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Washington Executor Duties
Pillar GuideWashington21 min read

Washington Executor Duties

Washington executor duties in statute order: deliver the will, qualify for letters, notify heirs in 20 days, inventory in three months, pay claims, then close.

By Settled Editorial

Washington calls the job personal representative, and the duties run in a fixed statutory order. Deliver the will within 30 days, take the oath and qualify for letters, notify the heirs within 20 days, inventory the estate within three months, decide how to handle creditors, pay allowed claims in the order the statute sets, then close.

Start with the word, because it decides which forms you pull and which articles you can trust. Title 11 RCW says personal representative everywhere. RCW 11.02.005(7) defines executor as a personal representative appointed by will, and RCW 11.02.005(1) defines administrator the same way for a court appointment, with either word usable in place of personal representative where the context calls for it. So executor is the everyday name for one version of the office, and personal representative is the legal term on your letters.

The court is the Superior Court of the county where the estate is administered, and the County Clerk is the filing counter. The Washington probate court directory maps all 39 counties to their court and clerk. For the whole sequence from petition to closing, read the Washington probate guide beside this page.

One warning before the duty list. Several of the sections below were amended this year by chapter 204, Laws of 2026, effective June 11, 2026. Anything written about Washington probate before that date describes an older statute.

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 person having custody or control of a will delivers it to the court having jurisdiction, or to the person named in the will as executor, within 30 days after receiving knowledge of the testator's death (RCW 11.20.010).
  • The named executor holding the will. That person delivers it to the court within 40 days after receiving knowledge of the death, under the same section.

RCW 11.20.010 gives that duty teeth. A person who wilfully violates it is liable to any aggrieved party for the damages the violation causes.

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Qualifying: Letters, the Oath, and the Bond

Your authority comes from the appointment, not from the will naming you. After the court admits the will and appoints a personal representative, RCW 11.28.010 issues letters testamentary to the person named. If some of those named refuse or are disqualified, letters go to the others. If all refuse, the court issues letters of administration with the will annexed to whoever would have taken administration had there been no will.

Where there is no will, RCW 11.28.110 sets what the petition must contain, and chapter 204, Laws of 2026 rewrote that list. The petition now has to name the heirs and describe the applicant's reasonable search for them, and to describe the major probate assets, including real property, motor vehicles and any known interest estimated in good faith to exceed 10,000 dollars, along with the search used to identify them. A surviving spouse or next of kin petitioning under RCW 11.28.120(1)(a) or (b) is excused from describing the assets but still has to set out the search.

RCW 11.28.120 then ranks who is entitled to letters when the decedent died intestate or the named representative cannot serve:

  1. The surviving spouse or state registered domestic partner, or a person that spouse or partner asks the court to appoint
  2. Next of kin, in this order: child or children, father or mother, brothers or sisters, grandchildren, nephews or nieces
  3. A trustee under the decedent's inter vivos trust, a testamentary trustee, a guardian, a conservator, or an agent under the decedent's durable power of attorney, where that fiduciary controlled or potentially controlled substantially all of the probate and nonprobate assets
  4. One or more beneficiaries or transferees of the probate or nonprobate assets
  5. The Director of Revenue for estates holding property under chapter 11.08 RCW, and the Secretary of the Department of Social and Health Services for estates owing debts for home and community-based services, either of whom may waive the right
  6. One or more of the principal creditors

Two fallbacks sit under that ladder. If nobody entitled petitions within 60 days of the death, RCW 11.28.120(2) lets the court appoint a contract service provider with the office of public guardianship and conservatorship or a guardian ad litem. If nobody petitions within 90 days, RCW 11.28.120(3) lets the court appoint any suitable person, and that appointee carries a distinct set of restrictions described further down.

RCW 11.36.010 rules out minors, persons of unsound mind, anyone whose letters were revoked for cause in the last 24 months, anyone found in the last 36 months to have engaged in dishonesty, theft or breach of fiduciary duty, and anyone convicted of a felony or a crime involving moral turpitude. Living out of state is not a disqualifier. RCW 11.36.010(6) appoints a nonresident on two conditions: you appoint an agent in writing who lives in the county where the estate is probated or who is the estate's attorney of record, that appointment gets filed with the clerk, and you file a bond approved by the court unless RCW 11.28.185 waives it.

Before letters issue, RCW 11.28.170 requires you to take and subscribe an oath that you will perform the duties of the trust according to law, and that oath gets filed in the cause. On the bond, RCW 11.28.185 excuses one where the will shows the testator meant to excuse it, where you are the surviving spouse or domestic partner and the whole estate looks distributable to you after expenses and creditor claims, and where a bank or trust company authorized to act is appointed. Every other case takes a bond unless the court waives it, and the court can order more bond later or reduce it on a proper showing. Our guide on when a bond is required walks through the amounts and the substitutes the court will accept.

Nonintervention Powers Decide How Heavy the Job Is

This is the fork in the road, and it is the thing generic executor checklists get wrong about Washington. Most solvent Washington estates are settled with almost no court supervision.

RCW 11.68.011(1) lets a personal representative petition for nonintervention powers whether the decedent died testate or intestate. Unless the will directs the court not to grant them, RCW 11.68.011(2) says the court shall grant the powers where it finds the estate solvent, counting probate and nonprobate assets, and one of three conditions holds: the will named the petitioner as personal representative, or the decedent died intestate leaving a surviving spouse or domestic partner who petitions where the estate is all community property and there are no outside issue, or the petitioner was not a creditor of the decedent at death and the grant would be in the beneficiaries' and creditors' best interests. That last condition carries a presumption in your favor until someone entitled to notice under RCW 11.68.041 comes forward with evidence against it.

RCW 11.68.041 sets the notice. No advance notice is needed in the two cases where the court must grant the powers. Every other case takes personal service or regular mail at least ten days before the hearing, to all heirs, all will beneficiaries and everyone who requested notice under RCW 11.28.240, with the notice stating in substance that the court may let you close the estate without further court intervention and that the recipient may appear and object.

Once granted, RCW 11.68.085 lets you administer and settle the estate without supervision or intervention by the court, except as chapter 11.68 RCW provides. RCW 11.68.090(1) spells out the powers: everything a supervised representative has or could be granted, plus borrowing on the general credit of the estate, mortgaging, encumbering, leasing, selling, exchanging, conveying and assigning real and personal property, performing the decedent's contracts, determining who is entitled to the estate, partitioning and distributing pro rata or otherwise, and the powers and limitations of liability of a trustee under chapters 11.98, 11.100 and 11.102 RCW. RCW 11.68.090(1)(h) makes the point plainly: you exercise all of it without a court order and without notice to, direction from, approval by or intervention of any court.

The duties do not vanish. RCW 11.68.090(2) keeps the same duties, restrictions and liabilities as a supervised representative, requires you to act for the benefit of everyone interested in the estate, and requires you to exercise discretionary powers in good faith, with honest judgment, and in line with the will's terms and the beneficiaries' interests. Read nonintervention powers for the petition, the hearing and the order.

Notice, Possession, and the Reports

Notice of your appointment, within 20 days. RCW 11.28.237(1) makes you serve or mail written notice of your appointment and of the pendency of the probate to each heir, legatee, devisee and each beneficiary or transferee of a nonprobate asset whose name and address you reasonably know, then file proof by affidavit or declaration. If a trust is a beneficiary, notice to the trustee is enough. RCW 11.28.237(2) adds a second mailing: if you have not given creditor notice under chapter 11.40 RCW within 30 days after appointment, you mail notice of your appointment to the Department of Social and Health Services Office of Financial Recovery and file proof of it.

Possession and management. RCW 11.48.010 is the general duty clause: settle the estate, including nonprobate assets within your control under RCW 11.18.200, as rapidly and quickly as possible without sacrifice, collect the debts due the decedent, pay the debts, and sue in your own name where the estate needs it. RCW 11.48.020(1) gives you immediate possession of the real and personal estate, the right to receive rents and profits until the estate is settled or distributed, and the duty to keep the houses, buildings and fixtures under your control in tenantable repair.

Reports. RCW 11.76.010 now sets three, and two of them are new as of June 11, 2026. Within 30 days of appointment you file a verified report confirming notice to third parties, naming everyone you notified under RCW 11.28.237, describing your search to identify them, and giving the date and manner of notice. Within 30 days of opening any financial account to collect and pay out estate money you file a verified report of that account, naming the bank holding it and each signatory. Not less often than annually you file a report of the affairs of the estate, showing claims filed, allowed and rejected, property received, sums collected and sums paid out. The court or any interested person may also request that report at other times, and you file it within 90 days unless the court sets another date, capped at two such reports a year. RCW 11.76.010(5) is the enforcement clause: miss a report and the court can compel sworn testimony within 14 days, impose sanctions and revoke your letters.

Read RCW 11.76.010 next to RCW 11.68.090(2)(b), which says a personal representative with nonintervention powers has no duty to follow the procedures of RCW 11.76.010 through 11.76.080. Which set of filings applies to you turns on whether the court granted the powers and when, so confirm the expectation with the County Clerk who issued your letters rather than assuming either answer. Our page on how to account to the beneficiaries lays out both tracks.

The Inventory: Three Months, and It Usually Stays Out of the File

RCW 11.44.015(1) gives you three months after appointment, unless the court grants longer, to make and verify by affidavit a true inventory and appraisement of the estate property that has come to your possession or knowledge, with a statement of every encumbrance, lien and secured charge. You determine the fair net value of each item as of the date of death, after deducting those charges, and classify the property as real property by legal description, stocks and bonds, mortgages and notes and other written evidences of debt, bank accounts and money, furniture and household goods, and all other personal property accurately identified.

RCW 11.44.015(2) is the part that surprises people who have administered an estate elsewhere. The inventory may be filed in the probate cause but need not be. What you must do is furnish a true and correct copy within ten days to any heir, legatee, devisee, unpaid creditor who has filed a claim, nonprobate beneficiary from whom contribution is sought under RCW 11.18.200, or the Department of Revenue, once that person asks in writing.

Property you learn about later gets its own inventory and appraisement within 30 days of discovery under RCW 11.44.025, with copies to everyone who already requested one. RCW 11.44.050 is the consequence: neglect or refuse to make the inventory in time, or to furnish a requested copy, and the court may revoke your letters, with liability on your bond for the injury your neglect caused the estate.

Creditors and the Order of Payment

Notice to creditors is a choice in Washington, and the choice is about time. RCW 11.40.020(1) says a personal representative may give notice in substantially the form set out in RCW 11.40.030. If you do, you file the notice with the court, publish it once each week for three successive weeks in a legal newspaper in the county where the estate is administered, may serve or mail actual notice on creditors you learn of, and must mail a copy including the decedent's social security number to the Office of Financial Recovery. Then you file proof of the giving and publication by affidavit. Where the decedent lived in Washington and the probate was opened in another county, RCW 11.40.020(2) moves the publication to the county of residence.

RCW 11.40.051 sets the bar, and its opening words matter: it applies whether or not notice is given.

Creditor's positionDeadline to present the claim
Got actual notice under RCW 11.40.020(1)(c)The later of 30 days after service or mailing and four months after first publication
Not reasonably ascertainable, no actual noticeFour months after first publication
Reasonably ascertainable, no actual notice24 months after the date of death
No notice given under chapter 11.40 or 11.42 RCW24 months after the date of death

RCW 11.40.051(3) makes that bar effective against both probate and nonprobate assets. Publishing is what converts a 24-month exposure into a four-month one, which is why solvent estates almost always publish. Our page on the notice and claim rules covers presentation, allowance and rejection.

Pay in the order RCW 11.76.110 sets, subject to federal preemption and to the priorities that encumbrances and liens carry:

  1. Expenses of administration
  2. Funeral expenses, in the amount the court orders or a representative with nonintervention powers determines to be reasonable
  3. Expenses of the last sickness, on the same reasonableness standard
  4. Wages due for labor performed within 60 days immediately preceding the death
  5. Exemptions and awards under chapter 11.54 RCW
  6. All other enforceable demands against the estate

Paying a low-priority creditor before a high-priority one exposes you personally. See the order of paying debts for what to do when the estate cannot cover everything.

Compensation: A Reasonableness Standard, Never a Percentage

RCW 11.48.210 is the whole answer, and it contains no schedule and no percentage. Four rules come out of it.

  • A will provision controls unless you renounce it. Where the testator provided for your compensation, that is your full compensation, unless you file a written instrument in the court renouncing all claim to it before qualifying as personal representative. That timing is easy to miss.
  • Otherwise the court decides. Where the will is silent, where you renounced, or where the estate is intestate, you are allowed the compensation the court deems just and reasonable.
  • Extra work can be paid separately. Additional compensation may be allowed for your services as attorney and for other services not required of a personal representative, and an attorney working for the estate at your instance is paid out of the estate on the same just-and-reasonable standard. You may wait for the final account or apply during administration for an allowance on either.
  • Failing the job costs you. If the court finds you failed to discharge your duties in any respect, it may deny compensation altogether or reduce what would otherwise be allowed.

RCW 11.48.050 sits alongside it and allows all necessary expenses of the care, management and settlement of the estate. Expenses and compensation are separate lines. To see what a court weighs when it sets the number, and what the estate is likely to allow, work through Washington executor compensation.

A representative appointed under RCW 11.28.120(3), the suitable person the court may name after 90 days, is on a tighter leash. RCW 11.48.210 gives that person no compensation from anyone other than the estate unless the court allows it, and RCW 11.48.020(2) bars that person from buying an estate asset or taking sale proceeds for personal account without court approval on 14 days' notice and clear and convincing proof, with sanctions up to three times the value of the asset for a violation.

Removal, and What Ends the Job

RCW 11.28.250 lets the Superior Court revoke your letters after notice and hearing where it has reason to believe you wasted, embezzled or mismanaged estate property, committed or are about to commit a fraud on the estate, are incompetent to act, moved permanently out of state, wrongfully neglected the estate, or neglected to perform any act required of you. Revocation ends your powers at once, and the court appoints a successor. RCW 11.68.070 gives any party a route under chapter 11.96A RCW to allege a breach of fiduciary duty, an abuse of discretion, a statutory violation or a removal ground, supported by a verified petition or affidavit.

Closing runs on two tracks. With nonintervention powers, RCW 11.68.110 has you file a declaration of completion stating the death date and residence, whether the decedent died testate, the will and probate order dates, that every justly due and properly presented creditor claim has been paid or resolved and estate taxes settled, that administration is complete, the intestate heirs and their shares where there was no will, and the fees paid or to be paid to the personal representative, lawyers, appraisers and accountants. Give the notice subsection (4) requires, and if no party petitions the court within 30 days, the filing works as the legal equivalent of a decree of distribution: the fees are deemed reasonable, your acts are approved, and you and your bond are discharged. RCW 11.68.100 is the alternative, a decree entered on your application after notice, where the court will determine the reasonableness of the fees on request.

Without those powers, you close under RCW 11.76.030 by filing a verified final report and petition for distribution showing money and property received since the last report, debts paid, the condition of the estate, the names and addresses of the heirs, legatees and devisees, and a description of the remaining property, and asking for settlement, distribution and your discharge.

For a single calendar of every dated duty in one place, including the ones outside chapter 11.48 RCW, work from that page while you administer.

This guide gives general information about Washington estates. Confirm anything that affects your own estate with the Superior Court in the county where the estate is administered or with a licensed Washington attorney.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

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Settled Estate is not a law firm and does not give legal advice.

Information current as of August 8, 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 Washington can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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