Vermont Estate Accounting: A Personal Representative's Guide

Vermont administers estates under 14 V.S.A. chapter 63, through the Probate Division of the Superior Court in the unit where the estate is opened. A caption on a Vermont probate filing reads SUPERIOR COURT, the unit, STATE OF VERMONT, PROBATE DIVISION, because Vermont organizes its trial courts by unit rather than by the county-court structure some other states use. One form, 700-00030, also serves guardianships and trusts, which is why its own instructions speak of the decedent's estate in one limb and every other case in the other.

The first document is the Inventory, form 700-00030 (Rev 02/2024). It is a single table, four columns: item number, description, fair market value, and mortgage or lien. Vermont does not net the encumbrance against the value the way some states do; the lien or mortgage sits in its own column, beside the value, for the reader to weigh. The form closes with a declaration under penalty of perjury and asks for no notary.

The second document is the Summary of Account for Estate, form 700-00056PE (Rev 06/2026). It totals the personal and real-estate assets separately before combining them, lists every disbursement, and, on a final account, lists the proposed distribution to each beneficiary. It too closes with a declaration and no notary. Neither form is generated by ExecutorLedger as a substitute for the court's own document; ExecutorLedger builds the figures a preparer transcribes onto them.

The inventory is due within 60 days after appointment, and the statute sets no cap on an extension the court may grant for good cause (14 V.S.A. § 1051). The original is filed with the Probate Division, and the executor or administrator must also serve a copy on every interested person and file a Certificate of Service telling the court how that was done. The Certificate of Service is its own filing, separate from the inventory itself.

14 V.S.A. § 1065 allows necessary expenses in caring for, managing, and settling the estate, plus reasonable fees for services. There is no percentage schedule and no per diem. If the will sets its own compensation for the executor, that provision is full satisfaction for the executor's services unless the executor renounces it in a written instrument filed with the Probate Division, or the court orders otherwise.

So a Vermont fee is a reasonable amount you support with a record, not a number you look up on a table. ExecutorLedger never computes a Vermont commission from a percentage, since no Vermont statute sets one.

14 V.S.A. § 1054 excludes only two things from the inventory: wearing apparel of the decedent or of any household member, and provisions and other articles consumed or used in the household's subsistence. Furniture, jewelry, antiques, and collectibles are ordinary inventory items in Vermont; nothing in the statute sends them to the executor free of the estate. Even the narrow exclusion is not the executor's call to make alone: an excluded item comes back into the inventory only after a hearing on a motion, if the court finds it has value beyond its use or wear, or that including it would otherwise benefit the estate.

The inventory's own instructions ask for documents the app cannot supply, so ExecutorLedger prints each as a ruled note for the preparer: a deed or the latest property tax bill for real property, with the deed type, grantor, grantee, execution date, book and page, and recording town; a bill of sale or transfer document for a mobile home; a bank or investment account identified by institution, account type, and the last four digits; a title or registration for a motor vehicle; a description and value for any item or collection worth more than $5,000; and a lienholder's name and approximate amount owed for any lien on the property it burdens. The form also asks whether any listed item was appraised, and if so for the appraiser's name and address, which 14 V.S.A. § 1052 is the authority for.

The Summary of Account's numbered lines mirror the form's own schedule letters, personal assets first (A-1 through A-6), then real estate (A-7 through A-11), then disbursements (B-1 through B-10). A line the app has nothing to answer, such as monies advanced to the estate or attorney fees, prints a ruled blank rather than a zero, because a zero on this form says the preparer looked and found none. Gain and loss on a sale are measured against the inventory value, never the carried value, because 14 V.S.A. § 1058 says an executor or administrator neither profits by an increase nor bears a loss on a decrease without fault, and the gain or loss on a sale is measured against what the inventory said the property was worth. Gain and loss post on their own lines and are never netted against each other.

The account form states its own tie: on a final account, the current balance managed by the fiduciary should match the total of the proposed distributions, so that after distribution the estate holds a balance of zero. ExecutorLedger computes the current balance, which is pure arithmetic from the totals above it, but it does not compute the other side of that comparison, because the app holds no distribution plan. The proposed distribution to each beneficiary is the preparer's own to fill in, and checking the two sides against each other is the preparer's job, not something a silent zero-figure should pretend to do for them.

14 V.S.A. § 1057 requires the accounting to be done on a cash basis, and it expressly allows the account to be prepared on a spreadsheet or on any generally accepted software format the court accepts, as an alternative to the court's own forms, so long as it carries the balance at the start of the period, every receipt and payment, and the balance at the end. The Probate Division still has to accept the format offered, and nothing ExecutorLedger produces is itself a court form; the statute simply means a court is not required to insist on its own blank paper.

An account consented to by all interested parties is allowed without a hearing unless the court sets one, and an account may not be rejected for de minimis discrepancies unless the court finds good cause to reject it on that basis (14 V.S.A. § 1066).

If an estate has been open at least six months and the remaining assets include no real estate, a final accounting can be waived instead of filed. The executor or administrator files the fiduciary's verified representation that every claim and obligation is satisfied, a schedule of the remaining assets, a schedule of the proposed distribution, a waiver of final accounting signed by every interested party, and a tax clearance from the Vermont Department of Taxes (14 V.S.A. § 1069). Vermont keeps two forms for this route, a Motion to Waive Accounting and a Waiver of Final Accounting and Consent, which ExecutorLedger does not generate; the account print names both and states the two gates so a qualifying estate knows the route exists.

Vermont still has an estate tax, unlike most states this product covers. The Summary of Account's Affidavit of All Debts Paid, filed with a final account, asks whether an Application for Tax Clearance was filed with the Vermont Department of Taxes, and on what date. ExecutorLedger does not hold that date and prints a ruled blank for it. Ask your attorney or the Department of Taxes whether the estate owes anything and when a clearance is required; this guide states no exclusion amount, because it was not part of what was verified for this page.

• File the Final Summary of Account with Schedules & Motion to Allow Account (Form 700-00056PE) listing every receipt, disbursement, and the proposed distribution, and send it with a consent form to each beneficiary. If everyone consents, the Probate Division can allow it without a hearing (14 V.S.A. §1066).
• If the estate has been open at least 6 months and no real estate remains, ask to skip the full accounting instead: file the Waiver of Final Accounting and Consent (Form 700-00406B) under 14 V.S.A. §1069, with the verified representation that all claims are satisfied, schedules of remaining assets and proposed distribution, every interested party's consent, and the Vermont tax clearance.
• Get the Vermont Department of Taxes' clearance letter before distributing. Apply on Form E-2A (Vermont Estate Tax Information and Application for Tax Clearance); the Probate Division will not issue the final Decree of Distribution without it.
• If any beneficiary won't consent, the court will set a hearing on the account; written objections are generally due at least 7 days before the hearing (V.R.P.P. 66(e)), and the court decides whether to allow the account.
• Once the Decree of Distribution is final, collect a signed Receipt (Form 700-00153) from every beneficiary and file the Fiduciary's Closing Report & Discharge (Form 700-00152) with those receipts so the Probate Division can close the estate.

Vermont's probate matters are handled by the Probate Division of the Superior Court (Vermont folded its standalone probate courts into the Superior Court system effective February 1, 2011), not a surrogate's court or orphans' court. See 14 V.S.A. §§1066, 1069 and the Vermont Judiciary's 'Probating a Vermont Estate' booklet (Form 700-00302).

Recording is free for as long as the estate takes: every receipt and disbursement with its date and description, distributions per beneficiary, and a balance that checks itself as you go. ExecutorLedger builds Vermont-style documents from those records, an Inventory laid out in form 700-00030's four columns and a Summary of Account laid out in form 700-00056PE's own numbered lines, ready to transcribe onto the court's forms when you file them. Neither is a court form, and your attorney should review them before anything is signed or filed. Every document previews free with your real numbers, and $149 (one-time payment) per estate lifts the watermark. Usually less than one attorney hour, and typically reimbursable by the estate.