 and 18 all relate to the executor. Why weren't they grouped together? Chapters 9, 10, and 13 all deal with probate. Why weren't they kept together. And I found the inclusion of "Practical Points" and "Legally Speaking" to be a lazy way for the author to add points in the chapters.
At page 182 in the book there is a discussion of a Gross Estate adding to $2,448,000. This was just wrong! And at another place in the book there is talk of life insurance proceeds being subject to federal estate tax. Sometimes it is true, but sometimes it is not. And an uneducated reader would get misinformation by just listening to the author. At page 116 there is list of five steps. In my humble opinion Step 4 would come before Step 3. These are just a few examples of little problems I had with the book.
The author says he has been an estate attorney for 29 years. After that many years of practicing this kind of law he really must know what he is talking about. As I read the book I had to think that someone ghost wrote this book for the author because of the sloppy way it was written. I doubt the real writer has many years of experience in this field. It just doesn't come across that way to me. I also got the feeling the author is not particularly knowledgeable about the tax aspects of estate administration.
But this book is not a substitute for legal representation. It does what it is intended to do - and that is provide a basic overview of what an executor needs to know in order to do his or her job in administering an estate. By reading this book an executor will definitely be an educated consumer when consulting with an estate attorney who can help guide them through the process of settling a loved one's estate. 4 stars!
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