The death of a parent is a difficult time, bringing out strong emotions and highlighting any family conflict. Add to that the distribution of assets, and there’s the strong potential for family strife — even more so when the executor is not suited to the task.

Consider the hypothetical case of Jessica from Minneapolis, whose father died four years ago. She was entitled to a percentage of the value of her childhood home, which was sold shortly after her father’s death.

At the time, the attorney said all beneficiaries needed to wait eight months before the proceeds of the sale would be disbursed to ensure no unknown creditors came forward — a process known as probate. This was double the legally required minimum notice period of four months in Minnesota. (1)

Jessica’s late father had no unknown creditors or debts, so his attorney sent a letter to Jessica’s sister, who was executor of the will, to request an expedited disbursement. Jessica was asked to sign a release and then the funds were sent to her a couple of weeks later.

Now it’s four years later. In that time, Jessica’s sister has failed to execute the terms of the will; stopped talking to the other beneficiaries; delayed the transfer of three other properties to her siblings; fired the original lawyer and exhausted the resources of the estate. Now she’s asking Jessica to return almost half of her inheritance to help pay $60,000 in legal fees incurred during the disbursement of the other properties.

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Jessica feels that her sister has mismanaged the estate settlement process and doesn’t want to pay. She argues that her part of the estate was already settled, including having the associated legal and probate fees deducted, and since she didn’t benefit from the remainder of the estate, she shouldn’t have to pay.

Jessica is right that the process has been mismanaged. Aside from the mishandling of the disbursement of the other properties, disbursements before the end of the probate process are not best practice nor recommended, so Jessica should have been made to wait.

It’s best to have all affairs of the estate settled first, which includes paying any creditor claims against the estate, executor compensation, taxes and fees incurred to settle the estate, before making any disbursements.

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