Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York
Distribution of a will's proceeds
If an individual making a will specifies in the signed document that his lawyer will be the executor, giving the lawyer complete authority to make decisions about distribution of the estate's proceeds after his death, does the executor have to follow the oral requests of the maker of the will, or does he have the authority to superimpose his judgment over that expressed verbally by the client? The client's judgments are perverse, but hot illegal. Does it matter how long before his death the client signs the will and/or specifies the criteria for distribution?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Distribution of a will's proceeds
The language of the Will controls over oral statements, but the Executor, who has been given guite extensive authority, still must act reasonably. Questions of abuse of discretion are directed to the Surrogate's Court where the Will was probated.
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