We all know in the back of our minds that at some point in our lives we might have to sort through a loved one’s estate. And yet there’s no way to prepare for the emotional onslaught that you might experience in dealing with grief. That process can be overwhelming and can make it that much harder to navigate probate and other administration tasks. If you’re the executor, you need to be prepared for all the necessary tasks that unfold in managing an estate. 

The executor’s role is mostly financial and it begins with cataloguing all the assets in the estate. From there, the executor must pay off debts and taxes and then distribute the remaining amount to beneficiaries and heirs.

However, plenty of in-family executors will feel obligated to do more. If the estate of the person who passed away was substantial and complicated, it can be helpful to hire a professional executor to help with the tasks. Any families in which there’s the potential for infighting could be the perfect option for using a professional executor. If your role as the executor in a loved one’s estate puts you smack in the middle of conflict.

If the estate is indeed complicated, some parts of it might pass through probate whereas others, like assets inside a trust, don’t. Knowing the difference and keeping a general tally of the progress across different projects is important, especially for accounting purposes. An expert hired from the outside can help you keep an accurate inventory and prepare for probate, if necessary.

The support of an outside professional executor, such as a lawyer or corporation, can streamline the process for you. As a loved one, you have enough to worry about. While you want efficient management of the estate, this should not come at your personal expense during your time of grief.