A corporation is a legal entity established by or pursuant to a state charter, and is legally separate and distinct from the owners of the corporation, its shareholders. A corporation must be organized in any one of the fifty states, or a territory. The corporation's shareholders elect the members of the Board of Directors, and the Board of Directors then hire the corporation's Officers, who run the day to day business. The person who passed away. The Executor of your Will and estate is the person named in your Will to supervise your estate following your death, and who is required to consolidate and liquidate your assets, file final tax returns, pay creditors, possibly handle litigation between feuding heirs and beneficiaries, and ultimately distribute your assets to the named beneficiaries.
Most people name as the executor their spouse, a child or closely trusted friend.
Before choosing an Executor, think if that person wants to handle the responsibility of managing your estate - although you may think you are honoring someone to be named Executor of your estate, being the Executor takes work and may place such person between feuding heirs or beneficiaries. This term is really a misnomer. These exemptions are discussed in Additional Tax Saving Techniques . An bookkeeper with her own bookkeeping business with ten clients, spending 10 hours a week doing one employer's books, would be deemed an independent contractor. That same person working only for that one business each day from 9 to 11 a.m. at that business's offices, would likely be deemed a part-time employee, no matter if she were called an independent contractor or not.