Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Indiana

Re: No will; who controls estate?

You do not earn any special benefit or privelige by simply becoming the executrix (administrator) of your late sister's estate. If the deed on your sister's house does not show that the house was jointly owned by anybody else, and she left no will, then the distribution of the house and all of her other probate assets (assets not controlled by a separate piece of paper such as a joint bank account, a designated beneficiary statement to a life insurance plan, etc.)

The administrator's job is to collect or at least identify all of your sister's assets and dispose of them pursuant to the will, if there is a will, or if no will, at least in accordance to state statute. The assets with no value could be thrown out, any with value could be distributed to the heirs at law, with the remaining assets (including the house) being sold. Any proceeds from the sale of the assets would be distributed according to state law.

The only benefit that you could get from being the administrator is that you can request to be paid a fee for the work you do. This would come from the estate after it sold all of the assets.

I have handled estates where one relative wanted to keep the real estate. Sometimes the prospective buyer can negotiate a good price with the estate (with notice to the other beneficiaries) because the estate would save a lot of selling expenses (no realtor fees, surveys, clean up work, etc.).

In summary, you taking on the position of administrator confers no special priveliges or benefits.