Money left to me in a will, solicitors want me to pay them for releasing it!? HELP!

DF97

I also forgot to mention in my comment just, the bank used to send yearly statements for the trust to the solicitors who would send to us, when the retirement happened, these statements were continued to be sent to us for 2 years and then stopped.

TBC15

And how much money are we talking about?

Neil49

Over the period of time two different parties have been involved. The first party was paid for the work at the time but the second party hasn't been paid a penny yet you expect them to work on for nothing. 

Pay for the work they have done and get on with your life. 

Malthusian

It appears as if the executors - the retired solicitor and your great-aunt - became the trustees of your money by default (in the absence of them handing it to any other Trustees while winding up the estate).

If the money has been sat in a bank account for the past ten years as you suggest ("the bank used to send yearly statements for the trust"), the trustees have failed in their legal duty to invest their money as a prudent businessperson would. That is why I asked how much went into the trust and how much it is worth now.

I was tempted to suggest a complaint to the new solicitors on the grounds that if they took over the client bank, and your nana's estate / your trust was one of the retired solicitor's clients, investing the money was their job. However I'm not certain enough of my ground. If the executors never sorted out the trust money properly, the blame may still be stuck on your great-aunt and the retired solicitor. And by saying they "weren't instructed" (and presumably not paid either), that is probably what the new solicitors will argue.

The money isn't a problem, it's just I've had money come to me in trust before and never had to a pay a penny.

Either that estate and trust was handled entirely by laypeople, so they did it for free out of familial love, or you did pay, you just didn't know it. E.g. the money came out of the estate generally rather than your share specifically.