Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Illinois
executrix fees
My aunt passed away and made my mother executrix. The attorney told her after the sale of my aunt's home that he is putting down under disburseements an executrix fee of $7000, which is about 2% of the estate. She has logged over 100 hours of work showing the place, going to the different banks for statements and checks and many other things. the laywer told her she had no business to pay for her funeral or pay to fix the place up to get it ready to sell. My aunt only had $187 in the bank when she died.He told her, her time is not worth anything. 2 months before the sale of the home my brother went to court to stop her from being the executrix. She still is but she is a supervised executrix. I need to know by Illinois law is there a certain percent she is entitled to? We were told that every check she will have to write must get the ok from my brothers attorney. Is that true or is it her lawyers duty to do the supervision?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: executrix fees
Your mother is entitled to reimbursement of payments that she made on behalf of the estate, that benefitted the overall estate. These expenses would certainly include the funeral expenses, fix-up of the house (an asset of the estate) for sale, etc.
Reimbursements would not be a taxable income to your mother, but if they are classified as "executor's fees" they might be.
If this is a supervised estate, the court must approve expenses that are paid out of the estate's assets. Depending on what the expenses are, this may require a petition to be made to the court for approval of payment (and appropriate review by attorneys of record).
Unfortunately, sometimes probate matters can get emotional and tense, due to differences between family members.
However, an executor is entitled to be paid for her time. If the time has been documented, and expenses accounted for, payment should be made.
Good luck to you.
This answer was based only on the hypothetical and limited set of facts set forth in your posting. If additional facts were presented, my answer might change.
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