Executor

Key Takeaways

• An executor is the person a will names to settle the estate, and the court confirms that choice by issuing letters testamentary.
• Washington files executors, administrators, and special administrators under one statutory label, personal representative (RCW 11.02.005).
• Anyone holding a will must deliver it to the court or to the named executor within 30 days of learning of the death. An executor holding the will has 40 days to file it (RCW 11.20.010).
• A personal representative granted nonintervention powers may sell or convey the decedent's real property without a court order (RCW 11.68.090).

What It Means

An executor is the person a Will names to settle the estate of the person who signed it. The work starts after death, once the court accepts the will: gather the assets, notify the creditors, pay the valid debts and taxes, and hand what is left to the people the will identifies. An executor carries out those terms and does not get to rewrite them.

Washington puts the job under a broader label. The probate code calls the office personal representative, and that phrase covers an executor, an Administrator, and a special administrator alike. What differs is where the authority begins. A will names an executor and the court confirms the choice, while a court picks an administrator when there is no valid will or nobody named can serve.

For anyone working a listing, the practical question is who may sign. When a house belongs to an estate, the seller is not a living owner, it is the estate acting through its personal representative. The listing agreement, the purchase and sale agreement, and the Deed are all signed in that capacity, and escrow wants a certified copy of the court's letters before it opens the file. A will in a desk drawer proves nothing on its own. Not every interest travels this route, and life estates are worth reviewing next to this one.

How It Works in Washington

Washington probate law lives in Title 11 RCW. RCW 11.02.005(7) defines an executor as "a personal representative of the estate of a decedent appointed by will." RCW 11.02.005(15) then provides that "personal representative" includes "executor, administrator, special administrator, and conservator or limited conservator and special representative." One office, several ways in.

The authority itself comes from the court, not from the will. Under RCW 11.28.010, after the court enters an order admitting the will to probate and appointing a personal representative, "letters testamentary shall be granted to the persons therein appointed executors." If everyone named refuses to act or is disqualified, the same section grants "letters of administration with the will annexed," which is the path an estate also takes when the decedent died Intestate. RCW 11.48.010 then makes it "the duty of every personal representative to settle the estate ... as rapidly and as quickly as possible, without sacrifice to the probate or nonprobate estate."

Two rules show up in almost every real estate file. RCW 11.20.010 requires any person holding the will to deliver it to the court or to the named executor within 30 days of learning of the death. An executor holding the will gets 40 days to deliver it to the court. RCW 11.68.090 then gives a personal representative with nonintervention powers "the power to mortgage, encumber, lease, sell, exchange, convey, assign, and otherwise transfer the decedent's real and personal property" without an order of the court. That is how most Washington estate sales close on a normal timeline. Some property never reaches the executor at all. RCW 11.02.005(14) treats joint tenancy with right of survivorship, a transfer on death deed, and a community property agreement as nonprobate assets.

Example

Harold Nakamura dies in Tacoma leaving a will that names his sister Anne as executor. The friend who had been keeping the will in a filing cabinet delivers it to the Pierce County court within 30 days, as RCW 11.20.010 requires. The court admits the will, appoints Anne, issues her letters testamentary under RCW 11.28.010, and grants nonintervention powers.

Harold's house on North Junett Street is listed at $615,000 and sells for $602,000. Anne signs the listing agreement, the purchase and sale agreement, and the personal representative's deed as "Anne Nakamura, Personal Representative of the Estate of Harold Nakamura," and escrow keeps a certified copy of her letters in the file. Because RCW 11.68.090 gave her nonintervention powers, she never has to ask the court for permission to sell. The $602,000 lands in the estate account rather than Anne's own account, the mortgage payoff and the creditor claims come out of it, and the beneficiaries are paid after that. If you have not sat through one of these, our walkthrough of what to expect at your first closing covers the rest of the file.

Common Mistakes and Exam Traps

• Executor and administrator are different appointments. A will names an executor, and a court appoints an administrator when there is no valid will or nobody named can serve.
• Washington calls both offices by one name, personal representative, so a question that uses that phrase may still be testing the executor's job.
• The authority comes from the court's letters testamentary, not from the will alone. Escrow asks for the letters because the will by itself does not prove the power to sign.
• An executor does not decide who inherits. The will decides that, and the executor carries out its terms.