Sharing the role of Executor with a Solicitor

nad1611

Although I have aleady asked questions about the role of executor Iw anted to ask another more specific one which asks if anyone has any experience in sharing the role of executorship with a solicitor; as in you and a solicitor have been named as the Executors.

My reason for asking is, because I'm sure I read somewhere that an executor can be refunded for payments but not paid for their time. I wonder if the role of executor chnanges because they are a solicitor as well. Surely there's a conflict of interests here. Obviously the Will can't be changed but how much is a solicitor likely to hand over the reins to my husband who'd prefer to do the work himself. Would getting the Grant of Probate mean that both executors have to apply etc? Thanks

vegasvisitor

This could be different in different case, and also different solicitors.

My mother had made her lawyer a joint executor on her will. It did cause me some problems because I could only really do what the lawyer would let me. He then also instucted an accountant (had to be paid) for the financials, even though I had already tracked this completely. Then the bill was quite heafty too. It was a bit of a bad case though, there were huge debts, a house to be sold, a re-mortgage that didn't have proper endowments/cover.

Either way, you could be quite led by them, and it will cost more. Depends if the person is likely to need that help or not. I wouldn't do it to be honest on my own will. That said I don't even have a will, we keep saying we should do it but never get around to it.

nad1611

Carrying on from my original question. Does the person who applies for Probate also have to be the one to hold the Executors Account. In a friends Will he expressed the Wish that the Will be proved by one or two of the Partners. We were hoping to do the Probate ourselves.
If the Soliitor does this and Conveyancing for the Property etc, we feel we'll be paying out Thousands as we'll have little control over what happens and when.
We have the time and Wish to do this for our friend and wonder if a "wish" is set in stone?

At the time of writing his Will we had very young children and we're sure that's why he suggested the Solicitor, but now they're grown up.
Anyone had any experience of this?

RAS

Has the solicitor been appointed as an individual or as part of a company?

Have you asked if the solicitor wishes to act as executor or to renounce their executorship?

Mojisola

A professional person - like a solicitor - who is appointed an executor can and will charge for his/her time. He/she will usually be very reluctant to hand over the work to you because it would cost them money. Also, as they are joint executors, both will be responsible for the work done and the solicitor is unlikely to let an unqualified person do it without insisting on checking everything every step of the way in case they were held responsible for any mistakes.

Even if the people you were planning to name as executors in a will would be reluctant to do all the work themselves, it's best to stick with them. They can employ solicitors to do any or all of the work and the expenses would come out of the estate, not their pocket, but they would stay in overall control.

In this case, I think you're stuck with paying the solicitor's charges.

nad1611

Mojisola wrote: »

A professional person - like a solicitor - who is appointed an executor can and will charge for his/her time. He/she will usually be very reluctant to hand over the work to you because it would cost them money. Also, as they are joint executors, both will be responsible for the work done and the solicitor is unlikely to let an unqualified person do it without insisting on checking everything every step of the way in case they were held responsible for any mistakes.

Even if the people you were planning to name as executors in a will would be reluctant to do all the work themselves, it's best to stick with them. They can employ solicitors to do any or all of the work and the expenses would come out of the estate, not their pocket, but they would stay in overall control.

In this case, I think you're stuck with paying the solicitor's charges.

OKay. just to clarifyWe are meeting with the Solicitor this week. My husband is the named executor along with the solicitor who is part of a group or rather they have Practices in different cities.
I don't really agree that my husband should hand over the reins on the basis that the Solicitor would be worried he'd be held liable, if anything went wrong. If the Probate was Granted naming my husband then he would be responsible for that side of things, he'd be perfectly happy to have things checked.
Put simply we have had people close to us who've been executors and have two solicitors in the family and an accountant and they all agree the work can be done by any competent person with the time. Anyway my real question is can a "wish" be adjusted if the circumstances allow.

Mojisola

nad1611 wrote: »

Put simply we have had people close to us who've been executors and have two solicitors in the family and an accountant and they all agree the work can be done by any competent person with the time. Anyway my real question is can a "wish" be adjusted if the circumstances allow.

Absolutely agree with this.

The only thing you can do is as RAS suggests and ask the solicitors to renounce the position. If they refuse, I don't think there's any way you can force them to let you do the work.

Thmas_Covenant

Could you change the role to Executioner, and perform it on a solicitor?

nad1611

Thmas_Covenant wrote: »

Could you change the role to Executioner, and perform it on a solicitor?

Took me a mnute but got it in the end! Ha!

SmlSave

Hi hun.

Just to let you know that I'm a Legal Sec and its quite normal for an Executor whilst jointly named with us (as solicitors) to advise us that they wish to do all the work. We have no problem with this so I'd be surprised if your solicitors will.

Sometimes the Executor will ask us to Renounce and sometimes we just take a back seat and give advice when asked and sign docs as joint Executor when asked (yes we charge for time spent)

Let us know how it goes with your meeting

vwelsh13

person exp have to agree it costs a fortune!!but I guess could be worthwhile if anyone is likely to contest the will -they wouldn't take on a solicitor and win I doubt