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

Thrugelmir

FSCS rises to £1 million for up to six months on probate bank accounts. Long enough for disbursement of some kind to be made. 

SiliconChip

My solicitor sent me a Letter of Authority that had to be signed by myself and the other executor of my mother's estate in order to permit payment of the house sale proceeds into an existing account of my own that I used for all processing of estate monies and payment of bills. I can see no reason why your solicitor could not do the same.

shiraz99

p00hsticks said:

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).       

It was clear when I looked into it that a grant of probate isn't needed to set up the executor account and to pay monies in, but you would need one to access the account to pay out.

Marcon

Topcat53 said:

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?

Without knowing the full circumstances, I'm always wary about saying a professional's advice is incorrect. I think there are two ways round this: either your joint account with your sister becomes a 'triple' account including your brother; or your brother provides written confirmation to the solicitor that he is happy for the full sale proceeds to be paid to the joint account operated by you and your sister. See if either of those meets with approval, and if not, ask him to be specific about exactly why that doesn't work.

Topcat53

Thanks v much for the suggestion, I've now emailed requesting they accept a letter of authority.

p00hsticks

shiraz99 said:

p00hsticks said:

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).       

It was clear when I looked into it that a grant of probate isn't needed to set up the executor account and to pay monies in, but you would need one to access the account to pay out.

Actually I've just re-visited the Nat west page about opening an executors account and they do say that they'll need to see the will as well as a death certificate and (if available) grant of representation / conformation / probate. I must have overlooked the bit about the will last summer when I set this up .

https://supportcentre.natwest.com/Dealing-with-difficult-times/Bereavement/913244482/What-is-an-executor-account.htm

As you say, if you don't yet have probate they'll open one but only for payments in - nothing can go out apart from funeral expenses.

shiraz99

p00hsticks said:

shiraz99 said:

p00hsticks said:

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).       

It was clear when I looked into it that a grant of probate isn't needed to set up the executor account and to pay monies in, but you would need one to access the account to pay out.

Actually I've just re-visited the Nat west page about opening an executors account and they do say that they'll need to see the will as well as a death certificate and (if available) grant of representation / conformation / probate. I must have overlooked the bit about the will last summer when I set this up .

https://supportcentre.natwest.com/Dealing-with-difficult-times/Bereavement/913244482/What-is-an-executor-account.htm

As you say, if you don't yet have probate they'll open one but only for payments in - nothing can go out apart from funeral expenses.

TBH, I got to the stage of opening up the new account but put off changing it to an executor account, unless I really need to.