West Virginia

West Virginia does not have a probate court. Probate jurisdiction sits with the County
Commission, exercised in practice through the Clerk of the County Commission, who admits the
will, appoints and qualifies the fiduciary, administers the oath and takes the bond.

The fiduciary commissioner, and the supervisor

Once qualified, the executor answers to a fiduciary commissioner — an official appointed by
the County Commission, in practice usually a local lawyer, who reviews the accounts and settles
the estate. Larger counties also appoint a fiduciary supervisor to oversee fiduciaries
generally.

This is inherited directly from Virginia, which West Virginia separated from in 1863, and it
works much the same way: the person checking your arithmetic is an independent lawyer, not a
judge, and their fees are paid by the estate.

Short form settlement

Where all the beneficiaries consent and the estate is straightforward, West Virginia allows a
short form settlement in place of the full accounting process. It is markedly quicker and
cheaper. Ask the county clerk whether the estate qualifies before starting down the long route.

What the executor must do

Publish the notice to creditors, file an appraisement of the estate, pay the debts and the
final income tax returns, and file an accounting — or a short form settlement — for the fiduciary
commissioner to approve.

No state death tax

West Virginia levies neither an estate nor an inheritance tax. Only the federal return can arise.

Before distributing

Let the creditor period run, settle the taxes, and get the settlement approved. Distributing
before approval leaves the executor exposed to a late claim.

An attested West Virginia will must be in writing and signed by the testator (or by
another in their presence and at their direction), and signed by two competent witnesses in
the testator's presence. The testator must be 18 or older and of sound mind.

Holographic wills are valid

West Virginia accepts a will wholly in the testator's own handwriting and signed by them, with
no witnesses at all. At probate the handwriting must be proved, typically by people who knew it.

It is valid, and it is still a stopgap. A handwritten will does not name an alternate executor,
rarely disposes of the residue cleanly, and does not waive bond or authorise the short form
settlement — all of which cost the family money later.

Make an attested will self-proving

Attach a self-proving affidavit before a notary. Given that the county clerk qualifies the
fiduciary on the paperwork, a will that proves itself moves considerably faster.

Waive what you can

Expressly waive bond, name an alternate executor, and grant the powers needed to sell
property without a further order. Where the beneficiaries are likely to consent, a will drafted
with the short form settlement in mind can shorten the whole administration.

Mineral interests deserve their own thought

A very large number of West Virginia families hold severed mineral or gas interests, often
inherited generations ago and never formally probated. If that describes your family, address it
in your lifetime — see the professional executor topic. Leaving it to an executor to untangle
after a death is how interests get lost.

Also

• A surviving spouse has an elective share whatever the will says.
• Review after a marriage, divorce, birth or a move to West Virginia.

Yes. A West Virginia executor is entitled to reasonable compensation for administering the
estate — and it is the fiduciary commissioner, not a judge and not the beneficiaries, who
reviews whether the figure passes.

How it is assessed

West Virginia works from a reasonableness standard rather than a rigid tariff, with practice
conventionally referenced to a percentage of the receipts coming into the executor's hands.
Rates and practice vary between counties, and the statutory basis has been amended.

Ask your fiduciary commissioner what the county applies before you take anything. They deal
with this every week, and their answer is far more reliable than a percentage remembered from
somewhere else.

What can increase or reduce it

Unusual complexity, litigation, an operating business, mineral interests that had to be traced, or
property in several counties can justify more. Delay, late accounts, or charging for work the
estate's attorney actually did will reduce it.

It is claimed on the settlement

Compensation is requested in the accounting or short form settlement and allowed by the fiduciary
commissioner. There is no route to paying yourself first and explaining later — the settlement
shows it, and an independent lawyer reads it.

If the will fixes the figure

A will provision governs where the executor qualifies on those terms.

Tax

Compensation is taxable income to the executor; an inheritance is not. With no West Virginia
estate or inheritance tax for the fee to be deducted against, a family executor who is also a
beneficiary frequently does better declining it and taking a larger share. Worth an accountant's
view before deciding.

A West Virginia executor is reimbursed from the estate for the reasonable expenses of
administration, separately from compensation. Everything appears on a settlement reviewed by the
fiduciary commissioner, so document as you go.

Normally claimable

• Funeral, burial or cremation, the headstone, and a reasonable reception.
• County Commission filing fees, certified letters, certified death certificates, and
  publication of the notice to creditors.
• The fiduciary commissioner's own fees for reviewing the accounts — a routine and
  unavoidable West Virginia cost.
• Attorney's fees, and accountant's fees for the final Form 1040 and any Form 1041.
• Appraisals of real property, farmland, timber, and severed mineral, oil and gas interests —
  the last of these often needs a landman as well as an appraiser, and the cost is legitimate
  estate work.
• Title searches to establish what mineral interests the deceased actually held, which in this
  state can be genuinely substantial work.
• Carrying costs on estate property until sale: insurance, property tax, utilities, security,
  maintenance, lawn care and snow removal.
• Winterising a property, and storm and flood damage mitigation in the hollows.
• Cleaning, clearing, storing, moving and shipping contents.
• Travel on estate business at a reasonable rate — mountain roads make short distances slow.
• Bond premiums where the will did not waive bond.

Normally not claimable

• The executor's lost wages, meals near home, or personal spending.
• Costs run up for one beneficiary's convenience rather than the estate's.
• Improvements beyond preparing a property for sale as it stands.
• Anything without a receipt.

The rule that decides it

Open an estate bank account and run every payment through it. An independent lawyer reads the
settlement, so the record has to stand on its own.

Most West Virginia estates are administered by a family member working with the county clerk and
the fiduciary commissioner. A bank trust department or an attorney serving as executor earns
its cost in specific cases.

Consider a professional when

• The estate holds severed mineral, oil or gas interests. This is the West Virginia case, and
  it is common. Interests are frequently inherited from great-grandparents, never probated,
  fractionally divided among dozens of heirs, and leased to producers who are paying royalties
  into suspense because nobody can prove title. Sorting that out is specialist work involving a
  landman and a title search, and the value at stake is often far larger than the family expects.
• Heirs' property — surface land held undivided by many descendants without clear title —
  which raises the same problem and the same risk of a forced partition sale.
• The estate holds timberland, farmland, or an operating business.
• There is conflict among the beneficiaries, or a will contest looks likely.
• A beneficiary is a minor or incapacitated, so a trust runs for years.
• The named executor lives out of state, which is very common here, and cannot readily attend
  a county courthouse or reach a property up a hollow.

What it costs

Corporate fiduciaries charge a negotiated percentage with a minimum annual fee. Attorneys bill
hourly, and a landman is usually engaged separately by the day or the project. Remember the
fiduciary commissioner's fees come on top whichever route you take. Ask for all of it in
writing.

Middle ground

Appoint a family member, waive bond, and let them retain a West Virginia attorney at the estate's
expense — adding a landman where minerals are involved rather than a full corporate fiduciary,
which is usually cheaper and better targeted.

A named executor who does not want the job can decline before qualifying.