Technical article

Selling for the Estate: Your Duty and the Traps

The question is whether the executor can buy a piece, and whether his brother can.

By Neil Solomon · 4 min read

Imagine a family where a mother has died and left a classic car, a coin collection and a set of silver. Her eldest son is the executor. He has always wanted the car. A dealer friend offers a fair-sounding price for it, and his younger brother says he would pay the same. Each of them asks, kindly, "Why not just keep it in the family?"

The question is whether the executor can buy a piece, and whether his brother can. The sources show where the rules sit.

The duty

In the United States, the executor is called a personal representative. Under the Uniform Probate Code as adopted in Idaho, a personal representative is a fiduciary who observes the standards of care that apply to trustees. The same section asks for the estate to be settled and distributed as expeditiously as is consistent with the interests of the estate. State versions differ.

In England and Wales, the Trustee Act 2000 section 1 asks a trustee for such care and skill as is reasonable in the circumstances, with a higher standard for someone with special knowledge or a professional. Section 35 applies the Act to a personal representative, with the will standing in for the trust document.

The sale to the executor

The model code has a section on this, numbered 3-713. The text in the files is a 1999 Hawaii archive copy, so current state versions are worth reading. It says a sale to the personal representative, the spouse, an agent, an attorney, or a business they substantially own can be voided by any interested person. The sale stands only if one of three things happened:

The rule also reaches any transaction with a substantial conflict of interest. The list names the spouse, agent and attorney. It does not name brothers or sisters. Whether a sale to a brother falls under the wider conflict wording depends on the state text.

So one answer is that the executor may be able to buy the car, if the other heirs know everything and agree in writing, or the will or the court allows it. Without one of those, the sale can be undone by an interested person.

A case that shows the cost

In Matter of Billmyer, decided in New York in 2016, an executor sold a brownstone valued near US$1.5 million for US$670,000 to a buyer who resold it three days later for US$1.3 million. The court surcharged the executor US$630,000 plus 6% interest. A law-firm article says the court held that a surcharge needs negligence and a lack of diligence, not only a missed top price. It is a real-estate case, and lawyers use it as the pattern for sales below value. It was not about a car.

What retaining or selling can weigh

Florida's prudent investor statute says a decision to keep or sell an asset may properly be influenced by the asset's special relationship or value to the estate or to the beneficiaries. A mother's car that three children care about may be that kind of asset. The same statute judges a portfolio as a whole. The sources do not say whether this rule is applied to a collection held in kind.

Traps from the sources

Two New York trust officers wrote in 2025 that an executor could get proposals from several vendors at each sale tier, to raise the value and limit liability. A grading company's news article told of an heir offered US$1,000 for a 1925 US$20 gold piece who netted over US$13,000 after grading. A collectibles columnist advises hiring an independent hourly appraiser who cannot buy from the estate, since some auctioneers offer a free appraisal if they get the sale.

The objection

You might say a family can settle this at the kitchen table without lawyers. Often they can. Consent after full disclosure is one of the three routes. The point of the paper is that a brother who agrees today has it in writing if a niece asks questions in ten years.

Doors you could open

You could write down each offer, who made it and what was disclosed. You could ask every heir for a signed consent before any family purchase. You could get a second price from someone with no interest in the sale.

Have you been the executor, or the sibling who wanted the car? What helped everyone feel the sale was fair? Share it here, and someone in the same kitchen may need it.

Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data. Date read: October 2026.