Appointed Executor in Will of Disorganised Estate

BooJewels

Having recently dealt with a less complicated estate, but with chaotic paperwork (it started with about 6 months worth of unopened mail) - it was my experience that once you start sorting through paperwork, you get your eye in and the process of just sorting it all out starts answering questions and you do progressively get to understand it.  In many cases, only the last piece of paper in a series matters - earlier stuff is often superceded - so just adds to the volume to be sorted.

I would reiterate what others have said - be very organised and systematic - this is part of the process that you're probably going to have to do anyway.  By which time, you'll perhaps understand it well enough to continue the process yourself.  I can remember sitting down surrounded by piles of files and papers and wanting to cry - it felt unsurmountable.   Once I opened out envelopes and threw the envelope and any sales leaflets etc away, I reduced the volume to a fraction which didn't look quite so daunting.  My panic was in finding a big box full of stuff about equity release - wondering if they'd taken it out and we'd have a big bill.  I checked every sheet of paper and concluded that they'd made an initial enquiry and then been bombarded with documents, pressuring them to take it out.

My concern from what you said was about uncashed cheques - are there time limits on cashing them (I have in mind 6 months) and you'd perhaps need to make an arrangement with their [or your] bank to allow you to pay them in.

user1977

BooJewels said:

My concern from what you said was about uncashed cheques - are there time limits on cashing them (I have in mind 6 months) and you'd perhaps need to make an arrangement with their [or your] bank to allow you to pay them in.

In practice you would go back to the creditor and get them to reissue the cheque (or credit the funds some other way).

theoretica

As mentioned there is a middle ground between doing it all yourself and handing it all over - and that is employing someone for particular issues.  Something you can always do if you hit a complication.

Are you and the other executor the only beneficiaries?  Is there any beneficiary who might kick up a big stink if they suspect you have missed something somewhere?

user1977

Sea_Shell said:

I don't think you can just dump boxloads of paper on their desk and go "over to you!".

Oh yes you can! In the past I've been the trainee solicitor sorting it out...

In many cases there isn't realistically anybody else who's going to do it.

Sea_Shell

user1977 said:

Sea_Shell said:

I don't think you can just dump boxloads of paper on their desk and go "over to you!".

Oh yes you can! In the past I've been the trainee solicitor sorting it out...

In many cases there isn't realistically anybody else who's going to do it.

Thanks for half quoting me😉

I also said "Even if you could, just think of the hourly rate they'd charge to sort through it 😲😲"

What hourly rate were you billed out at?  Way above your actual salary, I'd bet?

If anyone actually wants there to be some inheritance left, it's worth at least sorting through the bulk first.

As it could be obvious quite quickly what is "junk mail" and what's important.    

user1977

Sea_Shell said:

user1977 said:

Sea_Shell said:

I don't think you can just dump boxloads of paper on their desk and go "over to you!".

Oh yes you can! In the past I've been the trainee solicitor sorting it out...

In many cases there isn't realistically anybody else who's going to do it.

I also said "Even if you could, just think of the hourly rate they'd charge to sort through it 😲😲"

What hourly rate were you billed out at?  Way above your actual salary, I'd bet?

Well, obviously, unless you expect law firms to run at a loss. Though my salary was minimal at the time.

In practice though executries tend not to be charged on a straightforward time-and-line basis, more likely to be mostly based on the value of the estate and the number of assets being dealt with.

Nearlyold

Thanks for your thoughts everyone, we're going to see how far we get this week in sorting stuff which should give us an idea of the task ahead from an Executors duties perspective and then take it from there. NB We've just found another suitcase full of papers.

BooJewels

I wish you luck @Nearlyold it's bringing back memories and making me shudder.  I feel your pain.

You'll probably find as you start drilling down through it that much of it is historic and not especially pertinent to the immediate task in hand - but might still be important and you may need to go back to.  We often found ourselves going "hang on, I've seen something about that" and digging back through an old box.

We boxed a lot of stuff 'to go back to' - so start by sorting into batches of 'this can wait' and 'we're probably going to need this', so that you prioritise on using your time effectively, until you start to form a picture of the situation.  For example, we found a lot of Bradford and Bingley building society books, statements, certificates of investment and transfer receipts, yield projections etc and got a bit excited, thinking there might be money we didn't know about, until I found a more recent book - found it had all been consolidated into one account - subsequently closed and 'transferred'.  A call to the bank (Santander had taken over B&B) identified it being paid into their bank account in 2016 and I was able to find it on a bank statement.  So it's a bit like building a financial jigsaw, the pieces do gradually come together - although invariably you're left with the odd piece that appears to be from a different jigsaw entirely and won't fit.  I still have a file of stuff I never resolved and probably never will.

Some are perhaps not even worth pursuing - I knew there were premium bonds and some national saving funds.  After lots of form filling and back and forth with NS&I (who wouldn't even tell me the likely amount) I was credited with 2 payments of £2 each and a separate transfer of 20p.  It was about 30p per hour return for my time!

Sea_Shell

BooJewels said:

I wish you luck @Nearlyold it's bringing back memories and making me shudder.  I feel your pain.

You'll probably find as you start drilling down through it that much of it is historic and not especially pertinent to the immediate task in hand - but might still be important and you may need to go back to.  We often found ourselves going "hang on, I've seen something about that" and digging back through an old box.

We boxed a lot of stuff 'to go back to' - so start by sorting into batches of 'this can wait' and 'we're probably going to need this', so that you prioritise on using your time effectively, until you start to form a picture of the situation.  For example, we found a lot of Bradford and Bingley building society books, statements, certificates of investment and transfer receipts, yield projections etc and got a bit excited, thinking there might be money we didn't know about, until I found a more recent book - found it had all been consolidated into one account - subsequently closed and 'transferred'.  A call to the bank (Santander had taken over B&B) identified it being paid into their bank account in 2016 and I was able to find it on a bank statement.  So it's a bit like building a financial jigsaw, the pieces do gradually come together - although invariably you're left with the odd piece that appears to be from a different jigsaw entirely and won't fit.  I still have a file of stuff I never resolved and probably never will.

Some are perhaps not even worth pursuing - I knew there were premium bonds and some national saving funds.  After lots of form filling and back and forth with NS&I (who wouldn't even tell me the likely amount) I was credited with 2 payments of £2 each and a separate transfer of 20p.  It was about 30p per hour return for my time!

Reminds me of the scene in "The Post" where they're sat with paper everywhere, trying to piece together the evidence. 😉

BooJewels

I'll have to look that up, I don't know it @Sea_Shell - it's still too close in memory for me to have shaken it fully yet - I periodically wake in the night in a sweat thinking that I'm still not done with it and I have to try and remember if we actually cleared and sold the house yet.  Paperwork was one thing (I brought boxes and boxes home to do here - I shredded 60 years of bank statements) and the general clutter and gubbins was another. 

Thank goodness for 'instructed to be ruthless' house clearance companies, or we'd still be at it - they earned every damn penny.  I can only assume they employed some sort of witchcraft - as in 2 working days they cleared the place entirely and even swept the floor.  My sister opened the garage door the day they finished and stood there blinking, thinking she was hallucinating!  She sent me a photo and said "are you seeing what I'm seeing" - we hadn't seen the floor since 1968!