A lot of my clients ask whether I’ll help their family with probate matters after they pass away. In reality, very few executors actually need a lawyer’s help to carry out that role. An executor is always free to hire an attorney to advise and assist them, but in most estates, the legal work involved simply doesn’t warrant it.

Being an executor is a lot of work—closing financial accounts, cleaning out and selling the house, and paying off debts—but none of that is legal work, and your lawyer can’t do any of it for you. What an attorney actually handles is narrower: preparing a New Jersey Inheritance Tax Return, if one is required, or preparing an accounting for the beneficiaries and filing it with the court.

But if the estate’s beneficiaries are the spouse and children and the family gets along, there’s usually no need to file an inheritance return with the State or an accounting with the beneficiaries. Most of the job is administrative and logistical, the kind of work an organized, responsible person can handle alone, often with help from the bank and a real estate attorney.

Administering an estate is a lot of work. In most cases, it’s just not a lot of legal work.