Cost of Executing an Estate/Will

aeu97137

Hi All,

My dad died 3 weeks ago and we met with the solicitor last friday to run through his will.

In the will, my mum and the firm of solicitors are down as the Executors of the estate. This is fine until I heard how much the firm are looking to charge to Execute the estate - 2 to 3% of his estate!

As his estate is worth over £750k, this means the firm will end up getting £20-30k for their work.

This seems extremely excessive and I wondered if this is normal or if any other people could share their experiences? Please note, I am in Scotland so not sure if this would impact the amount/cost of work.

As the firm as written into the will as executors I guess there is little to we can do about it. However, the worst thing is that they are also co-executors on my mum's will (made at same time as my dad), so I am worried they will get a second fee of £20-30k (or more!) when my mum goes.

Any suggestions on how we could prevent this happening would also be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jason

Mojisola

Can't help with the present problem but get your Mum to change her will to avoid future problems.

RAS

Hi

One of the reasons I do not recommend appointing legal firms as executors is the fees they charge. You can appoint any one and they can instruct solictors if they need to.

We had a nightmare with the solicitors who held the will and needed to appoint administrators. We ended up paying 2% to sort it out because we were not able to get the IHT paid any other way BUT we would have paid half that in IHT penalties if we had not appointed them.

Get mum to a different solicitors, and make a new will with two family members as executors, even if then contents of the will are the same.

Biggles

If your mother and the solicitors are joint executors, the solicitor has no more right to carry out the work than your mother has.

She can tell them she will take over and apply for probate, and then she can employ them (or any other firm she chooses) on an hourly basis for any tricky stuff (that probably won't be much, probate isn't usually rocket science).

emmielou

Your mother can simply make a codicil to her current Will changing the executors, this will be an awful lot cheaper than making a new Will.

In terms of your father's Will I should think that since both you and your mother are also executors than you should be able to make the Solicitors stand down from acting (called renouncing their appointment) however as far as I am aware they aren't obliged to do so.

However I would say that you may want assistance from a Solicitor, particularly as it is a large estate. Personally I would see if you and your mother could deal with the estate with the solicitors on standby for help and assistance. This would however mean that you would probably not get an official quote but would be on an hourly rate the details of which you would be given at the start.

aeu97137

Thanks to everyone for their helpful comments.

I have so far established that my mum, myself and the solicitors are co-executors, and the solicitor has already agreed to limit the fee to the lower of 2% or the independent court auditor's assesment of fees (although they base their assessment on £190/hr for a partner and £145/hr for the executory assistant!)

I'm still in correspondence with the solicitor so I'm looking to see if this will include VAT and disbursements.

I have concluded that I do need professional assistance given the title deed changes may be needed for 2 properties and that I simply cannot take the time to administer this due to work commitments.

Thanks
Jason

Biggles

I've just seen this article about a guy who's seen how estates are ripped off (to the tune of £600m year, he reckons) and has set up a brokerage to deal with the solicitor/executors and get the best deal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/apr/18/probate-writing-a-will

Jonbvn

Biggles wrote: »

I've just seen this article about a guy who's seen how estates are ripped off (to the tune of £600m year, he reckons) and has set up a brokerage to deal with the solicitor/executors and get the best deal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/apr/18/probate-writing-a-will

Excellent article - thanks for posting this. Here is the link to the company mentioned in the article: http://www.finalduties.co.uk/