Short answer. Once the will is proved and allowed, the court issues letters testamentary to the person it names as executor, provided that person is competent, accepts the trust, and posts the bond these rules require. Being named in the will is only the starting point.
What the law says
When a will has been proved and allowed, the court shall issue letters testamentary thereon to the person named as executor therein, if he is competent, accepts the trust, and gives bond as required by these rules.
Rule 78, Section 4 — Letters testamentary issued when will allowed. Read the full provision →
Three conditions after allowance
Allowance of the will is the first step, not the last. Once the will has been proved and allowed, the court issues letters testamentary to the named executor only if that person meets three conditions: being competent to serve, actually accepting the trust, and posting the bond these rules require. Each condition is independent — satisfying two of the three is not enough, and the court withholds letters until all three are actually met. An executor who is competent and willing but who fails to post the bond, for example, still cannot receive letters testamentary no matter how clearly the testator's will names them for the role. The word 'shall' in the provision means the court has no discretion to withhold letters once all three conditions are actually satisfied — issuance becomes ministerial at that point, not a matter left to the judge's preference.
Being named isn't automatically enough
Naming someone executor in a will expresses the testator's preference, but it does not by itself hand that person legal authority over the estate. Letters testamentary, issued only after competency, acceptance, and bond are all satisfied, are what actually confer the power to collect, manage, and fully account for the estate's property going forward. Until those letters actually issue, the named executor has no more legal authority over estate assets than any other interested party does, whatever the will itself expressly says about the appointment. This is also why courts treat the bond requirement as substantive rather than a formality: it protects the heirs, creditors, and legatees against mismanagement during the period the executor actually controls estate property, before any final accounting is rendered.
What if one of the three conditions fails
If the named executor is found legally incompetent, declines to accept the trust, or is unable or unwilling to post the required bond, letters testamentary simply do not issue to that person. The estate does not simply go unadministered in that situation — the court proceeds instead under the related provisions governing who else may be appointed, whether another qualified person named in the will, a substitute agreed upon by the heirs, or, ultimately, an administrator with the will annexed appointed by the court. Whoever ends up appointed under those related provisions steps into the same three-condition framework: competency, acceptance, and bond remain the gatekeepers regardless of who is next in line to serve.
Related provisions
- Rule 78, Section 4 — Letters testamentary issued when will allowed
- Rule 78, Section 3 — Married women may serve
- Rule 78, Section 5 — Where some coexecutors disqualified others may act