What are an heir's rights regarding the actions of an executor?

Executors and Heirs' Rights

If you do not agree with the executor, you may wish to hire an attorney to act on your or your families behalf. Heirs do have rights, but, as with most issues, heirs need guidance from someone. Attorneys are educated in all aspects of the law. Most specialize in something, be it Estates, Divorce, Accidents, Wrongful Death, etc.
More input from FAQ Farmers:

• I would contact the probate court in the town your parent lived in, verify with them that it is the correct probate court and then see if the will has been probated. Sometimes small estates don't need to be probated, however they can be. See if you can petition the probate court to prove the will. The court will order that anyone having knowledge of a will, to produce it for the court. If that doesn't work, then your parent died intestate. The probate court can tell you what to do nonetheless.

• Options available: (1) ask for special request of notice. (2) ask that the trustee be bonded. (3) verify the deed of trust (house) title of car. (4) show proof to the bank; look for unusual payouts. (5) try to get copy of credit report. DO NOT believe what you hear from a trustee.

• An executor of a will has fiduciary duties under the common law, to act within the parameters of the testamentary document - to the letter! - and to do so always safeguarding each and every interest therein delineated. This means that not a dang thing can be changed, or withheld, or used to benefit ANYONE in ANY WAY (ESPECIALLY NOT THE THE EXECUTOR HERSELF!) without flat out breaking the law. If an executor pulls stuff, immediately the party wronged files suit civily for breach of the executory duties and pleads for immediate removal of the executor for this breach, alleges damages (whatever they might be), and asks the court to act quickly to appoint an interim executor (an uninterested, unbiased individual of the court's choosing who has experience in this sort of thing - usually a lawyer or big banker type) who will take the reins while the aggrieved party litigates the issue of the wrongdoing. Now, the judge may say, hey, I don't see anything untoward here, you have not shown me enough evidence in your plea to me that this executor did anything wrong, and could refuse to remove her. Generally, though, in a case like this, it's so obvious that the accused executor really did act wrongfully - why else would there be an appeal to the judge like this, and the whole will/trust/whatever will be be placed in the independently appointed trustee's hand until it is sorted out. I wish I could describe some of the wild, seminal lawsuits we all read in law school about this stuff- it can get very nasty indeed - he said, she said, etc. But the key thing is that the will or trust, assuming it is valid (a whole other story) reigns supreme, and there is no way an executor can fiddle with it.