My father passed away and I am the executor of the estate. I now have everything reduced to cash. My dad had some losses in his long-term brokerage account and the longer we leave the money in there, the more we will be recovering. How much time do I have to distribute everything and pull the money from the brokerage account?
Legally you are required to close the estate as swiftly as possible. By being the executor, you’re an officer of the court. That means you are supposed to follow the rules the way they are written. They require the executor to act as swiftly as possible to allow the beneficiaries can get all the money. There is no time-line per se. I would guide my client in this particular situation would be to get all the children to agree and file the report to the court stating your reason for withholding the distribution of the funds.