Executor account

SevenOfNine

You have had unnecessary worry, stress & misinformation Dymphna60, but thankfully seem to be sorted now. Your plan to open an a/c in your own name, containing only the estate funds from various sources would have been more than satisfactory.

Do keep simple but accurate records of income/expenditure in relation to the a/c, all bills/receipts etc. But don't giive yourself extra aggravation worrying about it by, doesn't have to be complicated.

My condolences.

Dymphna60

As the OP I wanted to say over and out .
I should leave it at that BUT ...
1 . In the high street I never got to speak to the person who I had an appointment with where I intended to talk about opening an account.
I sat alone in a room for about 30 minutes a member of staff came asked me what I wanted account for I cannot remember exactly what I said. Waited another 15 minutes she returned said “she says it’s illegal to use money that is not yours to open an account “ and I was shown out .
So we will never know if she was quoting fiduciary duty. Would be helpful if this information was given.

Sorry about the leangth .

As lay people we could argue and attempt to apply fiduciary duty to the administration of an estate all we like but I cannot see where it would get anyone .
Surely what needs to be addressed is the information on the gov. co site and respected quides such as Which what to do when someone dies . Because that is what we are going on . Some may believe that makes us ignorant but I don’t know where else you would turn .

We maybe speak to a solicitor to explain what we don’t understand. I know I did .
But I didn’t take a law degree.


The fact is in 2018 it is for many people very difficult and will be impossible for some to open an executor account.
This needs to be addressed in the information available to us .

Thank you

Yorkshireman99

Dymphna60 wrote: »

As the OP I wanted to say over and out .
I should leave it at that BUT ...
1 . In the high street I never got to speak to the person who I had an appointment with where I intended to talk about opening an account.
I sat alone in a room for about 30 minutes a member of staff came asked me what I wanted account for I cannot remember exactly what I said. Waited another 15 minutes she returned said “she says it’s illegal to use money that is not yours to open an account “ and I was shown out .
So we will never know if she was quoting fiduciary duty. Would be helpful if this information was given.

Sorry about the leangth .

As lay people we could argue and attempt to apply fiduciary duty to the administration of an estate all we like but I cannot see where it would get anyone .
Surely what needs to be addressed is the information on the gov. co site and respected quides such as Which what to do when someone dies . Because that is what we are going on . Some may believe that makes us ignorant but I don’t know where else you would turn .

We maybe speak to a solicitor to explain what we don’t understand. I know I did .
But I didn’t take a law degree.


The fact is in 2018 it is for many people very difficult and will be impossible for some to open an executor account.
This needs to be addressed in the information available to us .

Thank you

It is very unfortunate theta the bank staff did not refer you to their bereavment department. The bottom line is the ta executorship is not as easy as many think because it requires understanding of legal conceptss that they have never encountered before. Nevertheless a lay executor cannot escape liability if they get it wrong. Relying solely on web sites, however well regarded, is no substitute for getting paid for professional advice. IMHO this forum provides a useful souce of information but nobody should regard the advice as definitive. Being an executor is not always as easy as many people assume and in a number of instances on here people repeatedly glibly advise that DIY executorship is easy. It can be but in some cases it is not. The rule is to ask a solcitor if in doubt.

Tiggypud

Not sure if this helps....
I was the 2nd executor of my father's will, but my brother lived abroad, so he asked the solicitor to hand everything over to me. I managed most things, but a Co op Account proved impossible to close as my brother's name was on the probate (after months of going into the bank and many phone calls, constantly being told that I'd done everything correctly).My brother had to close it himself the next time he was home. I sold my father's house (to another brother) and the solicitor wrote the cheques to my siblings - no problems. My youngest brother and I sorted out the contents of the house - sold as much as we could at auctions etc, and used the money to pay any bills. I opened a separate account for that money. Just kept everyone informed and provided receipts, statements and spreadsheets. We did not have an executor's account.

getmore4less

Apodemus wrote: »

An interesting alternative that was suggested to me by the bereavement section of the bank (both executors and deceased were with the same branch) was that we simply have everything paid into the deceased’s account and they would make the final distribution out on presentation of the written instructions from the executors.

A very bad idea to have that happen and have funds captured till final distribution.

Executors need access to cashflow during administration to pay the debts and admin costs before the final distributions.

badger09

@ Yorkshireman99

Re my previous post:

badger09 wrote: »

@Yorkshireman99

As previously requested, could you please provide a link to this law? Or at least say what law you're referring to.

After an extensive research before starting to administer my late sister's estate in March, and another search today, this is the nearest to any official guidance that I can find (my bold):


"Get access to financial assets
You can ask for financial assets to be transferred to an agreed ‘executorship account’. This can be either:

an executor’s bank account
an account that’s been set up only for dealing with the estate

Every executor named on the grant of probate may need to be present when you withdraw assets. Different asset holders have different rules, so check with them first."

extracted from https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance/once-the-grants-been-issued

If you know otherwise, I, and many others would be grateful if you would share that information.

You have now said "There is no specific law that says you must open an executor’s account", but you keep insisting that opening an account in the name of the executor, solely for the purpose of administering the estate is somehow against the law.

Please explain exactly what sort of account you think is meant by the phrase in bold from the gov.uk website?

Yorkshireman99

badger09 wrote: »

@ Yorkshireman99

Re my previous post:




You have now said "There is no specific law that says you must open an executor’s account", but you keep insisting that opening an account in the name of the executor, solely for the purpose of administering the estate is somehow against the law.

Please explain exactly what sort of account you think is meant by the phrase in bold from the gov.uk website?

As I have said repeatedly it is a breach of the executor’s general fiduciary duty. This covers a wide variety of things. Your search for a specific law separately for the things covered will be in vain. You should google the concept that you clearly don’t understand. It is rather like the concept of driving without due crare and attention where this covers a large number of eventualities that not each spelt out separately.

Linton

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

As I have said repeatedly it is a breach of the executor’s general fiduciary duty. This covers a wide variety of things. Your search for a specific law separately for the things covered will be in vain. You should google the concept that you clearly don’t understand. It is rather like the concept of driving without due crare and attention where this covers a large number of eventualities that not each spelt out separately.

Like "driving without due care and attention" whether a specific action by an executor is a breech of fiduciary duty can only be decided by a judge on the facts of the case. It could be argued that keeping money in your own bank account with all transactions documented would be sufficient to meet the fiduciary duty requirements. Until the law prohibits this or a judge decides that it fails the FD requirement the question is moot.

Yorkshireman99

Linton wrote: »

Like "driving without due care and attention" whether a specific action by an executor is a breech of fiduciary duty can only be decided by a judge on the facts of the case. It could be argued that keeping money in your own bank account with all transactions documented would be sufficient to meet the fiduciary duty requirements. Until the law prohibits this or a judge decides that it fails the FD requirement the question is moot.

If that was so why would solicitors be expected to have separate clients accounts? It really comes down to a question of degree. Depositing a few hundred pounds whilst technicaly wrong would probably be OK. Putting thousand for any length od time would not.

getmore4less

Solicitor clients account are required by specific regulations.

just regular accounts.

What makes them client accounts?

The words "client account" in the name