Does the estate customarily pay for shipping to the heirs?

I am executor for a probate overseas. I need to get a feel for what is fair and what is customary, since the law in this country and the deceased's will have nothing to say about who pays the shipping. For one heir, the shipping charges would be nothing, since they live next door, and for the other two heirs shipping charges would be very high since they live 5,000 miles away. There is some valuable wooden furniture in the estate. One possibility is for the estate to pay for a single container from this country to a central location in the USA, and the heirs to pay for shipping from that central location to their homes. I want to make sure that the estate does not favor the heir that is closest; on the other hand, the estate should not pay shipping when the item isn't valuable enough to merit it.

Is there a generally accepted way of doing things, or a common guideline for estates with distant heirs?

Fairness would dictate that if you 'deliver' one heirs property the other heir has the same rights of deliver, regardless of the cost.

Any such cost would be a debt of the estate.

What you Might be able to have all heirs agree upon is sale of the assets for an in-kind distribution. If the items to be shipped are not of sentimental value, they can be sold and the proceeds forwarded to the heir in question.

It really depends more upon the laws of the particular jurisdiction where the estate is located more than anything else. If the jurisdiction has no rules on this, then follow your attorneys' advice. You have three options: make the estate pay for it, make the beneficiary pay for it, or have the estate pay for it and then deduct the costs of shipping fro any monies owed to the beneficiary from the estate.

Unless explicit in the will, the i would say no the estate should not pay for shipping's and the monies saved should be dived as pertained in the will

no different then a tax issue when you inherit something, the estate does not pay the tax, unless explicit in the will

One should not punish the heir who stayed by the deceased in the old county, and reward the two who moved, every one should be responsible for themselves for their things left to them in the will

It is not the executor job to spend extra monies that the deceased wanted distributed to the heirs

No, the estate does not pay for shipping of bequeathed items. The beneficiaries are responsible for that cost. It is unfair to the rest of the beneficiaries to spend monies from the estate for such costs.

if you ship to one heir,even if it costs nothing, then you will be required to ship to all the heirs. Why not just tell all the heirs they have to pick it up themselves, it is not actually your job to send the stuff to them