Respectfully Submitted by Cicely Nedd-Thomas
The primary purpose of an independent executor is to free the estate of the often onerous and expensive judicial supervision which had developed under the common law system. An independent administration allows for the distribution of an estate with a minimum of cost and delay. The Texas probate code provides that as long as the estate is represented by an independent executor, further action of any nature should not be had in the court except where the "code" specifically and explicitly provides.
The independent executor has authority, without an order of the court, to sell any property of the estate for payments of debts, whether the Will expressed such power or not. The executor can do whatever the court could authorize to be done, if the estate was under its entire control.
The duties of an independent executor are those of a trustee. The executor holds property interests, not for their own, but for the benefit of others. An executor manages those interests under an equitable obligation to act for the other's benefit and not their own. Executors are fiduciaries of whom the law requires an unusually high standard of ethical and moral conduct in reference to the beneficiaries and their interests. Their duties are more than the ordinary duties of the marketplace. Executors connote fair dealing, good faith, fidelity, and integrity. They may have additional duties that they would not in an ordinary business relation - a duty of full disclosure and a duty not to use the fiduciary relationship for personal benefit except with full knowledge and consent of the beneficiaries.
