New Jersey Lawyers BlogExecutors Should Protect Themselves By Properly Closing Out the Estate
The last acts of an Executor of an estate are often making final distributions to the beneficiaries of the estate. But beware, in New Jersey, before making distributions, an Executor should require each beneficiary to provide a properly executed refunding bond and release.
Under New Jersey law, N.J.S.A. 3B:23-24, the executor or personal representative of an estate is required to take a refunding bond upon making a distribution pursuant to a dececendent’s Last Will and Testament. The same statue also requires that the refunding bond be filed with the surrogate who probated the decedent’s Will.
After all the estate assets have been collected, all debts of the estate have been paid, and a determination as to what each beneficiary is entitled to receive has been made, the executor or personal representative of the estate must prepare, or have the attorney representing the estate prepare, a refunding bond and release for each beneficiary which states, among other things, what the beneficiary will be receiving as their distribution from the estate.