Alternatives to using Solicitors as Executives

Keep_pedalling

How complex is your estate? £20k probate fees would suggest it is quite complex or large (£1M+) in which case those sort of fees would not be considered excessive. 

tooldle

TychoTMA said:

I know of one person where the solicitors were so un-helpful that some of the man's friends missed his funeral; the solicitors refused to talk to anyone who was not family. Isn't that truly awful, but really not surprising for that profession?

The solicitor is doing a job for their client. If the client specifies the solicitor should talk to any random who calls, and the client can afford to cover these costs, then so be it. Arranging a funeral is relatively straight forward. Dealing with the phone calls from other interested parties can take hours and hours. 
The charity has been responsible in letting you know it wishes a solicitor to be appointed as executor, and you therefore have a choice. You can do as the charity asks, you can ignore and proceed as planned and accept the charity will have to bare any additional cost of renouncing and appointing a solicitor to deal with your estate, or you can change your mind and leave your bequest to another party. 
There is no free lunch in this scenario. Having executed a parents will with another on the horizon, i can say with certainty it can take a considerable number of hours to deal with the formalities of death and the resultant estate. 

handful

silvercar said:

I don’t know how you feel about accountants, but (smaller) accountancy firms often act as executors. 

I concur with this. I'm currently an executor of an estate and it was becoming all consuming time wise so I have handed over to a local accountant who appear to be very reasonable and efficient so far compared to the solicitors I tried first . It's good to find one with STEP accreditation.