What can a lawyer charge to help you with an estate?

If you hire a lawyer to look after an estate, what will it cost? It may be more complicated and possibly more expensive than you realize. The following is a note I received from a reader who is dealing with that very issue.

"I'm looking for some advice regarding legal fees in relation to the administration of my late Aunt's estate in BC. The value of the estate was just over $207,000, with the highest proportion of this sum related to the sale of her apartment. She did not leave a will and therefore died intestate with all the benefactors (including me) residing outside of Canada. While I understand that completing the administration of her affairs in such circumstances presented a number of difficulties than would otherwise be the case, I consider the fees charged by the legal firm appointed to resolve matters, which amounted to $42,000 as grossly excessive. Can you advise me of the approved formula or mechanism for calculating fees relating to estate administration?"

 

There are a few factors in play here that need to be explored. First, it's important to understand what, exactly, is included in that $42,000. And as that amounts to about 20% of the estate, I can see why you're asking.

 

There is a difference between legal fees and estate administration fees. In your case, it appears that you've had the lawyer doing both. I'll talk about this more in a moment. In addition to fees, the bill for the estate likely also includes disbursements. This refers to anything that is paid out-of-pocket by the lawyer on behalf of the estate, such as probate fees, any of your aunt's unpaid bills, taxes, accountant's fees, funeral bill and so on. This money doesn't go to the lawyer; it comes out of the estate and is paid to a third party. Your aunt's estate was administered in BC, which is one of the most expensive jurisdictions in terms of probate fees.

 

The lawyer may also have charged for disbursements in his/her own office, such as for faxes or long distance charges. In any estate where the beneficiaries all live in another country, disbursements are going to be higher.

 

And of course there is tax on all of that. Canada has goods and services tax (GST) that is charged everywhere, and in all provinces but one has a provincial sales tax added to it (together they are the HST).

 

So once you separate out the disbursements and the taxes, all of which should be carefully itemized on the lawyer's statement of account, you can see how much was actually charged in fees.

 

Now here is the kicker. There is no "approved formula or mechanism for calculating fees for estate administration" here. And even if there was, you've asked the lawyer to do much more than a simple estate administration. I can give you a few guidelines though, that you can use to judge the bill you've received.

 

Normally a lawyer will charge about 1.5% of an estate simply to obtain the probate document, or as in your case, the Letters of Administration. The actual fee is not laid down in a law. Lawyers may charge more. Whoever actually hired the lawyer should have received a quote before the lawyer started work. Quotes from lawyers may include a "job" price for a piece of work such as obtaining probate, but they may not. Most lawyers will tell you their hourly rate up front even though it's impossible to tell at the beginning how many hours the work is going to take.

 

In addition to those fees, the lawyer may charge for doing the work that an executor would normally do. While an executor normally may receive up to 5% of an estate, and more if there are complications, an executor may hire experts (such as lawyers) at the expert's normal hourly rate.

 

In addition to that, the lawyer may charge additional legal fees for additional legal work. Specifically, the selling of an apartment is not considered part of the executor's fee because the executor would have hired a lawyer and paid him/her a fee to do it. You should expect a couple of thousand dollars in fees and several disbursements for this transaction alone.

 

I hope this information helps you to understand the lawyer's bill and understand what exactly the lawyer was paid to do. If you feel that the bill is still unreasonably high, you can take steps to have it changed. Believe it or not, you can ask the lawyer to adjust the bill voluntarily. If he/she won't do that, you have the option of going through a process called taxation of account. This involves the client and the lawyer meeting with an officer of the court whose job it is to decide whether lawyers' bills are fair. Whether this would work for you when none of you is local is another matter.

 

I can see why in this case your family hired a lawyer for help. None of you lives in Canada and someone had to deal with the estate. Hiring a lawyer is definitely a good way of getting things done properly, but it's not necessarily the cheapest. There probably isn't a lot you could have done to keep the bill lower. For example, you couldn't have cleaned out the apartment yourself or taken meetings at the bank.  Somebody who lives near to the deceased could have done a lot more to control costs.

 

Another option would have been to hire a trust company, who would have done the same work for a flat fee of less than 5% of the estate (plus disbursements and tax of course).

 

Anyone hiring a lawyer to help with an estate must have a frank discussion about fees, disbursements and taxes. Don't be afraid to ask what you can do to keep a lid on the costs. Get your estimate in writing before the lawyer starts working on the estate. Another good idea is to ask for a monthly statement of fees so that you can see what is happening at each step, and what each of those steps costs.

 

 

Why does a beneficiary not receive money until ALL have signed Releases?

When an executor is ready to distribute an estate, she will send out an accounting to the beneficiaries that tells them what has happened with the estate so far, and let them know exactly what each of them will receive. If the beneficiaries agree with the accounting, they will sign their Releases. Once all of the Releases have been signed, the cheques are sent out.

One part of this process causes problems for both executors and beneficiaries. That's the part about waiting for ALL Releases to be signed before anyone gets their inheritance. This reader wrote to me to ask why she has to wait for other beneficiaries to sign their Releases. I thought the question and the answer would be useful to many of you, so here it is:

"The executor we are dealing with says that we have to wait for the 3rd person ( The estate was divided between 3 people) to sign off before she can give us our part of the money. The tax clearance certificate has been dealt with. But for some reason the executor keeps saying that we need to wait for that 3rd person to sign off on the papers. And the problem with this is that the 3rd person is apparently in Europe and they cannot get ahold of her which is completely delaying the process of me receiving the money. I was wondering if she was allowed to do this ? I dont understand why I need to wait for another person to sign off on their money for me to get mine."

In this case, the executor is following the right procedure.

All beneficiaries must agree to a certain distribution before the distribution can be made. The beneficiaries aren't just signing off on their own money; they are approving of all that the executor has done so far, and agreeing to the payout the executor is proposing for everyone.

Let's look at it this way. Say the estate was $30,000. The executor  divides the estate three ways so that each beneficiary is going to get $10,000. Two of the beneficiaries agree, so she sends them $10,000 each. There is $10,000 left.

The third person, however, doesn't agree. The third person challenges the executor's accounting and refuses to sign the Release, so the executor has no choice but to apply to the court to pass her accounts. The court and legal fees add up to $5,000. The executor now has to divide an estate of $25,000 rather than $30,000 among the three people. That means each would get $8,300. She has overpaid the first two beneficiaries and now only has $5,000 to pay the third one. The balance of $3,300 would have to come out of the executor's personal pocket.

Until the third beneficiary signs the Release, the executor doesn't know whether there is going to be a costly dispute, so she is right to wait to send out the money. It's too bad that the person is unreachable at present, but every estate has at least one wrinkle to deal with.

The Clearance Certificate that you mentioned is issued by Canada Revenue Agency to certify that the estate does not owe any more tax. It should be reassuring to the beneficiaries that this has issued, as it will give them information that they need when considering signing the Release.

It sounds to me as if this executor is taking her time and completing one step at a time. It sounds as if the right steps are being followed. This can be frustrating for a beneficiary as sometimes it seems as if you are waiting an awfully long time, but that can easily happen when you don't see what's going on behind the scenes. I don't see anything wrong in the executor's actions based on what you've told me.

I disagree with the executor's accounting - now what?

I hear a lot of questions from both executors and beneficiaries about the process of reviewing an executor's accounts and signing a Release. I recently received the following letter from a reader, which echoes what many others of you have asked:
"Can you tell me what happens if all heirs do not agree with the statement of accounts? Who looks at that and would the person(s) be contacted regarding why they do not agree with a statment of accounts? I disagreed with the stmt of accounts over a year ago and nothing has happened with the will since. The executor is not co-operative."

The beneficiaries of an estate are given the statement of accounts along with a Release. If all looks fine with the accounts, the beneficiaries sign the Releases and return them to the executor. Once all Releases have been received, the executor pays out the distribution that was outlined in the statement of accounts. The purpose of all of this is to get the beneficiaries to state that they approve of what the executor has done with the estate so far. This indemnifies the executor.

You asked who looks at the fact that a beneficiary doesn't agree with the accounting. This would be the executor. If the executor is using a lawyer to help with the estate, no doubt the executor would consult with the lawyer as to what to do next.

If the executor is trying to do the estate without the help of a lawyer and prepared the accounts without help from a lawyer or accountant, he or she may have no idea what to do now that a beneficiary has disagreed with the accounting. The next logical step from a legal point of view is for the executor to apply to the court to have the accounts passed by the court, but I would hope that before spending the time and money to do that, the executor would try to find out what the problem is, and rectify it.

Beneficiaries have the right to ask for more information on an accounting if something is unclear, or to ask about items that appear to have been omitted. And if the whole thing just seems out of whack, the beneficiary has the right to refuse to sign the Release.

Unfortunately, our system is based on the premise that an executor will want to take care of the estate properly and will make every effort to move the estate along as best he can. As it happens, plenty of executors don't really care if the estate drags on for years, as they aren't the ones waiting for an inheritance. Therefore, even if the executor is aware of the next steps, he or she may not wish to proceed without prodding.

You need to write a letter. If the accounting was sent to you by a lawyer, write to the lawyer, otherwise write directly to the executor. State your objections to the accounting, giving facts or figures if at all possible. Saying something like "I just don't like what you did"  or "I think you're hiding something" isn't useful and won't bring anything to a conclusion. You should be able to specifically refer to an item or a figure, and state, for example, "Mom's house was listed for $450,000 but the accounting only shows $325,000 going into the bank. What happened to the rest?"

Your responsibility to the procedure is to police the executor's actions, but keep in mind that the executor is human and can make mistakes. Give him or her the chance to explain the numbers in the accounting. Realize that most of us have never provided an accounting for anything in our lives and perhaps aren't that good at it, so your detailed questions should allow the executor to understand what is required. Don't nit-pick for the sake of nit-picking, and try to stick to real issues.

Refer to the fact that the accounting was provided a year ago, and that you want the matter cleared up.

If you receive satisfactory answers to your questions, you should sign the Release and return it to the executor. As you've said that the executor isn't co-operative, I don't expect this to happen, but perhaps after a year he or she is more motivated to wrap it up. Don't sit and wait any longer; there is a common law concept of the executor's year that says an estate without legal complications should be wrapped up in a year, and obviously the executor has exceeded that.

If the executor simply won't move on it, you will likely have to hire a lawyer to help you resolve it or push it through court. Perhaps the other beneficiaries would pool their resources with you since everyone would stand to benefit.

Passing accounts - what's worth objecting to?

Our friends at http://www.allaboutestates.ca/ have posted a really interesting entry summarizing two recent Ontario cases. Each of the cases dealt with estates in which beneficiaries objected to the executor's accounting. Because of the objections, the accounts were heard in court.

In these cases, the judge felt that the objections raised by the beneficiaries were book-keeping errors or small issues. In one case, the objections raised by the beneficiary were not really about the accounting; they were simply expressions of unhappiness with how the estate had been administered. The important thing, the judge said, is that all of the money was accounted for and it was possible to resolve the small issues in other ways (such as adjusting the executor's fee) without forcing the executor to pass accounts in court.

The beneficiaries had costs awarded against them.

The lesson to be learned from these cases is that the courts want executors and beneficiaries to work out small issues and errors in an accounting. The court should only be called on to deal with more serious issues. Click here to read the article.

What happens to a power of attorney when the person giving it dies?

A person who signs a power of attorney document giving authority to someone else is called a donor. The donor uses the power of attorney to name someone to make decisions when the donor is no longer able to do that for himself of herself.

The power of attorney document is only in effect while the donor is alive. As soon as the donor dies, the power of attorney is revoked. The person named as executor under the donor's will takes over as being the person in charge. If there is no will, the power of attorney still comes to a stop, even if it means that there isn't anyone in charge until the court appoints an administrator.

A person looking after a donor's money or property is obligated to account to the donor's executor if the donor dies. This means that the person acting under the power of attorney has to give a full accounting of all the financial steps he or she took with the donor's money. This is why someone acting under a power of attorney should not only keep detailed financial records, but should also keep copies of receipts, cancelled cheques and other paperwork that backs up his recollection.

If a person acting under the power of attorney was negligent or fraudulent, this is often discovered at the time the accounting must be produced (a power of attorney who steadfastly refuses to account for his actions is a red flag).

What if a beneficiary won't sign the Release?

An executor emailed me recently, asking what to do if a beneficiary won't sign the Release. I don't know the facts of the case, but this appears to refer to the Release document that is given to the beneficiary for signing at the end of an estate, accompanied by financial documents that explain what the executor has done with estate assets and liabilities and how he intends to distribute the estate. If the beneficiary signs the Release, it means that he or she approves of the financial accounting provided and will not be able to come back against the executor in the future about anything covered by the accounting.

When one beneficiary doesn't sign his or her Release, it means that  none of the beneficiaries can receive their inheritance.

If a beneficiary were to refuse to sign the Release, I would want to know why. Is there an objection to the contents of the financial documents? Is something missing? Does the beneficiary understand that he or she won't get any money until the accounting is approved (either by the beneficiaries or by the court)? Does the beneficiary object to the compensation the executor is requesting?

If you can find out where the objection lies, you can most likely address it. In many cases, a refusal like this is actually a request for more information. For example, say a beneficiary wants to know why the house sold for $450,000, but only $420,000 shows in the bank account. The executor could show the calculation that showed how much of the $450,000 was spent on realtor's commission, legal fees and payment of taxes. The executor could show the cancelled cheques for those expenditures. Perhaps the executor didn't do a very good job of setting out the numbers, or backing them up with receipts or statements.

Many executors who are acting without lawyers or accountants tend to give an "accounting" that is little more than the current bank balance, without explanation of what happened to investments, RRSPs, the deceased's car, etc. If that's what the executor is presenting, he or she shouldn't be surprised at the beneficiary not signing the Release. I wouldn't sign it either.

If the beneficiary is objecting to the amount of compensation that the executor is requesting, the executor might provide a breakdown of how he or she arrived at that number. The breakdown might include the number of hours the executor put in, the number of kilometres driven, or a list of all of the tasks that the executor had to take care of (this is one reason why executors are always advised to keep a diary or journal of all of their actions on behalf of an estate).

If the issue is compensation and a more detailed accounting isn't persuasive, the executor and the beneficiary may negotiate a different amount that satisfies both of them. If that doesn't work, the executor will have to ask the courts to set the compensation by court order. This takes longer and the beneficiaries get even less because the executor's lawyer is paid from the estate, but at least the issue can be resolved.

It's unusual for a beneficiary to simply dig in his or her heels and refuse to sign the Release without giving a reason or stating an objection, but it can happen. In the end, the executor will give up on asking for information that isn't forthcoming, and will ask a judge to approve the accounting.

Court declined to approve executor's accounting

On this blog we talk quite a bit about what an executor should and shouldn't do when acting on behalf of an estate. This story is about what not to do. It involves an executor who included a charge for $96,000 in accounting fees. The judge refused to approve the accounts. The judge in this case is giving the executor a chance to give some evidence backing up that fee, which the judge thought was way out of line. It remains to be seen what the judge will decide to do in the end. Click here to read this story about the case, called Re Hall Estate, from the blog of BC lawyer Stan Rule.

Why do residuary beneficiaries sign a release?

When the executor of an estate has finished cashing in assets and paying bills, has filed the tax returns and is ready to pay the beneficiaries, he or she will send the residuary beneficiaries a set of financial statements. Along with the statements will be a Release. If the executor is doing things properly, no residuary beneficiaries get their money until all of them have signed and returned the Release to the executor.

So what is the legal effect of that Release? What is the beneficiary really doing by signing it?

The financial statements that come with the Release are intended to give a full, accurate picture of all of the financial transactions the executor has done on behalf of the estate. The beneficiary should be able to tell from the statements what happened with every asset of the estate (e.g. the deceased's home was sold for $x and the money was put into the executor's account). The statements should show what was spent on the funeral, legal fees, accounting fees and other expenses. The beneficiary is entitled to ask for more detail if he or she believes that to be necessary.

By signing the Release, the beneficiary is approving of the financial statements and all that they contain. Releases will often refer to a time period, usually beginning on the date of death and continuing up until the day the Release was sent to the beneficiary. In those cases, the beneficiary is approving of everything the executor did during that time period. Sometimes in more complicated estates there will be more than one set of financials, perhaps with the second set a year or so after the first, but in most estates there is only one.

By signing the Release, the beneficiary is saying that he or she is satisfied with everything the executor has done. He or she is agreeing in writing that everything is fine. The beneficiary can not later come back and find fault with the accounting, for example by saying that money is missing or that the house was sold for too little. The beneficiary is signing off on it and can't later change his or her mind.

This protects the executor from anyone coming back later and beginning a legal battle over something in the estate. Beneficiaries also benefit from it because the executor, who wants the Release to be signed, will usually provide a thorough accounting that answers all of the beneficiaries' questions.

A beneficiary does have the right to have the accounting looked at by an accountant or a lawyer before signing the Release, though most do not. Every case is different and the beneficiary should take his or her time to read the accounting thoroughly before signing the Release and returning it to the executor.

What goes into an executor's accounting?

Many times in this blog I've mentioned that the executor accounts to the residuary beneficiaries of an estate. No doubt you have heard this mentioned elsewhere as well. If you're an executor, do you know how to prepare an accounting? If you're a beneficiary, do you know what to look for in the executor's accounts?

In this post, I'm going to talk about the basics of preparing an executor's accounting. You are most likely to see an accounting at the time that the executor is ready to distribute the estate to the beneficiaries. That means that the funeral, the bills and the taxes have all been paid, and the money left over is going to be split among the beneficiaries in accordance with the Will. The executor prepares his/her accounting, gives it to the beneficiaries, and the beneficiaries are asked to approve the accounts.

Getting the approval of the beneficiaries means that the executor is released from all personal liability for everything he/she has done. Obviously the beneficiaries are going to check everything over pretty carefully before agreeing. This post should be useful both to an executor trying to prepare accounts, and the beneficiary trying to decipher accounts.

The basic idea behind the executor's accounting is to describe what has happened with each of the assets in the estate and subtract all of the bills and liabilities that were paid out, to arrive at the present value of the estate. Here are the elements of the accounting:

1. The inventory of the estate that was included in the application for probate. This is the starting point, as the executor is not responsible for anything that happened while the deceased was alive.

2. A Statement of receipts and disbursements. This can be either a handwritten ledger or a computer-generated statement. It shows all money that came into the estate and everything that was paid out, listed item by item, by date. Many clients find it useful to think of this statement as similar to a bank statement for the executor's bank account. Every asset that was sold - house, car, antiques, cottage - shows as money coming in. Every account or investment that is cashed in also shows as money coming in. Every bill or expense that was paid out show as outgoing money.

3. Reconciliation. Start with the value of the estate as shown on the inventory, add all incoming money, and subtract all outgoing money (using the figures on the statement of receipts and disbursements). If everything has been properly included, the number you get should be the same as the current balance in the executor's account. This, the current balance of the account, is what is now available in the estate to be divided up.

4. Statement of how much the executor wants to be paid. The amount will depend on what was said about compensation in the Will, or if nothing was said, it will depend on the guidelines for your geographical area. The amount of work and responsibility handled by the executor are also factors. The executor should state the dollar amount and how that amount was arrived at (e.g. an hourly rate, a percentage, etc). The executor should also state how much he or she wants to be repaid for out-of-pocket expenses.

5. Statement of any money being held back for future expenses or taxes. Executors have the right to wait for a final Tax Clearance Certificate from Canada Revenue Agency before distributing money to the beneficiaries. However, sometimes the executor agrees to distribute before the tax certificate is received. If the executor does this, he or she should figure out what the taxes might be, and what will be spent on the accountant to do the return, and keep that amount of money in the executor's account.

6. Statement of proposed distribution. The executor should state the names of the beneficiaries, the portion of the estate each will receive, and the dollar amount.

7. Release. The beneficiaries are each asked to review the accounting, and if all looks fine, to sign a release that states they are satisfied with the accounting. A wise executor won't give any beneficiaries their shares until all beneficiaries have signed releases. When all the releases are received by the executor, he or she will give the beneficiaries their cheques.

There is of course a lot more detail I could include here. (I have a chapter about this in my upcoming Alberta Probate Kit, to be released in 2011). This post is intended to give you an idea of what is involved. Executors always have the option of hiring accountants or lawyers to help them with the accounting, which is a good idea if the estate is complicated.

Can an Attorney under a Power of Attorney sell an asset that is specifically left to someone in a Will?

An Attorney acting under an Enduring (Continuing) Power of Attorney has the responsibility of handling the legal and financial affairs for the person who named him or her as Attorney (the person giving the document is known as the donor). The Attorney must approach each and every transaction from the point of view of what is in the best interest of the donor.

Most Enduring Powers of Attorney give only general instructions for an Attorney. If the Attorney must sell some of the donor's assets so that the donor has something to live on, then the Attorney may choose which assets are to be sold, to whom they are to be sold, and at what price. The assets sold may or may not be mentioned in the donor's Will as being left to a specific beneficiary. The Attorney's responsibility is to the donor while the donor is alive, not to the person who might inherit the assets after the donor's death.

Having said that, an Attorney who knows the contents of the donor's Will should do his or her best to work with it, to avoid thwarting the donor's wishes. It would be in the donor's best interests for the Attorney not to mess up his or her plans.

Some Enduring Powers of Attorney contain specific instructions to avoid selling certain assets if at all possible. For example, if a donor has made a Will in which he leaves his lake cottage to his sister, the Enduring Power of Attorney could instruct the Attorney not to sell that lake cottage if there is anything else that could be sold instead. The Attorney must always follow directions in an Enduring Power of Attorney or risk personal liability.

This kind of specific direction is under-used, in my opinion. The only caveat I'd put on that is to suggest that the Enduring Power of Attorney should not have a direction not to sell the cottage under any circumstances. It would be better to phrase it as a direction not to sell the cottage except in dire financial need. That way, if the money from a sale of the cottage is the only money the donor has left and it is needed for living on, it can be used.

I've always been astonished by the number of people acting as Attorney who believe that their role is to do whatever they please with the donor's finances. I believe that people in general are becoming more aware of the limits of the Attorney's role, and it will eventually become harder for dishonest or misled Attorneys to continue to treat the donor's assets as their own. In the meantime, donors should take care to make the strongest document possible. This certainly does not mean a fill-in-the-blank document; it should be one that is personally tailored. Donors should consider putting in requirements for the Attorney to account periodically to other people in the family, or to advisors of the donor.

When the donor passes away, the authority of the Attorney ends. The Attorney must give the Executor of the estate a full financial accounting of everything he or she has done as Attorney. If an asset has been sold contrary to the instructions of the donor, this will be revealed to the executor.

How do I get a Tax Clearance Certificate

A tax clearance certificate is a notice you receive from Canada Revenue Agency that states that all taxes owing on an estate have been paid. Although it is not the law that every executor must get one, the majority of executors will do so. This is because if the executor goes ahead and distributes the estate to the beneficiaries and then later finds out that there is tax owing, the executor himself might have to pay the taxes out of his own money.

I'm often asked how a person goes about getting a tax clearance certificate. The certificate does not come out automatically; it has to be requested in the right way at the right time. The vast majority of executors that I've worked with have asked the accountant who does the tax returns for the estate to request the clearance certificate. This is because accoutants who are familiar with taxation know how and when to get it.

However, if you want to request one yourself, here are the basic steps:

1. file all of the necessary tax returns for the deceased and the estate;


2. receive the Notice of Assessment for the returns you've filed;


3. fill in a form called TX19, that you can find online here;


4. send the form to your local tax office, along with a copy of the Will, a copy of all probate documents and a statement of proposed distribution.


5. wait.

It takes a long time to get the tax clearance certificate. You should expect to wait several months in most cases. Because of the long wait and the unwillingness of beneficiaries to wait longer than necessary for their inheritance, there is a process in place for making an interim distribution of the bulk of the estate while keeping back enough money to pay the taxes and future expenses. I'll post about that interim process in a separate post.

To go to the Canada Revenue Agency page on clearance certificates, click here.

What happens to a power of attorney when the person giving it dies?

In this post, I'm discussing Enduring (Continuing) Powers of Attorney that were made in advance, then brought into use when the person giving the Power of Attorney (called the "donor") lost his or her mental capacity. Most of the time, these documents are very extensive, and give the Attorney acting under them power to deal with everything from bank accounts to real estate. In some cases, the Attorney looks after the donor's finances for several years.

What happens when the donor dies?

The authority in the Enduring Power of Attorney ends immediately upon the death of the donor. The Will kicks in. The Attorney has to stop making decisions on behalf of the donor and hand over all of the assets to the Executor of the estate.

If there is no Will, the Attorney still has to stop acting as Attorney for the donor. This can be a bit of a tricky situation for the Attorney, as there will be a gap in time from the death of the donor until someone is appointed by the Court to be the Administrator of the estate.

In addition to handing over the assets themselves, the Attorney has to hand over his or her records of what he or she has done with the assets and debts over the months or years acting as Attorney. The Attorney is required to account for everything he or she has done, and if the accounting given is not adequate, the Executor can apply to the court to compel the Attorney to give a more thorough accounting. This might mean that the Attorney has to come up with receipts for major purchases, bank statements or other documentation.

If the Attorney cannot account for money that has gone missing, he or she is at risk for having to repay it from personal funds. Most Executors will be pretty adamant that the Attorney explain himself or herself, as the Executors don't want to have to explain to family members and beneficiaries where missing money has gone.

Sometimes the Attorney and the Executor are the same person, such as an adult child who is in charge of his or her parents' Enduring Powers of Attorney as well as their Wills. This may mean that the Attorney doesn't have to account to another Executor, but it does mean that now that the Attorney is wearing the Executor hat, he or she is accountable to the beneficiaries of the estate.