TOP VIEW Serving as an executor requires no specialized legal or financial training, but it is a not a job for everyone. The position often calls for a significant amount of time and a thick enough skin to withstand assaults from impatient beneficiaries. Executors should work alongside attorneys—and, in some cases, professional fiduciaries—to meet the testator’s last requests.

The wrong valuation can be quite costly. Maurer once worked with a client who bequeathed to charity a favorite old-master painting appraised at several million dollars. Unbeknownst to the client, the painting turned out to be a fake and the charity rejected it. The consequences for this particular estate were insubstantial, but could have been dire if it had relied on the charitable donation to reduce its estate tax bill. Executors who intend to sell collectibles for the sake of liquidity should plan ahead, allowing enough time for the item to be sold at the highest or most accurate price, thereby avoiding a fire sale simply to pay estate taxes.

Defensive Posture
Protecting the estate’s assets goes far beyond insuring and valuing collectibles. Executors are also responsible for deciding which assets to sell in order to generate the cash needed to pay the estate’s bequeathments, bills and taxes. While executors may not sell bequeathed items or assets, wills typically specify a bequest amount. To pay this bequest, the executor many have to liquidate certain assets. What is left after paying debts and bequeathments is known as the “residue and remainder” of assets, which the will may instruct to be distributed among heirs or left in trust.