Does the executor have personal liability?
Yes and no. No, because executors act as representative of the estate, so they do not personally take on the estate’s debts and obligations. Their responsibility is to pay those debts and obligations out of the estate funds, not their own. If the estate cannot meet its obligations, they are still not the executor’s responsibility. Yes, because the executor is liable to the estate if he or she does not administer the estate carefully and, for example, makes the estate insolvent through his or her actions, such as speculative investments or premature distributions to beneficiaries.
