Who Will Look After
Your Estate?

David Cooper, Vice President
Washington Trust Bank
Wealth Management & Advisory Services

You’ve worked hard for your financial security. While you have taken steps to protect your financial security now, you may not have thought about who will look after your estate and provide security to your family members if something should happen to you.

A corporate fiduciary can be named as your personal representative or
as a co-representative with a family member. You can also name, as your personal representative – your spouse, a friend, a sister or brother, an adult child – as long as that person is over the age of majority and mentally competent.

Important considerations

As you consider who will represent your estate, family members may seem like the best choice. What you may not realize is the huge, complex responsibility of settling an estate may be a far greater burden than intended.

Will your property be distributed fairly?

Family members may be too distracted to properly manage and distribute your property. They may not be able to act as impartial and objective as a corporate fiduciary.

Will you pay no more estate or income taxes than absolutely necessary?

Your personal representative should have the tax and estate settlement expertise necessary to settle your estate accurately and most cost-effectively.

Can your personal representative cope with the grief of your death and meet the demands of managing and settling a sizable estate?

The settlement process could go on longer than expected and cost your family more in taxes and other expenses.

Communication: A key to improving the
estate planning experience

Transferring wealth from generation to generation is always challenging but thoughtful, collaborative planning and open communication are the keys to success. By utilizing a corporate fiduciary early on in family discussions, you can help ensure your wealth will be passed to your family in the manner you envisioned.

For more than 100 years, Washington Trust Bank’s Wealth Management & Advisory Services has provided the guidance and expertise to resolve complex money matters. We’d like to help you – contact David Cooper at 208-345-3343 or dcooper@watrust.com.

Twelve Common Duties
of a Personal Representative

1. Locate the Decedent’s Will.
2. Confer with the lawyer who will serve as attorney for the estate and arrange with the lawyer for probate of the Will, if appropriate.
3. Talk with family members to determine any immediate financial requirements.
4. Make tentative arrangements for support and maintenance payments to be paid to loved
   ones during the settlement period.
5. Initiate court action to acquire legal authority to serve as personal representative.
6. Manage property – including any business – during the settlement period.
7. Distribute property according to the directions in the Will.
8. File final personal income tax return on behalf of the Decedent.
9. Choose a tax year for the estate.
10. File the estate’s federal income tax return.
11. Fund any Trust created in the Will.
12. Complete and file the federal and state estate tax returns, if necessary.

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