check your wills

soolin

Just a warning to make sure your wills are up to date not only for the obvious bits but also for the executors.

My father died a few months back and his will dates to more than 30 years ago and one of the executors was a work colleague who moved away shortly after agreeing to be an executor.i have no idea how old the executor was, but I imagine at least the same age as my father so in his 90s now if he is still alive. I don't know where he moved to, not even which part of the country nor do I have any other personal details abotu him.

However despite all that probate expect me to prove that he is dead or at least that I have tracked him to a more recent address. The name is a fairly common one and a quick search just in London shows several thousand people with the name..and I have no hope of identifying him. I have spoken to the main registry office and they said that even if I find a death certificate for a Mr X I could not be sure it was him if I didn't have a birth date.

So I am now arguing with probate to allow probate to go ahead

So if your wills are old, make sure you have up to date contact details for executors!

Alter_ego

Thanks for that, don't suppose you know if executors can be changed by codicil, or is it start again?

soolin

Alter_ego wrote: »

Thanks for that, don't suppose you know if executors can be changed by codicil, or is it start again?

Having had so many problems with this one I am in the process of having my own will rewritten completely and have opted to go for a full rewrite, but I am sure someone with some legal knowledge will be along shortly to say whether it can be done by codicil.

knightstyle

We made our wills last year and all the fees went to "Willaid" have a look http://www.willaid.org.uk/ Better than paying solicitors!