Rhonda Griswold, a Cades Schutte law firm partner, joins producer/host Coralie Chun Matayoshi to discuss your fiduciary duties as an Executor or Trustee, things you need to do, notice and accounting to the beneficiaries, and compensation for your efforts. Q.  Yikes - one of your parents passes away and names you in their will or trust as the person in charge of settling their estate.  What are your duties and how are you expected to perform them? Run for the hills (it is not an easy job!)  Whether you are an Executor or Personal Representative for a Will or Trustee for Trust, you are a fiduciary.The job of Personal Representative and Trustee are very similar, but there are required court filings in the case of a probate and Personal Representative.  For both, the main duties include gathering the assets, paying the debts and death taxes, keeping property insured, deciding what should be sold, investing cash, obtaining appraisals, filing income tax returns, and accounting for and making distributions to beneficiaries. Q.    What are some of the first things you should do? Secure all assets (e.g. change locks; put valuables in a safe), arrange to have mail forwarded to you, review prior tax returns and bank/brokerage statements, create an inventory of all trust and non-trust assets with date of death values, file a death benefit claim with life insurance company if decedent has a policy, contact companies paying pensions and annuities, notify the Social Security Administration, contact banks and credit card companies, cancel auto insurance, phone, and utilities, give notice to creditors and make sure all creditors and taxes are paid, notify beneficiaries and keep them apprised, and hire an attorney and accountant to help you through this process. Q.  What if real property is involved, like a family home? Within 30 days of death, need to notify real property tax office of death because that may affect tax exemptions. Q.  What if you are an executor or personal representative under the Will? You will need to initiate a probate and be appointed by the court.  If you are the successor trustee, you will need to sign an acceptance of trusteeship document.  In either case, you will need to obtain a tax id number for the estate/trust and will use that number to open bank/investment accounts. Q.  How do beneficiaries receive notice and what are their rights? Within 60 days of appointment, you need to notify all qualified beneficiaries of your appointment and give them a copy of the trust.  This gets the statute of limitations running.  Claims to invalidate the trust must be brought within 90 days of the sending of the trust document.  Be transparent with beneficiaries.  Provide them with copies of the inventory and status of major events (such as proposed sale of property and listing price).  Keep an accounting of all receipts and disbursements.  At trust termination, you will provide a complete accounting to the beneficiaries and ask for their approval.  If they do not approve the accounting, then it will be necessary to file a petition for court approval. Q.  Are you entitled to compensation for your efforts? Yes. The job is not easy.  Hawaii Revised Statutes Section 607-18 sets forth a statutory percentage fee schedule for trustees.  Generally, there is a 1% inception fee based on the value of the original trust assets, a 1% termination fee, and a .5% annual fee.  The trustee is also entitled to reasonable hourly rates for special services, such as handling the sale of real property or litigation matters.  But this fee schedule can be modified in the trust document.  A Personal Representative does not have a statutory fee schedule but is entitled to “reasonable compensation.”  A Personal Representative should determine how he or she intends to charge (e.g. hourly rate or other percentage or flat fee) and inform the heirs/beneficiaries under the Will to make sure that there are no issues as to “reasonableness.”    To learn more about this subject, tune into this video podcast and other on this subject. Disclaimer:  this material is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.  The law varies by jurisdiction and is constantly changing.  For legal advice, you should consult a lawyer that can apply the appropriate law to the facts in your case.