Does an estate need its own bank account?

Part of Settle's executor guides · 51 jurisdictions · state content checked 2026-09 · page generated 2026-09-27

Yes. Estate money must never pass through your personal account — commingling is the single fastest way for an executor to end up personally liable and is what beneficiaries and courts look for first when they question your handling of the estate.

What this involves

Never mix estate money with your own.

How: Bring the letters, EIN, and a death certificate to the bank.

Applies in 44 of the 51 jurisdictions Settle covers.

Where it works differently

7 jurisdictions handle this their own way:

California, Florida, New York, Texas

How: Bring Letters, EIN, and a death certificate to the bank.

Michigan, Ohio

How: Bring Letters of Authority, EIN, and a death certificate to the bank.

Illinois

How: Bring Letters of Office, EIN, and a death certificate to the bank.

Settle builds this checklist into a plan you can actually work

The steps above, ordered for your situation in your state, with the deadlines on a calendar, your documents attached to the step that needs them, and an expense ledger for everything the estate owes you back. The plan itself is free.

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Where this comes from

This step is estate administration procedure, not a statutory deadline, so Settle's rule tables carry no statute citation for it and none is invented here. The answer above is the guidance the app itself gives, identical in every jurisdiction it covers.

The steps that are backed by statute — filing windows, creditor periods, inventory deadlines — carry their citation and last-checked date on the state guide and in Where the state information comes from. If something here does not match what the court or your attorney told you, please write to [email protected].

Your state, start to finish

This is one step out of roughly two dozen. The full sequence for your state — with the statutory deadlines, the citations behind them and the date each was last checked — is in the state executor guides.

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