Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 14, § 1413

A debt secured by mortgage belonging to the estate of a deceased person as mortgagee or assignee of the right of a mortgagee, when the mortgage was not foreclosed in the lifetime of the deceased, shall be personal assets in the hands of the executor or administrator and administered and accounted for as such. The executor or administrator may foreclose the mortgage and take possession of the mortgaged premises as the decedent might have done in the decedent’s lifetime.