My husband and I moved in with my parents to care for them in 2019. I lost my husband to Covid last year....I am still here on my own now caring for them. Is there a set % that an executor receives from the settlement of estate???
The OP has not come back to tell us why they asked the question.
You are getting so many different answers here and probably because each of us reside in a different States. The best thing you can do is call your Probate Office and ask how the Executor gets a fee for the work they need to do.
All my Mom had was a house. I had made sure she was all caught up on her bills before Medicaid kicked in. All she had when she died was the PNA of $195 and a bank acct of maybe $200. All considered her estate. I had to get Probate started, it was up to me to do all the filings. Oversee the selling of the house, see that bills for the house were kept up, some coming out of my pocket and get a lawyer to do the house closing. He ended up finishing up Probate which was the accting. I had done all the tax stuff. I can't imagine what work I would have needed to do if my Moms estate was a large one. Executors so deserve that fee. And why should one sibling do all the work and not be compensated when the others have not done or ever did anything to help their parents. No I did not take a fee but I was compensated thanks to my brothers.
The will should specify that the executor may charge a reasonable fee for his/her services. There is no specific definition of what a reasonable fee might be, and it would also depend upon the professional skills of the executor. It the executor is an attorney, a reasonable fee would be his/her normal billing rate. If the executor is some other sort of professional or just a good businessman, maybe the billing rate that a law firm would charge for the services of a paralegal or an accounting firm would charge for a staff accountant. If the right to charge a reasonable fee is not specified in the will you run the risk of other heirs deciding that your services are free.
No they can get paid a reasonable fee for the amount of work they do. The fee is not estate size related! Many family members who are executors will not take a fee even though they are entitled. usually the fee is small a few hundred to a few thousand. Expect more if a lawyer gets involved.
Reading these responses has been eye-opening! My father-in-law passed in 2017 and his widow is still living but my brother-in-law (who is a CPA) was his executor. It never occurred to us that he might not have been paid for all the time and money he has put into that duty but we intend to find out. If he hasn’t, we’re going to see that he is compensated from our share of any inheritance we might have in the future as I am sure he will also be my mother-in-law’s executor!
When an estate is Probated there has to be an accting that all beneficiaries have to sign before money is distributed. That accting should show the Executors fee if taken.
I read your profile. You need more income. You'd stated you wanted your son to go to a private school. It looks like last year he went to the public school? Because of your parents' needs, you can't work outside the home.
What is your parents' financial situation? Can they afford AL? Could they become Medicaid-eligible? Sounds like your own retirement is tenuous.
Do you have siblings? What is their part in all of this? How did it come to be that your family was the one to move to CA to take care of your parents?
First, I'm very sorry for your loss of your husband.
I'm just a little confused by your question. Are you talking about settling your husband's estate or your parents? I would think if you're talking about your husband's estate, as his wife you would get everything, anyway, in addition to being the executrix.
So, I am going to assume you are talking about your parent's estate.
As others have said, whether you get a % of the estate as a fee depends on the laws of the state AND what the will/trust says. But if this is to try and recoup money for the time you have spent/are spending being your parents' sole caregiver, it would be better for you to arrange for payment NOW for caregiving services, rather than hope for money after they have passed, because by then their estate might very well have dwindled down to nothing, depending on the level of care they might need in the future.
Lakemama, the answer to your question is it depends on the laws in your state. You will hear advice/stories in this forum but they are nothing but anecdotes, because the different states do this differently.
In my state (Iowa), the executor is entitled to a fee of 2% of the estate value, unless the will states otherwise. It's my understanding that this 2% is taxable, which is one reason many executors might choose to decline it. My husband is currently the executor of his mother's estate (she died in February). It has been an enormous amount of work for us both. His parents had a very large property (five acres, a 100-year-old home and two huge outbuildings, both with two levels of storage). They were hoarders. Every possible place where "stuff" could be stored was full to the brim. The woman saved every single piece of paper that crossed her path, from grocery store receipts to junk mail to 60 years of cancelled checks. You don't want to know how many trips we made to Goodwill, how many dumpsters we filled, and how much stuff we hauled to the hazardous waste facility.
We had a little help from our niece and nephew, who will share in the estate with my husband (his brother, their father, died some years ago). Our own children helped a little as well. But the vast bulk of the work fell on our shoulders, and you can bet my husband will take the executor fee without the slightest bit of embarrassment. It's not a huge estate, but the niece and nephew will end up with a meaningful amount of money at a pretty young age, thanks mostly to the effort we've put in.
My own mother, knowing how hard we've been working on this, thought it would be cute to let me know she'd designated me as her executor, to serve WITHOUT compensation. I haven't decided whether or not to tell her this won't be happening. I don't care about the money - in all likelihood by the time she passes there won't be anything left after the bills are paid. It's the idea that she assigned all the work to me so that my brothers' share of any inheritance wouldn't be reduced. It just feels so disrespectful.
There are some on this forum who will say I'm greedy and unappreciative of everything our parents did for us. They're entitled to their opinion but I disagree. I visit my mother, I take her to medical appointments, my husband and I help her with repairs and maintenance of her house. He did all that with his mother as well. We take care of them while they are alive out of love; when they are gone and the state steps in with a million and one requirements to be met in a limited time frame, along with the fiduciary responsibility of that, I say executors deserve compensation.
That's kind of messed up, what your mom is doing...
I was the executrix of my mom's estate, which specified I was NOT to be compensated. But all of her assets were in trust, and they were all liquid/stocks, with no real estate property to be settled, so it was a very easy estate to settle. I think the hardest part of the job was getting the LifeAlert sent back. She passed in October, and I had the estate settled by the end of that year. So even if I was entitled to take a fee, I doubt I would have.
I think if there's a lot of work involved - like what you and your husband are doing with his mom's house, yikes!! - there should be a fee you can collect, because your time is worth something.
I'm amazed that so many of you say that executors are not allowed compensation, I think all Canadian provinces have legislation allowing for executors to be paid a percentage of the estate, although it is taxable income and many (most?) family members in that role choose to waive their rights to receive it.
I was my parents' trustee and oversaw their care for 12 years without any compensation. The estate was then split 50/50 between my brother and me. My parents never sent me a bill for all the care they gave me as a child! I would never dream of doing that to them! I find it sad and a little appalling that you're concerned with getting paid for helping your own parents. You don't get paid for being a good offspring!
Parents don’t have children in order to get care in their old age. That’s a false equivalency, the two just aren’t the same. I did the executor role, planned an entire funeral, met with an abominable funeral home staff, cleaned out an entire house, cleaned and sold the house, all without help from my siblings. And I didn’t get any more money for it. I don’t feel entitled but I also don’t find it particularly fair, as much of life isn’t
I may have questioned that. If you used a lawyer, he may have taken the fee. You may not have been entitled to the fee, by law, if you didn't do the work, the lawyer did. My GF consulted with a lawyer when her Dad died. He said that if she allowed him to become Executor he would handle everything. He would get the fee.
My dad verbally said I needed to be paid for doing my trust work for my parents' estate. He didn't state an amount, but the lawyer who was sitting right there absolutely agreed. Dad also wanted me to be paid for caring for him and my mom when I moved in with them for two months.
I was uncomfortable with that, but even after Dad died, the lawyer pushed the payment for caregiving part because he knew it was what Dad wanted. For me, it was an honor to care for them, but in the end, I ended up charging the estate and paying myself $30,000, which was something like $25/hour, the going rate for live-in caregivers at the time. Writing a huge check to yourself is a truly cringe-inducing experience.
Now that both of my folks are gone, I have not charged the estate for my work since the first year after Dad died in 2018, which was probably the most labor-intensive time. I paid myself here and there, but probaply only about $500. What I did do recently was charge the estate for gas, because since April I've been going back and forth to my folks' house getting it ready to sell. Since I live an hour away from the house and we're in Southern California where gas was $6 a gallon, you're darned tootin' I wasn't going to eat that expense.
I just distributed the lion's share of the estate to my brother and myself last week. It might have been nice if my brother had kicked back a little something for my efforts, but maybe he'll get me something nice for Christmas instead. He's a little tone deaf that way, but perhaps his girlfriend will nudge him to show his gratitude. He did thank me for my efforts many times, though.
Just need to say that I guess a person can say in the Will that the Executor can get a larger amount then the law allows. My husband I have done two wills. One when our daughters were small and another when they were adults. I was with my Mom when she did hers. In all three instances and 3 different lawyers, not once were we asked if we wanted to give more to the Executor than the law allows. I did most of the work as Executor but had a lawyer to help with the sale of Moms house. He ended up doing the final accting of the estate and he charged for that. He did not get the %. I have heard of people allowing a lawyer do the complete probate and turning the % allowed over to the lawyer.
If the executor provides services in a professional capacity - is a lawyer, basically - then they'll charge a fee to the estate based on their usual rate. But a beneficiary (assuming you will be a beneficiary) acting as a private individual will get whatever the will says.
Is there any particular reason why you're wondering about this?
The Executor is named in the Will and in my State the Executor gets a % of the estate according to the law. And that all depends on the final accting of the estate. Debts and liens must be paid first. The net worth of the Estate is where the % due comes in. In my State it starts at 4% to a certain cap, lets say 200k. The Executor gets 8,000 off the top. The balance is split between the beneficiaries. As the Estates worth goes up, the % received by the Executor goes diwn. The lowest amount they can receive is 2%. So on a million dollars the Executor gets 40,000.
When I probated my Moms Estate I was asked if I would be taking my fee and I said no. It shows up in the final accting. The accting shows what each beneficiary will receive on the bottom line. This is where you contest the findings. My brothers turned over to me some shares worth about 5k that Mom had, the one reason why I didn't take the fee. I was the one who cared for Mom and was Executor. This was their way of acknowledging what I did.
Different states have diffferent guidelines for the executor receiving monetary compensation for time spent on the estate 'work'.
Often, the 'non executors' get angry b/c all they see is one kids getting 'more' than they are. But they don't see the behind the scenes work that goes into settling an estate.
My mother died on Sunday of this week. Her FPOA son immediately became executor and the look on his face when I said that to him was one of terror. Of course we are all helping, but he is doing the lion's share and after only 3 days, he is burned out. BUT, I did say to him, in the presence of the other sibs that he needs to keep track of his hours and charge the estate the going rate (which I think is now $30 per hour).
SO MANY little ticky tacky things to deal with. We are all helping but the final say goes right to him.
As much as YB would LOVE to be in control of this--he isn't the executor and his 'voice' has no more power than mine or my sisters'.
My Dh and I both did hundreds of hours of work for his dad's estate and my BIL kicked up such an enormous fuss over everything that we simply did not take a dime. Wasn't worth the family drama. I'm sorry to say I still struggle with the grasping relative who jumped in and took everything of value and demanded an accounting of everything--obviously not trusting my incredibly trustworthy husband.
At least we know what to expect when DH's mom passes. More of the same.
You don't HAVE to take the 'fee' but you are certainly entitled to it.
As executor 4x there is a critical point in time when all of the pieces come together at one time. The last one I did was with sale, cleaning and closing a house within 6 weeks, plus trying to close a small business. One week took 60 hours of my time.....and then everything suddenly went away
Lakemama, to be paid as the Executor of your parent's Will, it has to be mentioned in the Will. Being you are the daughter, I would assume you would get what is in the Estate, or will you be sharing it with siblings and/or other family members?
I was the Executor of my parent's Will, never even thought about asking for a fee as I would be inheriting their estate.
Since your Mom has Alzheimer's/dementia she would be unable to change her Will. Your Dad can have his Will updated to mention a fee for being the Executor.
You are getting so many different answers here and probably because each of us reside in a different States. The best thing you can do is call your Probate Office and ask how the Executor gets a fee for the work they need to do.
All my Mom had was a house. I had made sure she was all caught up on her bills before Medicaid kicked in. All she had when she died was the PNA of $195 and a bank acct of maybe $200. All considered her estate. I had to get Probate started, it was up to me to do all the filings. Oversee the selling of the house, see that bills for the house were kept up, some coming out of my pocket and get a lawyer to do the house closing. He ended up finishing up Probate which was the accting. I had done all the tax stuff. I can't imagine what work I would have needed to do if my Moms estate was a large one. Executors so deserve that fee. And why should one sibling do all the work and not be compensated when the others have not done or ever did anything to help their parents. No I did not take a fee but I was compensated thanks to my brothers.
will not take a fee even though they are entitled. usually the fee is small a few hundred to a few thousand. Expect more if a lawyer gets involved.
What is your parents' financial situation? Can they afford AL? Could they become Medicaid-eligible? Sounds like your own retirement is tenuous.
Do you have siblings? What is their part in all of this? How did it come to be that your family was the one to move to CA to take care of your parents?
I'm just a little confused by your question. Are you talking about settling your husband's estate or your parents? I would think if you're talking about your husband's estate, as his wife you would get everything, anyway, in addition to being the executrix.
So, I am going to assume you are talking about your parent's estate.
As others have said, whether you get a % of the estate as a fee depends on the laws of the state AND what the will/trust says. But if this is to try and recoup money for the time you have spent/are spending being your parents' sole caregiver, it would be better for you to arrange for payment NOW for caregiving services, rather than hope for money after they have passed, because by then their estate might very well have dwindled down to nothing, depending on the level of care they might need in the future.
In my state (Iowa), the executor is entitled to a fee of 2% of the estate value, unless the will states otherwise. It's my understanding that this 2% is taxable, which is one reason many executors might choose to decline it. My husband is currently the executor of his mother's estate (she died in February). It has been an enormous amount of work for us both. His parents had a very large property (five acres, a 100-year-old home and two huge outbuildings, both with two levels of storage). They were hoarders. Every possible place where "stuff" could be stored was full to the brim. The woman saved every single piece of paper that crossed her path, from grocery store receipts to junk mail to 60 years of cancelled checks. You don't want to know how many trips we made to Goodwill, how many dumpsters we filled, and how much stuff we hauled to the hazardous waste facility.
We had a little help from our niece and nephew, who will share in the estate with my husband (his brother, their father, died some years ago). Our own children helped a little as well. But the vast bulk of the work fell on our shoulders, and you can bet my husband will take the executor fee without the slightest bit of embarrassment. It's not a huge estate, but the niece and nephew will end up with a meaningful amount of money at a pretty young age, thanks mostly to the effort we've put in.
My own mother, knowing how hard we've been working on this, thought it would be cute to let me know she'd designated me as her executor, to serve WITHOUT compensation. I haven't decided whether or not to tell her this won't be happening. I don't care about the money - in all likelihood by the time she passes there won't be anything left after the bills are paid. It's the idea that she assigned all the work to me so that my brothers' share of any inheritance wouldn't be reduced. It just feels so disrespectful.
There are some on this forum who will say I'm greedy and unappreciative of everything our parents did for us. They're entitled to their opinion but I disagree. I visit my mother, I take her to medical appointments, my husband and I help her with repairs and maintenance of her house. He did all that with his mother as well. We take care of them while they are alive out of love; when they are gone and the state steps in with a million and one requirements to be met in a limited time frame, along with the fiduciary responsibility of that, I say executors deserve compensation.
I was the executrix of my mom's estate, which specified I was NOT to be compensated. But all of her assets were in trust, and they were all liquid/stocks, with no real estate property to be settled, so it was a very easy estate to settle. I think the hardest part of the job was getting the LifeAlert sent back. She passed in October, and I had the estate settled by the end of that year. So even if I was entitled to take a fee, I doubt I would have.
I think if there's a lot of work involved - like what you and your husband are doing with his mom's house, yikes!! - there should be a fee you can collect, because your time is worth something.
I was uncomfortable with that, but even after Dad died, the lawyer pushed the payment for caregiving part because he knew it was what Dad wanted. For me, it was an honor to care for them, but in the end, I ended up charging the estate and paying myself $30,000, which was something like $25/hour, the going rate for live-in caregivers at the time. Writing a huge check to yourself is a truly cringe-inducing experience.
Now that both of my folks are gone, I have not charged the estate for my work since the first year after Dad died in 2018, which was probably the most labor-intensive time. I paid myself here and there, but probaply only about $500. What I did do recently was charge the estate for gas, because since April I've been going back and forth to my folks' house getting it ready to sell. Since I live an hour away from the house and we're in Southern California where gas was $6 a gallon, you're darned tootin' I wasn't going to eat that expense.
I just distributed the lion's share of the estate to my brother and myself last week. It might have been nice if my brother had kicked back a little something for my efforts, but maybe he'll get me something nice for Christmas instead. He's a little tone deaf that way, but perhaps his girlfriend will nudge him to show his gratitude. He did thank me for my efforts many times, though.
If the executor provides services in a professional capacity - is a lawyer, basically - then they'll charge a fee to the estate based on their usual rate. But a beneficiary (assuming you will be a beneficiary) acting as a private individual will get whatever the will says.
Is there any particular reason why you're wondering about this?
When I probated my Moms Estate I was asked if I would be taking my fee and I said no. It shows up in the final accting. The accting shows what each beneficiary will receive on the bottom line. This is where you contest the findings. My brothers turned over to me some shares worth about 5k that Mom had, the one reason why I didn't take the fee. I was the one who cared for Mom and was Executor. This was their way of acknowledging what I did.
Well handled to all of you, by the way.
Often, the 'non executors' get angry b/c all they see is one kids getting 'more' than they are. But they don't see the behind the scenes work that goes into settling an estate.
My mother died on Sunday of this week. Her FPOA son immediately became executor and the look on his face when I said that to him was one of terror. Of course we are all helping, but he is doing the lion's share and after only 3 days, he is burned out. BUT, I did say to him, in the presence of the other sibs that he needs to keep track of his hours and charge the estate the going rate (which I think is now $30 per hour).
SO MANY little ticky tacky things to deal with. We are all helping but the final say goes right to him.
As much as YB would LOVE to be in control of this--he isn't the executor and his 'voice' has no more power than mine or my sisters'.
My Dh and I both did hundreds of hours of work for his dad's estate and my BIL kicked up such an enormous fuss over everything that we simply did not take a dime. Wasn't worth the family drama. I'm sorry to say I still struggle with the grasping relative who jumped in and took everything of value and demanded an accounting of everything--obviously not trusting my incredibly trustworthy husband.
At least we know what to expect when DH's mom passes. More of the same.
You don't HAVE to take the 'fee' but you are certainly entitled to it.
I was the Executor of my parent's Will, never even thought about asking for a fee as I would be inheriting their estate.
Since your Mom has Alzheimer's/dementia she would be unable to change her Will. Your Dad can have his Will updated to mention a fee for being the Executor.
Hopefully they are paying their fair share of costs and giving you pay for your caregiving. If not, change that today.
https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2020/title-53/chapter-6/article-7/section-53-6-60/
I agree that pay as you go is better. There is no guarantee that there will be anything left in the estate or that you will outlive them.