Don’t Lose Sight Of These Estate Expenses

Beware of these not-so-obvious expenses associated with executing a will.

Choosing an executor of your estate involves great thought and a lot of planning. After all, their responsibility to settle your estate is not an easy task. In addition to the big task at hand, do not lose sight of the hidden costs to settling an estate, too.

A recent article in Daily Finance titled “The Hidden Costs of Settling an Estate” provides an overview of many of these hidden costs.

When it comes to costs associated with estate administration, many are foreseeable. For example, these include court fees to open the probate, publication costs to give notice to creditors, as well as legal and accounting fees. On the other hand, some hidden costs have to do with everything around the edges.

One common hidden cost concerns disposition of tangible personal property. The executor is duty bound to deliver each item safely to its named beneficiary. What happens when the named beneficiary is in Anchorage, but the fine china or gold bullion and executor are all in Miami? Ensuring safe delivery is neither easy nor cheap, but less so than from Paris, Texas to Paris, France. To make matters worse, getting something from Paris to Paris might take a translated legal document or three, with proper apostilles and the works, simply to appease the court.

Yes, hidden costs can mount up as fast as the questions triggering them. Is property scattered in each of these locations? Are the beneficiaries scattered, as well? Are the beneficiaries all adults? Are the (potentially priceless) items in need of cleaning? Are they in need of appraisal? Does the estate already have an itemization of assets, or will the executor have to do some digging or even walk around the house with a clipboard and pen?

The point is this: when it comes to administering an estate, there are many details to mind and each has a terrible tendency to become the executor’s problem. It is hard to plan for everything, but that does not mean you cannot try. When planning your own estate, do not forget to pay heed to the details.

Reference: Daily Finance (February 23, 2014) “The Hidden Costs of Settling an Estate”