New York Estate Accounting: An Executor's Guide

The document New York expects: the JA-7 schedules

A New York accounting is presented as a set of schedules, not a single page. Practitioners know the shape as the JA-7 schedules. Underneath is the same machine every state uses: everything you were answerable for on one side, everything that left or remains on the other, the two sides equal to the penny. The schedules itemize it. Receipts, disbursements, gains and losses on sales, distributions, and the property still on hand.

New York's format also keeps the estate's own money and the money it earned while open in separate columns. Principal is the property that existed at death and what you collected of it. Income is what that property produced afterward: interest, dividends, rent. That split is close to impossible to reconstruct a year later from bank statements, so tag every entry the day you record it.

ExecutorLedger's version is titled Account of Fiduciary (JA-7 style). Style is the honest word: not a court form, not filed as it prints. It is a complete, balanced document with your real numbers in it, ready for your attorney to read and for you to transcribe into the account your Surrogate's Court expects.

The dates a New York executor is working against

Letters issue and two clocks start at once. The Inventory of Assets form is typically due within 9 months after letters issue (22 NYCRR §207.20), and late filing can affect commissions, so confirm the exact date with your attorney. Separately, creditors generally have 7 months from letters to present claims (SCPA §1802). Distributing earlier can expose you personally, so confirm timing with your attorney before paying anyone out.

Two tax returns may or may not apply. A federal estate tax return, Form 706, is due 9 months after death only if the gross estate exceeds the federal exemption (IRC §6075); extensions are common, and whether one is needed is a question for your attorney. A New York estate tax return, Form ET-706, is due 9 months after death only if the estate exceeds New York's basic exclusion amount (N.Y. Tax Law §972) — confirm whether a filing is required with your attorney.

One date sits further out. If the estate is still open, a report of estate not fully distributed is typically due 2 years after letters, or 3 years if a federal estate tax return is required (22 NYCRR §207.42). Confirm with your attorney. Estates run long for ordinary reasons.

What the executor is paid

New York sets commissions by statute, SCPA §2307, and the arithmetic surprises people. The full schedule runs 5% of the first $100,000, 4% of $100,000 to $300,000, 3% of $300,000 to $1,000,000, 2.5% of $1,000,000 to $5,000,000, and 2% of everything above $5,000,000. You do not apply that once to the estate's value. You take half the schedule on the sums you received, and half the schedule on the sums you paid out. Gross rents collected earn a separate 5%.

Sums received and sums paid out are two different running totals, and neither is the inventory figure. Whatever a calculator gives you is an estimate to confirm with the estate's attorney before you take anything.

How New York estates usually close

Most close without a judge reading a line. You share the accounting with every beneficiary, collect a signed receipt and release from each of them, then make the final distributions and close the estate account. That is the informal route, and it is how most New York estates finish. Informal only means nothing is filed; the release is what a beneficiary signs their claim away on, so the document behind it cannot be thin.

If anyone won't sign, the road changes. You petition the Surrogate's Court for judicial settlement of the account instead, and the schedules get read by people looking for holes. You don't choose in advance which road you're on, which is the argument for keeping the books to the filed standard from the first week. Both documents come out of the same records.

What software can prepare, and what only you can supply

Software can carry the bookkeeping: every receipt and disbursement with its date, payee, and category, principal and income tagged apart, both numbers on a sale (the proceeds and the value the asset was inventoried at), and a running check that charges equal credits. It can lay that out in the JA-7 schedule shape and in the plainer informal accounting, from the same figures.

It cannot supply the caption: the county, the file number, your fiduciary title. It cannot read the will, so what the will requires of you is the attorney's question. It doesn't track mortgages or liens, so values print gross and you adjust when transcribing. And it cannot judge whether the 7-month creditor window has really run, or whether a judicial settlement is where you're headed. Those are legal calls.

Where ExecutorLedger fits

ExecutorLedger is free while you work: record for as long as the estate takes. Every court-style New York document previews free with your real numbers, watermarked and complete — the Account of Fiduciary in the JA-7 schedule style, the inventory report, and the informal accounting with its per-beneficiary distribution statements. $149 once per estate lifts the watermark. These are court-style documents shaped for transcription, never court forms, and your attorney should read them before anyone signs.

Questions New York executors ask