Solicitor as Executor, who does this work.

Savvy_Sue

It's probably worth saying that not ALL solicitors take the pee when executing an estate, so it might be worth talking to a few and asking what their current rates are for this kind of work and how they go about eg clearing and selling a house.

Of course that gives you no guarantee for the future, but if you have one company charging as a % of the total value of the estate, and another charging by the hour, you can probably work out which would be more cost effective now.

Another possibility is to ask an organised friend to do it, and leave them a legacy as a thank you. They can also reclaim their reasonable expenses, although only a professional can charge for their time.

so_little_time

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

It's probably worth saying that not ALL solicitors take the pee when executing an estate, so it might be worth talking to a few and asking what their current rates are for this kind of work and how they go about eg clearing and selling a house.

Of course that gives you no guarantee for the future, but if you have one company charging as a % of the total value of the estate, and another charging by the hour, you can probably work out which would be more cost effective now.

Another possibility is to ask an organised friend to do it, and leave them a legacy as a thank you. They can also reclaim their reasonable expenses, although only a professional can charge for their time.

Thanks Sue, Good idea about asking a friend, I would rather pay (by leaving something to them) a friend to do it than have a bank or solicitor take a huge chunk, I don't really have any close friends nearby, there are two friends I can think of that I have known for over 20 years and would be more than capable of dealing with it, I only see them about once a year (sometimes less) so whether they would agree or not I am not sure, if I go down that road I would name them both as joint executors so they could share the workload but as one of them has just lost a parent and is dealing with that it is not a good time to ask but it may be possible in the future if they don't mind.

In the meantime looks like I will have to shop around with banks & solicitors, I am a bit concerned they will just say my estate is not worth enough for them to bother with or that in the future I may not have as much to leave as I have now so it falls below the min value they deal with, if that happens and both my friends & cousin can't or don't want to be appointed I will be really stuck.

I think you can ask a charity to do it if you are leaving them something but I really wanted to leave something to a few seporate charities that I support rather than the whole lot to one.

dzug1

so_little_time wrote: »

I think you can ask a charity to do it if you are leaving them something but I really wanted to leave something to a few seporate charities that I support rather than the whole lot to one.

You could still ask one charity to do it whilst leaving bequests to the others as well

SevenOfNine

If you ask a friend (or better still, beneficiary) to be executor then if they can't manage, or simply don't have enough time, they can employ a solicitor of their choice to be paid from the estate.

If you specifically name a firm of solicitors and they turn out to be SLOW or/and EXPENSIVE, your beneficiaries cannot remove them as executor, they'll just have to wait it out and watch their inheritance whittled away with solicitor's costs. There have been numerous tales of woe from beneficiaries over the years on websites and press regarding the 'deceased' naming solicitors as executors.

Many years ago we changed our first will to remove our solicitor as executor, after reading one such horror story of mounting solicitors costs chomping away at an inheritance and taking forever to finalise fairly simple bequests.

At least if the family/friend you choose does feel the need to employ a solicitor to give them a hand, they aren't TIED to the one they pick - if the solicitor doesn't pull their finger out or starts inflating costs, your family/friend can offload them and pick another one instead. Not the case if you lock them into one in your will.

M.E.

As one who has a horrendous story of a solicitor as executor (went to High Court!) NEVER name a solicitor as executor. It cost over £60,000 to the estate. (Out of £210,000 which included the house).
Your cousin sounds as though she would be an executor (you could offer to be hers?). After all you don't know who will die first.:(:(:(

Then if the executor wishes to use a solicitor at least there will be some control over the final costs. Even so it will cost several £100's as any solicitor will charge at least £40 per letter sent.

Hope this helps

SevenOfNine

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabout/civil/probate/helpline.htm

A decent site to trawl around on for anyone who things they might have a hard job being an executor and wouldn't know where to start.

Newly_retired

My dad appointed a friend of his who was a solicitor as a joint executor. This friend kindly offered to relinquish his role after dad died. Very generous as it no doubt saved us a lot of money.

ericonabike

I've acted as executor for my late mother's and sister's estate. It was, in a way, therapeutic, as it gave me a sense of purpose. There was little actual difficulty about either estate, just a matter of being methodical and keeping accurate records. My sister, in particular, wouild have been horrified to think of her hard-earned savings being used to pay solicitors fees! And in any event, they have no actual knowledge of the deceased's affairs, and so someone will need to go through the deceased's effects, and establish what assets were held. If you can get a family memebr or friend to act as executior, then do so, in my opinion.

joe_peddos

My self and my 2 sisters are executors for my late mother. We are using a solicitor because mum gave gifts to her grandchildren and ourselves some of which are not outside the 7 year limit. His estimate was 2 to 3k which is a lot less than the banks would charge. On mums estate looking at Barclays charges it would cost between 8 to 10k. We had power of attorney for mum and I went to the banks mum had accounts with to tell them of her death.
At Barclays the advisor I saw rang all mums details through to another department then she said would I speak to the person on the phone all she wanted to do was tell me how hard it was to look after mums estate ( in other words put the frighteners on) and how they would offer free advice but I have discovered the banks do nothing for free they just want you to sign on the dotted line.

datostar

joe_peddos wrote: »

My self and my 2 sisters are executors for my late mother. We are using a solicitor because mum gave gifts to her grandchildren and ourselves some of which are not outside the 7 year limit. His estimate was 2 to 3k which is a lot less than the banks would charge. On mums estate looking at Barclays charges it would cost between 8 to 10k. We had power of attorney for mum and I went to the banks mum had accounts with to tell them of her death.
At Barclays the advisor I saw rang all mums details through to another department then she said would I speak to the person on the phone all she wanted to do was tell me how hard it was to look after mums estate ( in other words put the frighteners on) and how they would offer free advice but I have discovered the banks do nothing for free they just want you to sign on the dotted line.

This is exactly what Barclays tried on with me! Horror story about how hard it is to get probate, how it takes 6 to 9 months and is very difficult and stressful. You are actually being put through to ITC who have an exclusive arrangement with Barclays for wills, probate and executorship work. There's a big thread on MSE about ITC.