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Vermont Executor Duties
Pillar GuideVermont22 min read

Vermont Executor Duties

Vermont executor duties in statute order: qualify in the Probate Division, file the bond before letters, file the 60-day inventory, then account and close.

By Settled Editorial

Vermont executor duties run in a fixed statutory order. Deliver the will within 30 days, petition the Probate Division, file the bond before letters issue, file the inventory within 60 days of appointment, publish notice to creditors and let the four-month claim window run, pay claims in the order the statute sets, then account and close.

Start with the word Vermont uses, because it decides which forms you pull and which articles you can trust. Title 14 says executor or administrator everywhere, from the heading of 14 V.S.A. chapter 61 to the individual liability rule at § 1208. Vermont never adopted the Uniform Probate Code, so personal representative is not its statutory term. A checklist built on that word was written for another state, and it will send you looking for filings Vermont does not use.

The court is the second correction. 4 V.S.A. § 272(a) puts one Probate district in each county, designated by the name of the county, and each district elects its own Probate judge. The court you file in is your county's Probate Division of the Superior Court, and the Judiciary titles each one for its county alone, as in "Addison Probate Division" and "Essex Probate Division", with no word "County" in the name. The Vermont probate court directory maps each county to its division. For the whole sequence from petition to final decree, read the Vermont probate guide beside this page.

Your authority comes from the appointment, not from the will naming you. Under 14 V.S.A. § 902, once the court allows the will it issues letters of administration to the person named executor, and only if that person accepts the appointment and gives any required bond. Banks and town clerks ask to see those letters or a certificate of appointment. 32 V.S.A. § 1434(b) charges no fee for the documents that open an estate, including two certificates of appointment and the letters that go with them, so ask the Probate Division for both while you are there.

The Will Moves First, on a 30-Day Clock

Two duties run before anyone is appointed, and they land on different people.

  • Whoever holds the will. A custodian of a will delivers it to the Probate Division where venue lies, or to the executor named in the will, within 30 days after learning of the testator's death (14 V.S.A. § 103).
  • The named executor. A person named executor who knows about the will files a death certificate and a petition to open the estate in the Probate Division where venue lies, with reasonable promptness (§ 104).

Read § 104 carefully, because it prints no number of days. Any source that gives you a deadline for filing the petition invented it. Section 104(b) also covers the case where nothing needs administering: the named executor may file the original death certificate and the will without a petition, by telling the court that no assets appear to require probate administration.

Where no will names an executor, § 903 sets who the court may appoint, in this order:

  1. The surviving spouse or next of kin, or both, or a person they nominate
  2. One or more of the principal creditors, if competent and willing to serve, where the family is unsuitable or does not apply within a reasonable period of time
  3. Another person the Probate Division appoints in its discretion, where no willing creditor steps forward
  4. A suitable person appointed for the purpose of a quiet title action or another action to clear title, on the application of the reputed owner of land the decedent formerly owned

A named executor who refuses the trust, or who lets 20 days pass without giving a bond, may not intermeddle or act (§ 909). The court then turns to any other named executor, and after that to letters of administration with the will annexed. If you live out of state, § 904 lets the court appoint you only at its discretion, and it requires you to designate a Vermont resident in writing who accepts service of process for you and files that acceptance with the court. The Judiciary publishes form 700-00026, Appointment of Resident Agent, for exactly that.

Where the estate would suffer during the gap, an heir or next of kin may move for a special administrator under § 961, who acts until a regular fiduciary qualifies and may keep the decedent's business running. Section 962 covers the other gap, where an appeal over the will or some other cause delays letters.

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Your Bond Is the Job Description

14 V.S.A. § 906 says you shall give a bond to secure your performance, the Probate Division sets the amount, and the court may order that the bond carry sureties. The timing matters more than the number: the bond is filed before the court issues letters, so no bond means no authority. Section 2101 adds that probate bonds run for the security and benefit of all interested persons, and § 908 lets the court take separate or joint bonds when it appoints two or more fiduciaries.

The conditions the court sets under § 906 read like the duty list itself:

  1. Make and return an inventory to the Probate Division within 60 days as required by law and the rules of the court
  2. Administer all property of the estate according to law and the will, and discharge the debts, legacies and charges
  3. Render an account of administration to the Probate Division within one year, and at any other time the court requires
  4. Pay the State the inheritance and transfer taxes required by 32 V.S.A. chapters 181 and 183
  5. Perform all orders and decrees of the Probate Division

Condition four is a trap worth naming. Both chapters it cites are dead: 32 V.S.A. chapter 181 prints §§ 6501-6952. Repealed. and chapter 183 prints §§ 7001-7005. Repealed. Vermont charges no inheritance tax. The estate tax it does charge lives in 32 V.S.A. chapter 190, and the executor duty there is real, so see the tax section below rather than reading condition four as a live bill.

Two routes change the bond. A small estate under § 1901(a)(7) files a bond without surety in the amount of the fair market value of the estate. A waiver of administration order under § 1852(c) waives or discharges the bond outright, along with the inventory. The Vermont bond requirements guide works through which estates draw a surety and what one costs.

File the Inventory Within 60 Days of Appointment

Section 1051 gives you 60 days from appointment, not from the death. The inventory lists the property the decedent owned at death in reasonable detail, and for each item it shows the fair market value as of the date of death plus the type and amount of any lien or encumbrance. You file the original with the Probate Division and serve copies under the Rules of Probate Procedure. The court may extend the deadline for good cause, and a special administrator or a successor whose predecessor already filed is excused. The form is 700-00030, Inventory.

Values move, and § 1053 tells you what to do about it. Learn of property you missed, or find that a value or description was wrong or misleading, and you file a supplemental inventory showing the date-of-death value and whatever appraisals or data you relied on. Other people get a say too. Within 30 days after any inventory is filed, a creditor with a claim over $1,000.00, or an heir, devisee or legatee entitled to property or cash worth more than $500.00 on distribution, may move for a hearing, and the court may appoint special appraisers to reappraise an item or appraise something you left out.

The two simplified routes handle this differently. A small estate files its inventory with the petition under § 1901(a)(5), using whatever information or estimates it has, and then confirms, corrects or supplements it within 60 days after letters issue under § 1902(b). Small estate letters also expire one year after issuance unless the court extends them for good cause. A waiver of administration order removes the inventory duty entirely.

Publish Notice, Then Wait Four Months Before You Pay

This is the deadline Vermont gets wrong in most national articles. Section 1203(a)(1) bars claims that arose before the death unless a creditor presents them within four months after the date of the first publication of notice to creditors, where notice went out under the Rules of Probate Procedure. The clock hangs on publication. It does not start at the death, and it does not start at your appointment.

The rest of § 1203 fills in the edges:

  • No notice, one year. Where notice to creditors was never published or otherwise given, the window runs one year after the death under § 1203(a)(2).
  • Claims that arise after the death. Four months after the claim arises, or for a contract with you as fiduciary, four months after your performance is due, under § 1203(b).
  • Vermont Medicaid sits outside subsection (a). The State's Medicaid claim must be presented within four months after first publication regardless of the date of death or when you opened the estate, under § 1203(d).
  • Some claims survive the bar. Section 1203(c) preserves proceedings to enforce a mortgage, pledge or other lien, liability covered by insurance up to the policy limits, and the enforcement of tax liability.

One wrinkle belongs on the record rather than in a tidy summary. A second section, § 931, bars the same class of pre-death claims unless they are presented within one year after the death, and it says nothing about publication. The two sections carry different clocks and were last touched by the same 2023 act. Ask your Probate Division which one governs your estate before you rely on the longer number.

You can skip publication only by order. Section 1201(a) lets the court excuse notice where there are no debts, where you know all the debts and have funds to pay them, or where the estate is worth $2,500.00 or less and is assigned for the support of a surviving spouse. Section 1201(b) prices that shortcut: assets you distribute stay subject to claims later established, though you are not liable to the people you paid when they have to reimburse a creditor. The court form for the ordinary route is PE32, Notice to Creditors. The Vermont creditor claims guide covers presentment, allowance and disallowance in full.

Pay Claims in the Order the Statute Sets

Section 1207(a) tells you when to start paying: after four months from first publication, and after you provide for homestead, family and support allowances, for claims presented but not yet allowed or under appeal, for unbarred claims that may still come in, and for the costs of administration. A claimant whose allowed claim goes unpaid can petition for an order directing you to pay it.

Paying early is where fiduciaries get personally billed. Under § 1207(b) you may pay a just, unbarred claim at any time, and you become personally liable to an injured claimant if you paid before the four months ran without taking adequate security for a refund, or if your negligence or willful fault stripped another claimant of priority.

Where the estate cannot cover everything, § 1205(a) fixes the order:

  1. Costs and expenses of administration
  2. Reasonable funeral, burial and headstone expenses and perpetual care, capped at $3,800.00 exclusive of governmental payments, plus reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness
  3. Wages earned by employees within three months before the death, capped at $300.00 for each claimant
  4. All other claims, including the balance of unpaid wages above that cap

Section 1205(b) forbids preferring one claim over another in the same class and prorates within a class when the money runs short. The Vermont debt payment priority guide walks an insolvent estate through those four classes.

Handle the Tax Filings Nobody Warns You About

Two Title 32 duties sit on the fiduciary. Section 7444(a) makes an executor submit a Vermont estate tax return where the decedent had an interest in Vermont-situs property and either a federal estate tax return is due, or the federal gross estate plus federal adjusted taxable gifts made within two years of the death exceed $2,750,000.00. Notice that the filing trigger is lower than the amount at which Vermont actually taxes an estate, so a return can be due on an estate that owes nothing. Section 7446 gives you nine months from the death to file, with a six-month extension available if you apply before the period expires.

The second one shows up at closing. Section 7454 covers discharge of the executor and income tax clearance, and § 1069(5) makes a tax clearance from the Vermont Department of Taxes one of the five things you file to skip a final accounting.

Account Within One Year, Then Every Year After

Section 1055 requires an account of your administration within one year from the time you received letters, and annually after that, or otherwise as the court orders, until the estate is wholly settled. The court may examine you on oath about anything in it. Notice goes out before the court allows an account under § 1067, and under § 1066 an accounting every interested party consents to is allowed without a hearing unless the court sets one. That section also tells the court not to reject an account over de minimis discrepancies without good cause. The form is 700-00056PE, Summary of Account with Schedules.

There is a way out of the final accounting. Section 1069 waives it once the estate has been open at least six months and the remaining assets include no real estate, if you file your verified representation that claims and other obligations are satisfied, a schedule of remaining assets, a schedule of proposed distribution, a waiver and consent signed by all interested parties, and the Department of Taxes clearance. Vermont publishes form 700-00406B, Waiver of Final Accounting and Consent, for the signatures.

Three sections turn accounting into personal exposure. Costs awarded against you are allowed in your account unless you prosecuted or resisted the case without just cause (§ 1064). Using or occupying an estate asset yourself means accounting for that use, by agreement or by the court's determination (§ 1062). And neglecting or unreasonably delaying to collect debts, sell property or pay money over, where the estate loses value or interested people suffer loss, is deemed waste and gets charged against you in your account or against your bond (§ 1063). The Vermont probate accounting guide shows what each schedule has to carry.

What You Get Paid

Section 1065 allows you necessary expenses in the care, management and settlement of the estate, plus reasonable fees for services. Vermont sets no percentage and publishes no schedule, so the Probate Division reviews what you claim. Where the will makes some other provision for your compensation, that provision is full satisfaction for your services, unless you file a written instrument with the court renouncing all claim to it or the court orders otherwise. Read the will before you bill. Our Vermont executor compensation page works through what the Probate Division weighs and why no percentage exists to quote.

Four Duties Most Checklists Skip

  • Keep the buildings up. Section 929 makes you maintain the houses, buildings and fences belonging to the estate in tenantable repair and deliver them in that condition when the court directs.
  • Sign contracts in your fiduciary capacity. Section 1208(a) shields you from individual liability on a contract you properly entered as fiduciary, but only if the contract reveals your representative capacity and identifies the estate. Section 1208(b) leaves you individually liable for ownership obligations and torts where you are personally at fault.
  • Termination is not discharge. Section 917a ends your powers on death, closing of the estate, resignation after a successor takes the assets, or removal. It does not release you from liability for what you did before, nor from the duty to preserve assets and account for them.
  • Perpetuate the evidence that you paid. Section 2107 lets you present an account of the payments and deliveries you made under a decree, within one year of the decree or a time the court allows. Allowed and verified, it becomes your final discharge and forever exonerates you and your sureties, unless the account is impeached for fraud or manifest error.

Filing fees are statewide rather than per-district, and 32 V.S.A. § 1434(a) bands them by estate value, starting at $50.00 for estates of $10,000.00 or less and $110.00 from there to $50,000.00. An annual account covering a period that ends more than a year after your appointment carries its own $85.00 fee under § 1434(a)(12). Every dated duty above sits on one page in the Vermont probate deadlines reference.

Common Questions

What are the duties of an executor in Vermont?

Deliver the will to the Probate Division or to the named executor within 30 days of learning of the death under 14 V.S.A. § 103, file a death certificate and a petition to open the estate with reasonable promptness under § 104, give the bond the court sets before it issues letters under § 906, file an inventory within 60 days of appointment under § 1051, publish notice to creditors and wait out the four-month window in § 1203(a)(1) before paying, pay allowed claims in the § 1205 order, render an account within one year of letters and annually after that under § 1055, then distribute and close.

When is the Vermont estate inventory due?

Within 60 days after appointment. 14 V.S.A. § 1051 measures that clock from the appointment rather than from the death, and the inventory must list the decedent's property in reasonable detail with the fair market value of each item as of the date of death plus the type and amount of any lien or encumbrance. You file the original with the Probate Division and serve copies under the Rules of Probate Procedure. The court may extend the deadline for good cause. The court form is 700-00030, Inventory. A small estate files its inventory with the petition instead and then confirms, corrects or supplements it within 60 days after letters issue under § 1902(b).

How long do creditors have to file a claim against a Vermont estate?

Four months after the date of the first publication of notice to creditors, not four months from the death and not four months from your appointment. 14 V.S.A. § 1203(a)(1) sets that bar where notice goes out under the Rules of Probate Procedure, and § 1203(a)(2) stretches the window to one year after the death only where notice was never published or otherwise given. Claims that arise at or after the death get their own four months under § 1203(b). Claims the State files on behalf of Vermont Medicaid sit outside subsection (a) and run four months from first publication under § 1203(d) no matter when the decedent died.

Does a Vermont executor have to post a bond?

Yes in a normal estate. 14 V.S.A. § 906 says an executor or administrator shall give a bond, the Probate Division sets the amount, the court may order sureties, and the bond gets filed before the court issues letters. Two routes soften it. A small estate under 14 V.S.A. § 1901(a)(7) files a bond without surety in the amount of the fair market value of the estate. A waiver of administration order under § 1852(c) waives or discharges the bond outright. A named executor who refuses the job or lets 20 days pass without giving a bond may not act at all under § 909.

How much does a Vermont executor get paid?

Whatever the Probate Division allows as reasonable. Vermont publishes no percentage and no fee schedule anywhere in Title 14. 14 V.S.A. § 1065 allows the executor or administrator necessary expenses in the care, management and settlement of the estate plus reasonable fees for services. Where the will sets compensation, that provision is full satisfaction for the services unless the executor files a written renunciation of it with the court or the court orders otherwise.

Is a Vermont executor called a personal representative?

No. Vermont never adopted the Uniform Probate Code, so personal representative is not its statutory term. Title 14 says executor or administrator throughout, from the heading of chapter 61 to the individual liability rule at 14 V.S.A. § 1208 and the multi-state administration duty at § 1215. Executor is the case where a will names you and the court allows the will. Administrator is the appointment the court makes under § 903 when no will names an executor or the named executor cannot serve.

This guide gives general information about Vermont estates. Confirm anything that affects your own estate with your county Probate Division or a licensed Vermont attorney. If you are still working out which route the estate qualifies for, start with the Vermont probate guide and the Vermont probate court directory.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

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Information current as of August 4, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Vermont can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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