Probate and solicitors/specialists

Mojisola

noclaf said:

When the will was drawn up by my father I was much younger and circumstances were rather different to now, that may of influenced decisions on who to appoint as executor. The will does include a clause along the lines of funeral and legal costs being taken into account before the estate is distributed (not the exact wording). 

Have you considered asking the named executors if they would stand down and let you take over the role - as long as they haven't already started the process. 
The clause you mention will only allow the executors to reclaim expenses and employ a solicitor - not receive any payment for the hours they will spend doing the work. 

noclaf

Mojisola said:

noclaf said:

When the will was drawn up by my father I was much younger and circumstances were rather different to now, that may of influenced decisions on who to appoint as executor. The will does include a clause along the lines of funeral and legal costs being taken into account before the estate is distributed (not the exact wording). 

Have you considered asking the named executors if they would stand down and let you take over the role - as long as they haven't already started the process. 
The clause you mention will only allow the executors to reclaim expenses and employ a solicitor - not receive any payment for the hours they will spend doing the work. 

I was just thinking the same, will float the idea and see what they say.
From a legal perspective what is required to show that they have "stood down" and allowed me to take over?(that's if we go down that route)

Mojisola

Info here -

www.co-oplegalservices.co.uk/media-centre/articles-may-aug-2017/can-a-personal-representative-step-down/

noclaf

Thanks Mojisola!

noclaf

poppystar said:

If the Will was drawn up some time ago are you 100% sure there isn’t a later will? 

AFAIK, there was no other will after the one we believe to the the last one.

noclaf

Emmia said:

noclaf said:

Ah, to be clear from my perspective I'd rather it's done via a specialist so that it's done properly and is watertight in terms of covering off any open issues, debts etc I think it will be worthwhile paying a professional to deal with it all.
 I also suspect that my dad's banks and other financial/insurance firms will be be more proactive in dealing with a solicitor rather than my family members (executors) trying to do it themselves.
I will discuss it with the family and see what they think too.

Employing a solicitor to do it though will be more expensive - can the estate, or you bear the cost of that?

When I acted as an executor I had no problem at all with getting quick responses from the banks etc., who all pretty much had dedicated teams to deal with this.

The solicitor did a bit of work as there was a slightly convoluted financial arrangement to be unpicked (frankly I'm glad they did that bit) and they applied for probate, but otherwise I handled banks, pensions, share sales, bond transfers...

I think if it's do-able then we will explore that route first. He didn't have any investments or anything else too complex so unless there is some type of challenge from any other parties then don't see why we can't consider the "DIY" approach first.

Savvy_Sue

noclaf said:

Ah, to be clear from my perspective I'd rather it's done via a specialist so that it's done properly and is watertight in terms of covering off any open issues, debts etc I think it will be worthwhile paying a professional to deal with it all.
 I also suspect that my dad's banks and other financial/insurance firms will be be more proactive in dealing with a solicitor rather than my family members (executors) trying to do it themselves.
I will discuss it with the family and see what they think too.

I see you're now considering DIY, and while it's faintly possible that banks etc will be more proactive in dealing with a solicitor, there's no guarantee of that, and you have no guarantee of how proactive the solicitor will be in the first place! 

dominoman

We've done ours 90% DIY, and it's a complicated estate (mix of property, shares, bonds, startups, partnerships and replacement-BPR assets).  It's all down to how confident you are in the ability of the executors versus the solicitor.  In our case, I wish I'd done the whole thing ourselves as the mistakes made have been on the solicitor's side, not ours.

noclaf

dominoman said:

We've done ours 90% DIY, and it's a complicated estate (mix of property, shares, bonds, startups, partnerships and replacement-BPR assets).  It's all down to how confident you are in the ability of the executors versus the solicitor.  In our case, I wish I'd done the whole thing ourselves as the mistakes made have been on the solicitor's side, not ours.

I have family members who I think are fairly "on the ball" with this kind of stuff.
One question, let's assume I am fairly confident that I am aware of all of my father's financial assets but have some niggling doubts e.g: there could be bank account/policy/investment I am not aware of (albeit high unlikely in my father's case). Is there any way that we can check for other bank accounts just to be certain we haven't missed anything? 

p00hsticks

noclaf said:

I have family members who I think are fairly "on the ball" with this kind of stuff.
One question, let's assume I am fairly confident that I am aware of all of my father's financial assets but have some niggling doubts e.g: there could be bank account/policy/investment I am not aware of (albeit high unlikely in my father's case). Is there any way that we can check for other bank accounts just to be certain we haven't missed anything? 

Apparently there's a free service run by the UK Banking organisations to track down lost and dormant bank accounts

https://www.mylostaccount.org.uk/