I AM BEING NAMED EXECUTOR FOR MY PARENT! HELP!
Your parent asked if you would be the executor of their Will. Your initial reaction is “I would be honoured!” but then you start to wonder what you are supposed to do and how much work this will involve.
This article will talk about some suggested “pre-planning” while your parent is alive to help make the task easier.
In Alberta, the term “personal representative” is used for “executor”. As people most commonly know the term “executor,” it will be used here instead.
As executor, you are required to act honestly and in good faith, in accordance with your parent’s intentions and what they have indicated in their Will, and use the same level of “care, diligence and skill” required of a person entrusted with the property of another.
As you are required to act as your parent intended, even before your parent passes, find out what your parent would want you to do when they pass; have them elaborate their intentions in more detail than in their Will and in addition to their Will. It can be a difficult but important conversation.
Find out where the Will can be found. Often it is at a lawyer’s office or it may be in safekeeping somewhere else. You will need the original Will and generally you will not have this, or even copies of it. Lawyers often advise that neither the Will nor copies should be given to family because if bequests are changed, it is best that family not know the fine details of the Will so no one is unhappy if those change.
As executor, one first responsibility is to arrange the funeral. If the funeral is not pre-arranged, that is the executor’s responsibility. While usually the Will contains only brief wishes, most family want to know what their parent wants in more detail, so it is important to determine this. Find a way to talk to your parent before they pass and ask what they would want.
As executor you need to determine the assets and debts that your parent has. Your role as executor requires you to know this. Have your parent keep an up-to-date list of their assets, where the assets are located (if not obvious), and where this list can be found. Find out passwords or how the passwords can be found. Determine expenses that need to be paid regularly and those automatically deducted from their bank account.
A Power of Attorney is valid only while your parent is alive so you need to have a plan to pay expenses after they pass. In many cases, you cannot access their funds until you have probate. However, contact their bank and it will usually pay necessary expenses directly from your parent’s account until you have probate.
This little bit of “pre-planning” can really help. While this is just a start, it can be an important start to ease into and assist in your role as executor.
Sylvia Carruthers
