One thing i know about is the adverse effects to those dealing with an estate with no will =\ Ive seen cases where will's were lost, disappeared, etc. to the benefit of those who had access to the property during those final days. Ive seen will's appear months or years later from deposit box keys found or old local attorney's who were holding a copy, at any rate whomever was named executor by the court should have the right to collect up to 10% of the estate for the work involved (you can ask a local attorney about these rules), a court can also be requested to assign compensation to the beneficiary's who paid any money's (including their labor) which was paid on behalf of the settlement of the estate (this would certainly include all this preparation, heavy equipments, labor, time, auction fee's and expenses, etc,etc.). Those expenses and labor costs would come right off the top PRIOR to the division of assets to each beneficiary! save all your receipts, save all your time logs, save all your photos of the work which was preformed to get this estate settled (some distant beneficiary sucking on a martini in Cost Rica should NOT expect to do nothing and pay nothing for all that's involved in settling an estate such as this!). It is a tremendous amount of work and time involved in order to get the full and best value of the estate made "liquid" (this cost money, time and labor to do and a court will know this and allow for it!)