Solicitor or not? Executor dealing with estate

cessna

Hi - I am joint executor on my mothers will, I have been named on many of her bank accounts and will inherit the house.  I initially thought that I'd involve the solicitor and she sent a questionnaire to me to fill in which I have been doing.  That has involved me talking to the banks etc and getting statements and they have said that they will close certain accounts and move the money into the one that I held jointly with my mum.  The solicitor has send through info now on how much they charge (£200 per hour), now I have no way knowing how much this will take them to do and feel that if it is something I could do then why pay someone.  Has anyone had a similar question? What did you do? My mother was domiciled in Scotland.   

Marcon

At the risk of sounding glib (and I don't mean to), there is nothing to stop you doing the bits you know you can such as closing bank accounts, moving money etc. A solicitor can be invaluable if you get stuck at any point in 'the process', but instructing them to do basic legwork, if you are able to do it yourself, means you are clocking up needless fees. Agree with the solicitor at the outset who will do what, in general terms ("I'll come to you when I need guidance"), and then stick to that agreement, unless you find yourself floundering.

naedanger

cessna said:

Hi - I am joint executor on my mothers will, I have been named on many of her bank accounts and will inherit the house.  I initially thought that I'd involve the solicitor and she sent a questionnaire to me to fill in which I have been doing.  That has involved me talking to the banks etc and getting statements and they have said that they will close certain accounts and move the money into the one that I held jointly with my mum.  The solicitor has send through info now on how much they charge (£200 per hour), now I have no way knowing how much this will take them to do and feel that if it is something I could do then why pay someone.  Has anyone had a similar question? What did you do? My mother was domiciled in Scotland.   

The process is not as layperson friendly in Scotland as it is in England.

As the estate involves a property (and assuming there are no still living joint owners) the executor (or their solicitor) needs to apply to the sheriff court for "confirmation" (which is the Scottish equivalent of probate). Once you have confirmation then every financial institution should release the assets they hold to the executor (some institutions will release the assets even without confirmation). Then the executor pays any estate debts and distributes the funds to the beneficiaries in line with the will.

So there are basically three steps. One gather all the information needed to apply for confirmation. Two - prepare and submit the confirmation application and any required tax returns. Three - pay all estate bills, including all taxes and distribute in accordance to the wills.

The more you get the solicitor to do the more expensive it will be. It sounds like the solicitor is already getting you to do some of the basic data gathering which should save some money.

Personally I did everything myself apart from the application to the sheriff court, and even there I did most of the work, with the solicitor checking the forms and completing certain sections (which require very formal legal wording). I also did all the work liaising with the HMRC. So realistically I think I outsourced about the least a solicitor would be willing to do, and was charged for around 3 hours work at a bit over £200 per hour plus VAT. That said, many people do everything themselves and there are threads on this forum with information on what is required in each section of the form.

I will also pay a solicitor to put the property in the name of the beneficiary, and have been quoted £250 for that.

In summary I think everything is fairly easy (needs about the same ability with paperwork as a self assessment tax return) apart from the application to the sheriff court, which I think is a bit harder because the forms require to be in the correct language and format. (The court won't help unless the estate is quite small.)

cessna

Marcon said:

At the risk of sounding glib (and I don't mean to), there is nothing to stop you doing the bits you know you can such as closing bank accounts, moving money etc. A solicitor can be invaluable if you get stuck at any point in 'the process', but instructing them to do basic legwork, if you are able to do it yourself, means you are clocking up needless fees. Agree with the solicitor at the outset who will do what, in general terms ("I'll come to you when I need guidance"), and then stick to that agreement, unless you find yourself floundering.

Cheers. I was hoping that would be the way I’d go but the solicitor wasn’t quite forthcoming. I’ll have a chat with them tomorrow. 

cessna

naedanger said:

cessna said:

Hi - I am joint executor on my mothers will, I have been named on many of her bank accounts and will inherit the house.  I initially thought that I'd involve the solicitor and she sent a questionnaire to me to fill in which I have been doing.  That has involved me talking to the banks etc and getting statements and they have said that they will close certain accounts and move the money into the one that I held jointly with my mum.  The solicitor has send through info now on how much they charge (£200 per hour), now I have no way knowing how much this will take them to do and feel that if it is something I could do then why pay someone.  Has anyone had a similar question? What did you do? My mother was domiciled in Scotland.   

The process is not as layperson friendly in Scotland as it is in England.

As the estate involves a property (and assuming there are no still living joint owners) the executor (or their solicitor) needs to apply to the sheriff court for "confirmation" (which is the Scottish equivalent of probate). Once you have confirmation then every financial institution should release the assets they hold to the executor (some institutions will release the assets even without confirmation). Then the executor pays any estate debts and distributes the funds to the beneficiaries in line with the will.

So there are basically three steps. One gather all the information needed to apply for confirmation. Two - prepare and submit the confirmation application and any required tax returns. Three - pay all estate bills, including all taxes and distribute in accordance to the wills.

The more you get the solicitor to do the more expensive it will be. It sounds like the solicitor is already getting you to do some of the basic data gathering which should save some money.

Personally I did everything myself apart from the application to the sheriff court, and even there I did most of the work, with the solicitor checking the forms and completing certain sections (which require very formal legal wording). I also did all the work liaising with the HMRC. So realistically I think I outsourced about the least a solicitor would be willing to do, and was charged for around 3 hours work at a bit over £200 per hour plus VAT. That said, many people do everything themselves and there are threads on this forum with information on what is required in each section of the form.

I will also pay a solicitor to put the property in the name of the beneficiary, and have been quoted £250 for that.

In summary I think everything is fairly easy (needs about the same ability with paperwork as a self assessment tax return) apart from the application to the sheriff court, which I think is a bit harder because the forms require to be in the correct language and format. (The court won't help unless the estate is quite small.)

Thanks that’s helpful. I just hope the solicitor plays ball ;-)