[WSBAPT] Payment of Expenses to Non-Executor

Fri Nov 5 15:30:23 PDT 2021

  Law Office of
F.ANDREKITA SILVA
____________________________________________  

                                                  November 5, 2021

Brent,

RCW 11.48.050- Allowance of necessary expenses- says “He or she shall  
be allowed all necessary expenses in the care, management, and  
settlement of the estate.” That is separate and distinct from RCW  
11.48.210 that permits the PR to compensate themselves when the  
testator makes no provision for compensation.

I believe .050 gives the PR the authority to hire someone to do those  
tasks that are necessary that they can’t do or don’t want to do. The  
PR can’t possibly be expected to do everything- the accounting, IRS  
returns, repair and/ or cleaning of the home, going through papers of  
deceased, etc.,

However, whatever fee is charged must be reasonable. To decide what is  
reasonable, they must consider what they would have to pay a  
professional for the service being provided.  If a relative or lay  
person is providing the service, they must consider whether the  
quality of the service is the same as a professional might provide.  
They may or may not consider making an adjustment to the rate charged.

If someone local can do the tasks just as easily as a person traveling  
from out of state, then paying the cost for long distance travel may  
or may not be reasonable. If everyone is out of state, including the  
PR, it’s probably reasonable for the PR to delegate the task of flying  
out of state to inventory tangible items in the home. In your case, if  
there are others locally who are perfecting capable of being present  
when a professional can assist, and this beneficiary just wants to be  
the one, paying for their transport begins to sound less reasonable.

If I have a PR who seems to be pushing the limit of reasonableness, I  
remind them that the PR is expected to be a good steward of the  
estate’s assets and that reimbursement for expenses must be approved  
by the court. Also, that other beneficiaries can challenge expenses  
being charged to the estate.  So, I encourage them to give thought to  
the reasonableness of an expense in order to avoid the expenditure for  
legal time to help them address the issue if an expense is challenged  
and to avoid the risk of having an expense declined by the court.

If travel is involved, I encourage the PR to combine tasks to minimize  
trips – so cleaning the house when coming to town to meet with the  
estate’s attorney, etc. When deciding whether to seek reimbursement  
for compensation of some sort, the PR should consider whether other  
beneficiaries are flexible or whether they are generally, not very  
generous and perhaps not willing to give much latitude. Some families  
are grateful someone is willing to take on the PR role, and others  
think the wrong person was chosen and are not cooperative.

I can only recall one case where I did some research and provided the  
PR caselaw (from tax court) that discussed expenses that /THE IRS/  
rejected.  

andrekita
Law Office of F. Andrekita Silva
1325 Fourth Avenue, Suite 2000
Seattle, Washington 98101
206-224-8288
www.seattle-silvalaw.com

Quoting Brent Williams-Ruth <brent at williams-ruthlaw.com>:

> Thank you. I can clarify that the Will makes no reference to  
> anything other than debts of the testator and taxes; and then in the  
> paragraph for non-intervention there is a statement that the  
> Executor has all the power under the law of Washington to settle the  
> estate.  Which is why I was curious if there was any other statute  
> that relates to non-executor expenses.  Would it possibly fall into  
> the category of a "vendor" just like the Executor can hire people  
> and companies - such as it would be impossible to distribute  
> tangible property without beneficiaries being present and thus can  
> reimburse travel expenses?
>     
>    Thoughts?
>
>        BRENT WILLIAMS-RUTH (pronouns: he/him)
> /Attorney-At-Law/
>
>        LAW OFFICES OF BRENT WILLIAMS-RUTH, A DIVISION OF BWR CONSULTING, PLLC
>
>        PHYSICAL ADDRESS: 500 S 336TH STREET, SUITE 214; FEDERAL WAY, WA 98003
>
>        **EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY** ALL MAIL SENT THROUGH THE USPS  
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>
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>         
>
>        e-mail[1] / website[2] / facebook[3] / 
>
>      On Fri, Nov 5, 2021 at 12:13 PM Diane J. Kiepe  
> <DJKiepe at depdslaw.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Brent,
>>
>>       ___ ___
>>
>>       ____Did you check the Will to see if there is any language,  
>> our forms have some standard language that leave such a payment up  
>> to the discretion of the PR – we also have a general, the PR can  
>> take all actions to administer the estate whether necessary or not  
>> to protect a claim that some work was done that was not necessary  
>> if no language, I would be  hesitant (but not necessary preclusive)  
>> to reimburse those type fees.  For my family, I would be happy to  
>> have one of my parents estate pay such fees – but in some of the  
>> families I represent one child would scream “foul” and probably get  
>> attorneys involved over such a payment.____
>>
>>       _______ _______
>>
>>       ________All the best and Happy Friday!________
>>
>>       ___________ ___________
>>
>>       ____________/Diane J. Kiepe/____________
>>
>>       ______________/_ _/______________
>>
>>       ________________Diane J. Kiepe________________
>>
>>       __________________Douglas Eden__________________
>>
>>       ____________________717 W. Sprague Ave.____________________
>>
>>       ______________________Suite 1500______________________
>>
>>       ________________________Spokane, WA  99201________________________
>>
>>        
>> __________________________djkiepe at depdslaw.com__________________________
>>
>>       ____________________________509-455-5300____________________________
>>
>>       _______________________________ _______________________________
>>
>>        ________________________________FROM:  
>> wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com  
>> <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> ON BEHALF OF Brent Williams-Ruth
>> SENT: Thursday, November 4, 2021 9:36 AM
>> TO: WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv <WSBAPT at lists.wsbarppt.com>
>> SUBJECT: [WSBAPT] Payment of Expenses to  
>> Non-Executor________________________________
>>
>>        
>> ___________________________________ ___________________________________
>>
>>         ____________________________________Greetings List  
>> - ____________________________________
>>
>>
>>          
>> _______________________________________ _______________________________________
>>
>>
>>         ________________________________________I have a  
>> situation where one of the residual beneficiaries of an estate is  
>> seeking reimbursement for their travel expenses associated with  
>> coming into town to go through tangible items of the estate.  Have  
>> reviewed 11.48 et seq but am not seeing guidance for payment to  
>> non-executor/pr type people. ________________________________________
>>
>>
>>          
>> ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________
>>
>>
>>         ____________________________________________Appreciate any  
>> guidance. ____________________________________________
>>
>>
>>            ______________________________________________BRENT  
>> WILLIAMS-RUTH (pronouns: he/him)
>> /Attorney-At-Law/______________________________________________
>>
>>            ________________________________________________LAW  
>> OFFICES OF BRENT WILLIAMS-RUTH, A DIVISION OF BWR CONSULTING,  
>> PLLC________________________________________________
>>
>>             
>> __________________________________________________PHYSICAL ADDRESS:  
>> 500 S 336TH STREET, SUITE 214; FEDERAL WAY, WA  
>> 98003__________________________________________________
>>
>>             
>> ____________________________________________________**EFFECTIVE  
>> IMMEDIATELY** ALL MAIL SENT THROUGH THE USPS SHOULD BE SENT TO THE  
>> FOLLOWING ADDRESS: PO BOX 3319; FEDERAL WAY, WA  
>> 98063 ____________________________________________________
>>
>>             
>> ______________________________________________________Office/Scheduling  
>> Phone: (253)  
>> 285-7751______________________________________________________
>>
>>             
>> ________________________________________________________Direct:  
>> (253)  
>> 285-7453________________________________________________________
>>
>>             
>> __________________________________________________________e-mail[1] / website[2] / facebook[3] / __________________________________________________________
>>
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Links:
------
[1] mailto:Brent at Williams-RuthLaw.com
[2] http://www.williams-ruthlaw.com/
[3] http://www.facebook.com/bwrlaw

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