The Uniform Probate Code published by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (1969) provides a choice among several systems of administration: simple and inexpensive ones for simple cases, and administration supervised by the court and containing elaborate safeguards for estates that are insolvent or under dispute or that present other difficulties. The scheme of the new code thus assimilates the U.S. law of winding up decedents’ estates into those of England and of the civil-law countries, where the simple estate is treated as the normal, where no executor is needed unless he is expressly provided for in the testament, and where judicial administration is limited to cases of exceptional risk or complexity.

Under both the English and the American systems, the winding up of an estate follows essentially the same pattern. Anything looking like a will is filed with the Probate Court. The person named executor by the will, or some other interested person, petitions for the admission of the instrument to probate. The procedure varies in detail but, following English tradition, generally provides the possibility of simple, quick proceedings.

A testator may choose as executor any person or any corporation engaging in the business of administering trusts and estates. But the law seeks to have the position of administrator filled by that person likely to be the one primarily interested in the estate. The statutes thus contain lists of the persons who have a right to be appointed. The first place is usually given to the surviving spouse, followed by relatives in the order in which they are intestate takers. If there is no surviving spouse or relative, the right to administer devolves to the creditors of the decedent and, in the last line, to a public officer.

Under the laws that prevailed in the United States into the mid-20th century, real property and personal property were not handled in the same way. Unless a testator disposed otherwise, the payment of claims was from the personal estate. The real estate was not to be touched until the personal estate had been exhausted. Accordingly, title to only the personal estate passed to the executor or administrator. Title to the real estate descended directly from the decedent to the heir or heirs, or to the devisee or devisees named in the will. If the personal estate was insufficient to pay all the claims, the executor or administrator would be authorized by the Probate Court to sell or mortgage as much of the real estate as was necessary. In many, although not all, U.S. jurisdictions this different treatment of real estate and personal estate has been abolished, making both liable for claims on an equal footing and equally subject to administration.

Under the English system an executor derives his position directly from the will; under the U.S. system an executor, like an administrator, must be appointed by the Probate Court, and no appointment will be made if the person is found to be disqualified or until he has taken the oath of office and posted bond.

An executor or administrator has to collect the assets of the estate, ascertain and pay the taxes and debts, and distribute the surplus to the legatees or intestate takers. In the civil-law system proper performance of these functions has its sanction in the personal liability of the heir for the debts of the decedent; if he takes steps to free himself of this liability, he has then to manage the estate like a common-law administrator or to hand it over to an administrator appointed by the court.

The office of executor or administrator may involve complex responsibilities. Unless one can be certain that there are no unknown debts, that the estate is solvent, that there will be no dispute about the distribution of the estate, that there are none but the simplest tax problems, and that there are no minors or mentally incompetent persons among the possible takers, one should not act as executor or administrator without the assistance of a lawyer.