Arkansas Estate Accounting: An Executor's Guide

Arkansas probate runs through the circuit court's probate division, since probate merged into the circuit courts under Amendment 80. Two documents carry the numbers. Form 17, Inventory of Decedent's Estate, is a sworn snapshot of what the decedent owned on the day of death. Form 20, Accounting by Personal Representative, is the charge-and-discharge account for first, annual, and final accounts alike.

Both come from Administrative Order No. 12, which supplies the caption and affidavit block the forms print only as placeholders. On Form 20 the affidavit is required. Ark. Code Ann. § 28-52-103, Verified account of administration, says a personal representative must file a verified account.

Inventory (§ 28-49-110): generally due within 2 months after you qualify, carrying your appraisal of date-of-death fair market values, unless all competent distributees, and the guardians of the estates of any incompetent distributees, have filed written waivers of inventory and the court does not find a need for filing. Confirm the due date and whether a waiver applies with your attorney. Notice (§ 28-40-111): the notice of appointment generally must be published promptly after letters are granted, and copies typically must then be served on known unpaid creditors within 1 month after first publication. Each heir and devisee whose name and address are known generally must be served with a copy of the published notice within that same month (§ 28-40-111(a)(4)).

Form 17 opens with real estate, split into Homestead and Other real estate, then takes personal property in three subsections (Household Goods and Personal Effects, Other Tangible Personal Property, Intangible Personal Property) under one combined subtotal. Values are your own appraisement of fair market value as of the date of death (§ 28-49-110(a)(1)); no court-appointed appraiser is involved in the inventory itself.

Some parts only you can supply. Mark the homestead. Give real property its legal description, since a street address is not one. Put any mortgage or lien in the encumbrance column and reduce the Net Value to match. Leave off survivorship joint property and beneficiary-designated benefits unless they are payable to the estate, the rule stated in Form 17's Reporter's Notes. An asset found later goes on a supplemental inventory or into the next accounting (§ 28-49-110(b)).

The opening recital names you, your fiduciary role, the period covered, and the occasion for filing, one of the five in § 28-52-103(a): final settlement, revoked letters, resignation, the annual account, or the court's direction. Paragraph 1, Charges to accountant, opens with the inventory value on a first account, or the previous account's balance on a later one, then property received, income, and gains. Paragraph 2 is credits other than payments to distributees: disbursements and losses on sales. Paragraph 3 is credits for money paid or assets delivered to distributees. Each transaction shows its date.

SUMMARY OF ACCOUNT runs five lines: charges, credits as per paragraph 2, credits as per paragraph 3, Total Credits, and Balance remaining in hands of accountant. Paragraph 4 describes that balance at inventory value or cost, paragraph 5 lists changes in the form of assets that do not affect it, and paragraph 6 lists outstanding liabilities you know of (§ 28-52-104(a)). Only you can fill the county, case number, fiduciary role, occasion, and the fee you request in the closing THEREFORE clause. The vouchers sentence is a sworn representation, so gather cancelled checks and receipts for every paragraph 2 and 3 item before filing (§ 28-52-104(a)(2)). Interested persons then have until the sixtieth day after filing to object, or are forever barred (§ 28-52-106).

Ark. Code Ann. § 28-48-108 sets the fee schedule on the personal property that passed through your hands and was fully administered: 10% of the first $1,000, 5% of $1,000 to $5,000, and 3% above $5,000. Real estate is excluded, though courts can award separate reasonable compensation for substantial real-property work. The schedule is a ceiling. The court may reduce or deny fees where accounts are not filed or duties are not satisfactorily performed.

Arkansas is not a UPC state, so there is no sworn-closing-statement shortcut. After the 6-month claims window expires, pay allowed claims, the family's statutory allowances, and administration expenses, then file the verified final account with a petition for final settlement and distribution (§§ 28-52-103, 28-52-105). The order of final distribution is entered only after at least 60 days have run from that filing, unless notice and hearing were waived (§ 28-53-104). Distribute as it directs, file a signed receipt from each distributee (cancelled checks or title-transfer copies also count), and ask for the order discharging you and your surety (§ 28-53-118).

• Let the 6-month creditor claims window (running from first publication of your notice) expire, then pay allowed claims, the family's statutory allowances, and administration expenses before making final distributions.
• File a verified final account, official Form 20, together with a petition for final settlement and distribution in the circuit court's probate division (Ark. Code Ann. §§ 28-52-103, 28-52-105). Give whatever hearing notice the court requires unless the interested persons waive it.
• Once the judge signs the order of final distribution (§ 28-53-104, entered only after at least 60 days have run from the final account's filing, unless notice and hearing were waived), distribute as the order directs: checks, deeds, and transfers to the named distributees in the stated shares.
• Collect a signed receipt from each distributee (canceled checks or title-transfer copies also count) and file that evidence with the court, then ask for the order discharging you and your surety (§ 28-53-118).
• Keep your records afterward. The settlement can be reopened for fraud on a petition filed within 3 years of the discharge order (§ 28-53-118).

Arkansas is not a UPC state: there is no sworn-closing-statement shortcut like UPC §3-1003. Every regular estate closes through the circuit court (probate division, folded into the circuit courts under Amendment 80), and § 28-52-102 directs the representative to close 'as promptly as practicable.' The usual route is a final account, an order of final distribution, filed proof of distribution, and a discharge order. Where you are the sole distributee, or all competent distributees and the guardians of incompetent distributees file a written waiver of the accounting, a verified statement replaces the formal accounting (§ 28-52-104(c)(1)); a written demand by a claimant or interested person puts the formal accounting back.

ExecutorLedger keeps the books an Arkansas executor accounting needs and builds both documents from them: an inventory shaped like Form 17 and an account shaped like Form 20, six numbered paragraphs and Summary of Account, ready to transcribe onto the official forms. Recording is free for as long as the estate takes, and every document previews free with your real numbers. $149 (one-time payment) per estate lifts the watermark. Usually less than one attorney hour, and typically reimbursable by the estate. These are court-style documents, not court forms, and the estate's attorney reads the account before it is filed.