When my mother was living, she a noterized paper making me the executor. Which to me means that after she dies I pay can access her monty to pay her bills (funeral, taxes, bequests from her will, etc) from her account. But the Bank manager says since I am an executor, that there must be an estate checking account to pay the bills from. When I said "OK make an estate account for my mother". I was told no, and I should talk to a lawyer. I am trying to stay out of probate. Most of her money is in a savings account that has beneficiers on it (her 4 kids). I left a certain amount in the checking account for post-death expenses. Is the bank manager wrong?
When money is involved, the only way around probate would be having a joint account. It is too late for that, so you'll need to go through probate to free the money.