Solicitor says he cant transfer finds unless i open an executor account

Topcat53

My mother died last year. My brother sister and I are executors and obtained probate. Neither my mothers bank (santander) or my own operated an executor account . Advice i found online, including here, seemed to suggest an executors account wasnt essential and in the end my sister and i opened an ordinary  joint current account at Santander which we use to administer moms finances .
We are now selling her house but our solicitor has told us we will have to open a dedicated executor account before he can transfer funds to us. Is this correct?

Thrugelmir

If that's what the solicitor requires then yes. The solicitor is protecting themselves. 

thegreenone

The solicitor who carried out the conveyancing of my late Mum's flat sent the money directly to my account. However, the execs were my husband and me.

Is it possible to add your brother to the account as I'm guessing the solicitor needs to make sure that you all have access to the money?

shiraz99

Just set up an executor account then, it's very easy. Open a standard current account in a bank that does executor accounts, Natwest for example do, then fill in the executor account mandate and pass this on to your bank.

Topcat53

Thanks for the advice. I've just lost any belief in what my solicitor tells me but  I've now got details from NAT West in case  I do need to set up an EA and i'll check out the suggestion of adding my brother to the existing a/c first.

msb1234

I’ve had to set up an executor account because one of the Insurance companies will only pay out to either an exec account or all the named beneficiaries in the will. But the funds will have to be used to pay towards her debts! 

It’s taken me 3 weeks to get an appointment with Barclays to do this.

Thrugelmir

msb1234 said:

I’ve had to set up an executor account because one of the Insurance companies will only pay out to either an exec account or all the named beneficiaries in the will. But the funds will have to be used to pay towards her debts! 

If the funds went "missing" then the insurance company potentially has issues. Doing something professionally isn't about convenience and short cuts. 

msb1234

So why did a different insurance company pay out straight away?

DJGill

Surely a verified Executor with a Grant of Probate can nominate any account to gather estate funds in to?

msb1234

DJGill said:

Surely a verified Executor with a Grant of Probate can nominate any account to gather estate funds in to?

You’d like to think so. I’m the executor. With a grant of probate. And 1/4 beneficiary. 

p00hsticks

shiraz99 said:

Just set up an executor account then, it's very easy. Open a standard current account in a bank that does executor accounts, Natwest for example do, then fill in the executor account mandate and pass this on to your bank.

Note that I found when I changed a standard account to an executors one with Nat West that (despite there being no mention of it that I spotted in the blurb) for some reason they wanted to see a copy of the will as well as the grant of probate.

I've found I could do the vast majority of stuff just via a standard empty account of mine, but decided to set up an executors account to receive the proceeds of the house sale (I'm an executor but not a residual beneficiary - I didn't want to finally get close to completion only to have the same problem as the OP has, given the amount of time our house sale has dragged on for already).