How much should your executor know about you finances?

On Behalf of | May 16, 2022 | Wills |

If you are writing a will or creating a comprehensive estate plan, you eventually must settle on an executor. Your estate’s executor is simply the person who deals with your assets and debts after your death. Your estate plan should provide explicit instructions for this person to follow.

According to the AARP foundation, it can be difficult to pick the perfect person to serve as your executor. This may be especially true if you have several children and other close relatives or friends. Furthermore, you may not be too comfortable with disclosing your finances even to those closest to you.

Accepting the job

When you ask a person to be your executor, you should give him or her enough information to make an informed decision about whether to accept the job. After all, while someone may not mind being the executor for a small estate, he or she may resist taking on the task for a more complex one.

Looking out for your interests

Your executor should protect the interests of your estate. Because you may not know whether potential executors have conflicts of interest, you may have to talk about sensitive financial details. Likewise, your executor may have to have some of your financial information to gauge whether he or she must push back against the wishes of your heirs.

While you probably do not have to go into extreme detail about your finances when interviewing prospective executors, you must reveal some potentially sensitive information. Ultimately, though, if you write a comprehensive estate plan, your executor eventually will have the financial details he or she needs to administer your estate.