Executor Handbook pages are written to be accurate, useful, kind and honest about where each fact comes from, and about what a page cannot know. Many readers come here during a hard few weeks, so we try to answer the question first and keep the rest plain. This page sets out how that works and where its limits are.
This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Estate law varies by state and changes. Ask the court clerk, or a lawyer or tax professional, about your case.
How a page is made
- Research. We start from primary sources and from our figures register, and note what they do and do not settle.
- Writing. A draft is written from that research under the Executor Handbook name.
- Fact-check. A separate check compares each rule, limit, deadline, fee and date with its source, and reworks every sum on the page.
- Graphics. Any charts or diagrams repeat figures from the text and add no new facts.
- Final review. A last read looks for errors, gaps and anything that could lead a reader to miss a step or a deadline. If it finds a serious problem, the page is fixed and reviewed again. We do not publish a page with a serious problem still open.
Each page ends with the date its sources were checked. No process catches everything, so please tell us if you find a mistake.
Our sources
Every limit, deadline, fee, percentage, form and rule links to a primary source at the claim: state statutes, session laws, court pages and forms, the IRS, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Social Security Administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and state agencies. If we cannot confirm something, we leave it out or say plainly that it is not confirmed. Our how we check page explains how each kind of fact is handled.
Court filing fees and statutory schedules come from those same sources. Lawyer bills are the exception, because no primary source exists for what an estate pays in practice. For those we show named published estimates, each labelled with what it measures, and we never average them.
Rules for legal pages
- Every page says near the top that it is general information, not legal or tax advice.
- A state limit, deadline, fee or rule reaches a page only if it was read in the statute or on the state’s official court or agency page, or in a dated archived copy of one, labelled as such. A commercial page or a summary doesn’t count.
- Every state figure carries its statute and the date we read it. Where a limit depends on the date of death, we say which deaths it covers.
- We never state a national rule that doesn’t exist. There is no national deadline to file a will, pay beneficiaries or close an estate, so we explain how it works and give the state rows we have read.
- We give no personal verdicts. Pages explain rules and questions to ask. They do not say what you should do, what you are owed, whether you would win or whether to sue.
- Pages on contests and disputes cover process only, and they name the point at which to get a lawyer: a deadline running, a disputed will, suspected fraud, an estate that may not cover its debts, a business, or a conflict between heirs.
- Personal liability is stated carefully, in what the source says and no further.
- Tax figures carry their year. We do not guess next year’s.
What we do not claim
- We do not handle estates or represent anyone. We never say “we tested”, “we filed” or “in our practice”, and we do not claim to have done the work we describe.
- We do not invent authors, quotes, family stories or client comments.
- We do not rank lawyers, firms, forms or products, and we do not call anything “best”. No route is right for every family: wills, trusts and probate are treated fairly.
- We never call a fee “fair”. We show schedules and estimates, and the court or your agreement settles the real figure.
- Photos are stock images chosen to illustrate a topic. They are not pictures of any real case.
Fairness
Claims from sellers and law firms are reported as claims. Where we report what firms commonly say, we write “firms say”, not “it is”, and we do not single out a firm when we question a claim. Honest disagreement stays on the page: where a statute and an agency differ, we show both. Sometimes the honest answer is that it depends on the court, and the clerk is the one to ask.
Calculators
Our calculators are formulas with named inputs and shown working, and each formula is checked against answers worked by hand before it goes live. Every default that is a rate or a rule says where it comes from, or that it is our assumption. They give estimates, never a verdict, and they never tell you what you are owed. They print numbers only, so read the notes on the page around them.
Updates and corrections
Limits and tax figures change, so pages are rechecked on the schedule set out on our how we check page, and sooner when a source they rely on changes. A page shows an updated date only when its content really changed. Errors are fixed and recorded on our corrections page.
Advertising and independence
Display advertising pays for this site, and advertisers have no say over what we publish. We use no affiliate links, accept no paid placements, sell no leads and make no lawyer referrals. We sell no forms, wills or trusts, and we make no loans. Our about page has more on how the site works.