Advice please

doris540

Ill keep this short as i can. My Father died in Febuary this year . Against my wishes my three siblings said they thought as supposedly our Father had said althou this is very questionable and nothing mentioned in the will which is signed that a friend of his should deal with the estate etc. A solicitor was used to get Probate which has now been granted and house on market etc .In the meeting with solicitor i was basically forced to relinguish my rights as executor to get probate and this was done under this friends name.and was made aware that at anytime i could claim my rights back so to speak which was agreed by everyone. It was also agreed that once Probate was acquired that my name should be put onto the bank acct. which as it stands is not a executor account but just in the name of this friend.. My brother had access to our fathers bank account and money was transfered into the account  as our fathers bank acct would be frozen etc. 
 Moving on now after everything that was agreed all the parties are against any names been added to the account  there have been some rather volatile conversations to say the least. Why they are against this scenerio i really am at a loss as its keeps everyone up to date and above board. As it stands im seriously having grave concerns . All siblings are named in will as executors 
 I think that the account now should be made a executors account as there is more money to claim from building society etc and other names should be on the account . As it stands it leaves alot more doors open than closed and i feel that things are possibly going on between various parties which im unaware of. 

SeniorSam

If the three siblings and yourself were named as executors, they have a legal responsibility the deal with the estate correctly and are accountable in law to do so. The only change being that any executor can relinquish their status permanently or partially.

No account should be set up other than an executors estate and it is wrong to do so. Therefore that needs correcting.

If the estate is not dealt with correctly then the executors can be help personally liable. I would suggest that you all get together and agree the way forward in accordance with the terms of the Will.

Marcon

doris540 said:

Ill keep this short as i can. My Father died in Febuary this year . Against my wishes my three siblings said they thought as supposedly our Father had said althou this is very questionable and nothing mentioned in the will which is signed that a friend of his should deal with the estate etc. A solicitor was used to get Probate which has now been granted and house on market etc .In the meeting with solicitor i was basically forced to relinguish my rights as executor to get probate and this was done under this friends name.and was made aware that at anytime i could claim my rights back so to speak which was agreed by everyone. It was also agreed that once Probate was acquired that my name should be put onto the bank acct. which as it stands is not a executor account but just in the name of this friend.. My brother had access to our fathers bank account and money was transfered into the account  as our fathers bank acct would be frozen etc. 
 Moving on now after everything that was agreed all the parties are against any names been added to the account  there have been some rather volatile conversations to say the least. Why they are against this scenerio i really am at a loss as its keeps everyone up to date and above board. As it stands im seriously having grave concerns . All siblings are named in will as executors 
 I think that the account now should be made a executors account as there is more money to claim from building society etc and other names should be on the account . As it stands it leaves alot more doors open than closed and i feel that things are possibly going on between various parties which im unaware of. 

What does the solicitor say about your concerns?

p00hsticks

SeniorSam said:

No account should be set up other than an executors estate and it is wrong to do so. Therefore that needs correcting.

I'm not sure that is true. The topic of executors accounts comes up from time to time on these boards, and it seems that the majority of banks simply don't offer them any more. The most up to date advice seem to be that it is perfectly acceptable for an account in the personal name of (one of) the executors to be used for collecting and distributing the estate funds providing it is set up  and used soley for that purpose and not combined with the executors personal transactions.

(If the executor were to die before the final distribution of the estate was completed, then the money would initially fall into the executors estate but there would be a corresponding debt to the estate of the original deceased).

The bank account will need to be in the name of at least one of the people named as executor on the probate form. What I'm not understanding is how this family friend has apparently been named on the probate form without being named as an executor on the original will ? While the named executors can relinquish or reserve their powers, or engage a professional solicitor to carry out the donkey work in their name, as far as I'm aware (assuming we are talking England and Wales here) if they choose to do so they can't then simply nominate someone to take their place - if the executors do not wish to act then there is a strict pecking order as to who should take their place when applying for probate / letters of administration.

It sounds to me as if the OP was asked to reserve their powers for the probate application, which makes sense with four named executors, but something seems to have got lost in translation with regards to the role of the friend...