In Illinois, estates can be administered under an Independent Administration or a Supervised Administration.
Unless an interested party requests a supervised administration, an estate is opened as an independent administration. Unlike a supervised administration, an independent administration does not require filing an inventory and accounting with the Court for the Judge to review. This keeps the inventory and accounting from becoming public record. However, the inventory and accounting are sent to the beneficiaries for approval.
No Court authority is needed to sell real estate when there is an independent administration. An independent administration may be converted to a supervised administration at any time by any interested party upon request to the Court. If the will specifies that the administration is to be independent, the party requesting the change to supervised administration must provide the Court with good cause for changing to supervised.
With a supervised administration, the inventory and accounting are filed with the court and become public record available for anyone to see. The accounting is subject to approval by the judge, including the attorney and executor/administrator fees. Also with a supervised administration, the executor/administrator needs court approval to sell real estate.
Consult your estate planning attorney for further information.