Who is responsible for the payment of funeral and burial expenses?
Often the funeral and burial take place before anyone locates and reads the will or qualifies to administer the estate. If there is a will, it usually is not admitted to probate until after the funeral. This means that there may not be access to the decedent’s money in order to pay for the funeral at the time the arrangements are made. However, the person who is named as executor in a will has the power to provide for the burial of the decedent and to pay reasonable funeral expenses even before that person has been formally qualified as executor. If there is no will and no other means of access to the decedent’s accounts, a family member usually advances the necessary money and then seeks reimbursement from the person who later qualifies as administrator and who then is authorized to use the decedent’s assets to pay the bill or to reimburse the family member who advanced the money. If the decedent has left no funeral or burial instructions, the person making arrangements with the funer
