When crafting an estate plan, you must start with a strong foundation. This means taking your time to select an executor that meets your needs. To ensure you have all the time you need to look, you should work on estate planning far in advance.
When focusing on finding your executor, you should keep an eye out for prominent traits that good executors share. They fall into two primary categories: personal and professional.
Professional skills of executors
Forbes discusses the recurrent traits seen in good estate executors. As far as professional traits go, you should look for someone with strong leadership and organizational skills. It helps if they have experience working with legal professionals and financial advisors.
Understand that an executor has an enormous task to undertake. Not only that, but they will handle probate almost entirely on their own. As such, you want a candidate that you can trust to get everything done on time, without someone managing them.
Pick someone with strong communication and people skills, too. After all, they handle communication between your legal team and beneficiaries. Your loved ones will struggle with grief and mourning after your death. You want someone who can handle talking to them in a calm, clear and concise manner.
Personal skills
On a personal level, your executor should have a strong understanding of your morals and principles. They should have the ability to act in your stead. They should make decisions that you yourself would make if capable of doing so.
They should also have the time available to handle probate. This process often lasts many years. Thus, your executor should not have any big life changes or plans that might eat into their time.