• Only a few states — mostly in the West and Southwest — allow testators to designate independent executors. But lawyers routinely write wills that relieve a trusted executor from obtaining appraisals, from providing inventories and surety bonds, and from obtaining court approval “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” The Uniform Probate Code endorses independent administration, and it is the usual process unless a party demands court-supervised administration.
— Also termed nonintervention executor.
