Asked to be an executor? Read this first

I know that many readers of this blog are executors of estates looking for information or ideas about how to handle various aspects of that role. I also meet many executors at our Executor Boot Camps, and of course a good proportion of my own clients are executors as well. I hear a lot of feedback from people about how they are managing the work, the time, and the stress. They are finding out that the job of executor is often much more difficult than people realized when they agreed to do it.

Because I know it can be a thankless job to act as an executor, I'm suggesting that future executors - and those who plan to make wills appointing family members as executors - take a look at an article I found on bnnbloomberg.ca called Asked to be an Executor? Read this first. Click this link to see the article, which I am sure will give you food for thought.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you that the article is sponsored on that site by a trust company, which will act as a professional executor for clients. They have a vested interest in testators choosing professional executors instead of family members. But that doesn't invalidate any of the information or advice given in the article. I often wish that more individuals would consider using trust companies, if for no other reason than to prevent the devastating personal clashes that sometimes result when a family member acts as executor.