Executor possibly being excluded

SBUK

Hi
My brother passed away in November 2017 and briefly the will left everything to his wife which I am fine with but I was named as one of 3 executors with his wife and one of her daughters (they had no children together) being the other two. I live about 250 miles away from my sister in law so although I took her to register the death and arrange the funeral I could not easily carry out the day to day getting account assets etc sorted.
I do not have a copy of the will although I have seen it, and the daughter said she would get everything together and see about arranging a solicitor etc if needed. The daughter has my contact details but I do not have hers. I was told today that my late brother’s car has been ‘sold’ to the daughters husband and no details of the amount was given and that the estate/forms are being dealt with by her daughter and not a solicitor and that there will be ‘stuff’ for me to sign. I’m now getting concerned because I had a complex probate with my late mother and although the solicitor dealt with a lot of it I did have to sign and swear stuff. I don’t want to have to sign final documents (if any) if they are incorrect. My late brother had sole assets in the form of his pension, a few savings accounts, a car and a boat but with the house in joint names the property passes automatically to his wife so I don’t think probate is necessary. I’ve now asked my sister in law to let her daughter know that I have no direct contact details for her but as one of the 3 executors I need to be kept aware of any assets being dispersed of as I wouldn’t be happy to sign any documents relating to assets/balances etc if I don’t know if they are correct.
Am I in my rights as an executor to request this and what, if anything may I need to sign in the long run as an executor. I know my brother asked me to be an executor because he thought his wife’s children may be a bit gun-ho about the process and also because if they both passed away then my 3 children (his nephews) were to receive a share of their estate alongside 4 of his wifes grandchildren. I know what gets given away/taken in the long run is his wife’s decision but I don’t want anything legal to come back and bite me!

Margot123

If you are unable to carry out your duties, you can reserve or renounce your powers. However you must not already have intermeddled in the estate ie writing to banks, handling assets etc.

EDIT: Although you think Probate might not be required.

I'm a bit confused as your post is a bit jumbled and hard to read.

TBagpuss

As an executor yes, you can ask for information as you will be responsible, with the other executors, for getting in the assets, paying the debts from them and accounting to your sister-in-law, as the sole beneficiary, for the balance,

However, if you haven't, as yet, done anything you could chose to renounce as executor, leaving your sister and her daughter to sort things out between themselves. It may be that your sister is happy with the car being passed to her son-in-law.

Since your sister-in-law hasn't passed away it doesn't sound as though the issue regarding the nephews will be relevant, so it may be better to step back and let your sister-in-law and her daughter deal with things between themselves.