I'm executor of will..help!!

ipri

hello....have recieved Terms of business from solicitor.I'm joint executor..It lays out cost of his time / letters etc.....says normally paid out of estate...later on it says invoices sent 3/monthly....to be payed out of funds available from estate...but goes on to say the money must be paid within 30 days..??...Do we ,as ,execs. have to pay out of our own pocket??

thanks ian...didnt know which forum to use!!

System

No, you do not have to pay out of your own pocket, and the solicitor must be aware that you cannot use the money in the estate until you have the grant of probate (except that, if there is money in a current account, banks will often release it to pay the funeral bill).
You do not have to use a solicitor at all. However, the Probate Office tends to wave through applications made by solicitors, and check ones made by executors in person.
Get the Which guide to wills and probate (for which you will have to stump up your own money!). Only use the solicitor for defined tasks you can't do yourself. Eg, contact building societies etc direct yourself to check the balance at date of death.

ipri

thanks...I live 200 miles away from the deceased uncle and his solicitor...funeral prepayed..seemed good idea to let him organise house sale and other things ..Uncle / solic. changed the house ownership since his wife is in home with Altziemers...??split ownership or something to preserve his half...ian

Uncle has directed a number of lump sums to people...I assume this would have been passed as ok by Solic.....Would he have assesed the potential value of the house/savings so as to have enough money to pay the said lump sums to the lucky people? ian

System

Probably not. A solicitor's duty in drafting a will is to make sure that it is clear, and expresses the testator's wishes. Not his job to advise whether the estate will actually cover all the monetary bequests. Indeed, usually not possible to know this; a testator can make a will leaving £50k to the cats home, and then decide to spend it all himself, instead. In the (I hope) unlikely event that the actual estate can't cover all the monetary bequests in the will, you will need a solicitor's advice about who gets what.

ipri

Nick...My deceased uncles wife is in longterm care in Wales...she owns 1/2 of the house which will be valued/sold....no fees have been payed to the home!...if I accept exec( deputy) status for her will...do i become financially responsible for fees??

System

No, the executors are not personally liable for the deceased's debts. They become debts of the estate. The executors are responsible for gathering in the assets, converting them to cash, and paying the debts and legacies out of the resulting cash, if there is enough. If there is not enough cash to pay the debts, the estate is insolvent, and you need to ask a solicitor how much to pay each creditor.

If your late uncle signed a contract to pay the care home fees, then his estate is liable for them up to the date of his death.

From the date of his death, there is a new problem, independent of your uncle's will. Someone, presumably, needs to assure the care home that the fees will be paid, and probably the care home will want that someone to sign a new contract. The person who takes this on will need legal authority to use your aunt's money. This could be a power of attorney if she is mentally capable of giving one. If she isn't, you need advice. Try, for example, Help the Aged in the first instance, but you would probably need a solicitor to get somone appointed as the legal guardian of your aunt's money.

NB: I am fairly sure the above is correct, but it does look as though you may need professional advice.

System

PS: And either your aunt (if she has lucid moments), or someone legally appointed to manage her money, will need to sign the documents to sell her half of the house. The executors can only sell your late uncle's half.

jamesd

When considering the needs of the wife you might consider that the life expectancy is around 5-8 years from diagnosis.

Buying a care fees annuity may be most cost-effective and certain to protect capital and it's possible that this was already done, in which case some payments to the care home may be continuing even after your uncle's death.

If choosing this route the amount of the annuity would be chosen to top up any retirement income she gets to the level she's spending at in the care home. Depending on her age and medical condition such an annuity might pay out 20% of the capital used to buy it every year - so 50k might provide 10k in income for life.

sloughflint

ipri wrote: »

thanks...I live 200 miles away from the deceased uncle and his solicitor...funeral prepayed..seemed good idea to let him organise house sale and other things ..Uncle / solic. changed the house ownership since his wife is in home with Altziemers...??split ownership or something to preserve his half...ian

Uncle has directed a number of lump sums to people...I assume this would have been passed as ok by Solic.....Would he have assesed the potential value of the house/savings so as to have enough money to pay the said lump sums to the lucky people? ian

ipri wrote: »

Nick...My deceased uncles wife is in longterm care in Wales...she owns 1/2 of the house which will be valued/sold....no fees have been payed to the home!...if I accept exec( deputy) status for her will...do i become financially responsible for fees??

I don't understand why people are saying that the aunt's care fees should come out of the uncle's estate.Wouldn't any owed funds come from the lady's own income/savings once someone gains access to them?

From these two posts,it looks as though your uncle's intentionally changed the ownership from joint tenancy to tenants in common.So I do just wonder if he did some sort of care fee planning here?

I don't know if your aunt was wealthy enough to be fully self-funding.During your uncle's lifetime,if he was living in the property, the house would not have counted towards your aunt's financial assessment by Social Services. I'd have hoped that whatever contributions your aunt should have been making from her income/savings would be sorted out by the person that will in future deal with her finances rather than from your uncle's estate.

If the person/people who have inherited your uncle's half share of the house does/do not want to sell, I believe the value of your aunt's share would be close to nil since you cannot sell half a house and therefore the financial assessment for your aunt's care would remain the same as before your uncle's death if she did not inherit anything from her husband .

If the house is sold however and your aunt's savings increase, if not already fully self-funding, your aunt will certainly be expected to pay more towards her care.

Perhaps your uncle's intention/hope was for the property not to be sold in your aunt's lifetime if there was enough surplus in his estate to pay all debts and lump sums to beneficiaries? I'm not sure of the facts written here but perhaps check this out in view of the conscious effort to change the type of ownership.

localhero

Sloughflint is absolutely right. It is the individual requiring care that is means tested - it is irrelevant what the uncle's estate consisted of.

Also if the property was changed to tenants in common, there is a strong argument that the uncle's wife's share is worthless and so should be disregarded when means testing.

Selling the property could be the worst thing to do as uncle's wife would then have liquid cash that would be means tested. Your solicitor should be explaining all this to you and advising you accordingly.

ipri

Many thanks....My uncle did make some financial arrangements with his solicitor re the house...The solicitor is now in the process of getting the house valued with a view to selling.....the proceeds of which will fund various lumps sums to a number of beneficiaries and I suppose fund aunts care.....she is currently self funding her care...until her savings get to £22k ish..(Wales)...