Situations
Executor problems
An executor, administrator, or trustee controls property that belongs to other people. The law holds them to the strictest standard it has.
What an executor owes you
An executor is a fiduciary: someone trusted with property that belongs to others. Texas law requires a fiduciary to act with loyalty and good faith and to deal fairly and honestly, and forbids them from concealing anything that affects the people they serve. The same standard applies to a court-appointed administrator, a trustee, and a person acting under a power of attorney.
Being named executor doesn’t make the estate theirs. It makes them responsible for it.
What is a fiduciary? · A power of attorney creates a fiduciary duty
What it looks like when something is wrong
- Months have passed and you’ve heard nothing, and you’ve never seen a list of what the estate owns.
- The executor is living in the house, or has moved family into it, and nothing is being sold or divided.
- Estate property was sold, sometimes to the executor or to someone close to them.
- Accounts or property you knew about don’t appear anywhere.
- Your questions are met with “that’s none of your business.”
Estates take time, and any one of these can have an innocent explanation. It’s the pattern that matters.
What you’re entitled to
- A list of what the estate owns. Within 90 days of qualifying, the executor must file a full inventory with the court. In many estates an independent executor may instead file a sworn statement that the beneficiaries have each received the inventory directly. Either way, a beneficiary is generally entitled to see it. If something is missing or undervalued, raise it while the estate is still open; it is much harder once the estate is closed. Estate inventories
- An accounting. Fifteen months after the executor was appointed, anyone with an interest in the estate can demand a sworn accounting showing what came in, what went out, and what is left. A trust beneficiary can demand a written accounting from the trustee, and if it isn’t delivered within 90 days, can ask the court to require it. Executor accountings · Trustee accountings
When a court will replace an executor or trustee
Not because the beneficiaries don’t like them. The law sets out specific reasons, including:
- failing to make an accounting that the law requires;
- gross misconduct or gross mismanagement;
- a material conflict of interest, such as an executor treating estate property as their own;
- misapplying or embezzling estate property.
A trustee can be removed for a material violation of the trust that causes a material loss, for failing to account, or for other cause the court finds. The court can also order property that belongs to the estate to be turned over.
Removing an executor · Removing a trustee or other fiduciary · Can an executor sell property to himself? · A trustee’s conflict of interest
Time limits
A claim for breach of fiduciary duty generally must be filed within four years of when it arises. When those four years start can be disputed, which is one reason not to wait. The four-year limit
Money moved before the death matters too. Someone who handled a parent’s money under a power of attorney owed the same duty. Can a power of attorney be used to create a trust?
Tell me what happened
Write to me through the contact form: what happened, roughly when, and who is involved. I read these myself. Writing means our first conversation can be about your situation instead of getting me up to speed.