Arkansas Executor Duties: What a Personal Representative Is Legally Required to Do

Being named executor in an Arkansas will is an honor — but it is also a legally enforceable obligation with real deadlines, mandatory court filings, and personal liability exposure if you do the job wrong. Most executors who run into trouble are not dishonest; they simply did not understand what the law required of them.

Here is what Arkansas law actually mandates a personal representative (the legal term for executor) to do, in the order it has to happen.

Before You Can Act: Appointment and Letters

You have no legal authority to act on behalf of the estate until the circuit court formally appoints you and issues Letters Testamentary (if there is a will) or Letters of Administration (if there is not). Until those documents are in your hands, you cannot open estate bank accounts, access assets, or sign on behalf of the estate.

To get appointed, you file a petition with the Probate Division of the Circuit Court in the county where the decedent lived. For a will, that is Form 3. For no will, it is Form 2. The court then reviews the petition, may require a hearing, and issues your Letters after you take an oath and post a fiduciary bond (unless the bond is formally waived).

Duty 1: File the Inventory Within 60 Days

This is the most commonly missed deadline in Arkansas probate. Under Arkansas Code § 28-49-110, the personal representative must file a complete inventory of all probate assets — valued as of the date of death — with the circuit court within 60 days of appointment.

The inventory must include:

• All bank and financial accounts (with date-of-death balances)
• Real estate (with current market values, requiring a formal appraisal for complex properties)
• Vehicles, boats, and titled personal property
• Business interests, including closely held companies
• Mineral rights (classified as real property in Arkansas; producing interests require a petroleum appraiser for accurate valuation)
• Any other assets that passed through the estate rather than by operation of law

Non-probate assets — property transferred via beneficiary deed, accounts with named beneficiaries, joint tenancy property — are excluded from the inventory. But the executor must actively identify these assets to avoid accidentally including them, which could expose them to creditor claims unnecessarily.

Consequence of missing the deadline: The circuit clerk is obligated to issue a citation demanding the representative appear within 30 days and show cause why an attachment should not be issued. Missing the 60-day inventory deadline also puts your statutory compensation at risk — the court can withhold or reduce executor fees.

Duty 2: Publish Notice to Creditors

Promptly after receiving Letters, the personal representative must publish a "Notice of Appointment" in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the estate is being administered. This notice must:

• State the date of your appointment
• Require all persons with claims against the estate to file those claims within six months from the date of first publication

This publication opens the six-month nonclaim period. Creditors who do not file their claims within this window are permanently barred.

In parallel, you must also mail direct written notice to all known or reasonably ascertainable creditors. The standard you are held to is "diligent search" — meaning you must actively look for creditors, not just wait for them to find the newspaper notice. Hospital systems, credit card companies, mortgage lenders, and utility companies should all receive direct mailed notice.

The critical liability trap: If you mail notice to a creditor within the last 30 days of the six-month window, that creditor gets an additional 30 days from the date of receipt. And if you completely miss a reasonably ascertainable creditor — someone you could have found if you had looked — their claims are not barred at six months. They remain viable until two years from the date of first publication. If you distributed estate assets to heirs before that two-year mark and that creditor then files a valid claim, you can be held personally liable for the shortfall.

Duty 3: Manage and Protect Estate Assets

During the administration period, the personal representative has an ongoing fiduciary duty to protect estate property from waste, loss, or theft. Practically this means:

• Securing physical property (changing locks on real estate, maintaining insurance coverage)
• Obtaining an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS and opening a dedicated estate bank account to prevent commingling of estate and personal funds
• Collecting outstanding debts owed to the estate
• Managing investment assets prudently — you are not required to maximize returns, but you cannot allow assets to deteriorate through neglect
• Keeping detailed records of every transaction involving estate funds

Duty 4: Pay Debts in the Correct Order

You cannot simply pay bills as they come in. Arkansas law mandates a strict priority hierarchy for paying estate debts, particularly if the estate may be insolvent (liabilities exceed assets). The required order:

1. Administrative expenses — court fees, your compensation, attorney fees
2. Funeral expenses
3. Federal taxes and debts with federal preference
4. Medical expenses from the decedent's last illness
5. State taxes and state-preference debts, including Medicaid estate recovery claims
6. All other general unsecured debts

Paying a general creditor — a credit card, for instance — before satisfying a higher-priority obligation like medical bills from the final illness means you have breached your fiduciary duty. If estate funds are exhausted after your early payment and a higher-priority creditor cannot be satisfied, you can be held personally responsible for the difference.

No distributions can be made to heirs until all valid creditor claims are resolved.

Duty 5: File the Final Accounting

After the six-month nonclaim period expires and all valid debts are paid, you must prepare and file an Accounting by Personal Representative (Form 20) with the circuit court. This document details:

• All income received by the estate during administration
• Gains and losses from any asset sales
• All debts and fees paid
• The proposed distribution of remaining assets

The circuit clerk publishes notice of the filing, and all interested parties — heirs, legatees, creditors — have 60 days to file objections. Anyone who does not object within this window is permanently barred from challenging the accounting. Once the court approves the accounting, you distribute the remaining assets and file receipts confirming each heir received their share.

Duty 6: Transfer Assets and Close the Estate

Real estate transfers to heirs via a Personal Representative's Deed, also called a Deed of Distribution, which must be recorded in the county recorder's office where the property is located.

Vehicles pass via DFA Form 10-306 (Affidavit of Inheritance of a Motor Vehicle) if formal administration is not required, or via a standard title transfer in the executor's name if formal probate was opened.

Once all assets are distributed and all receipts are filed, you petition the court for a formal discharge. The court issues an order releasing you from your fiduciary duties and discharging the bond.

Your Compensation

As personal representative, you are entitled to statutory compensation under Arkansas Code § 28-48-108, calculated as a percentage of the personal property that passes through your hands:

• 10% of the first $1,000
• 5% of the next $4,000
• 3% of the balance of personal property

Important caveat: Real estate is excluded from this calculation by statute. If you perform substantial work managing or selling real property — negotiating with buyers, managing repairs, dealing with tenants — you must petition the court separately for "reasonable compensation" for that real estate work. You will not receive it automatically.

For a detailed walkthrough of each of these duties with the specific forms, deadlines, and court procedures for each step, the Arkansas Probate Process Guide provides a sequential checklist that maps directly to the Arkansas Probate Code requirements.

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