Only son - too young and too much responsibility to be an executor?

wobble_gobble

Hi there. I am a single Dad and want to appoint my son as an executor. He is 18 so can legally be appointed. My only concern is that this is potentially too much of a burden for him as he is just starting university (I have discussed it with him though and he is ok with it)
I am not originally from the UK and don't have any family here that could step in to do this.
Opinions greatly appreciated. Thanks.

lisyloo

What would he need to do as executor.
There's quite a lot you could do in advance to help him.
Can you give us an idea of what assets you have e.g. properties? pensions? share investments? cash?
You could quite easily for example make a list of asset, pensions and insurances.
You could keep your cash below probate limits so he doesn't need probate to access them.
You could put him on your expression of wishes with any insurance policies or pensions.
Those things would all help a great deal.
Perhaps you can give a bit more detail so we can see how complicated your estate would be?
Having been through it several times, a prepaid and pre-organised funeral would help greatly (by pre-organised i mean wishes expressed for service, hymns etc.).

so i think it would all be fine if you made some preparations to make it much easier for him.

Marcon

wobble_gobble said:

Hi there. I am a single Dad and want to appoint my son as an executor. He is 18 so can legally be appointed. My only concern is that this is potentially too much of a burden for him as he is just starting university (I have discussed it with him though and he is ok with it)
I am not originally from the UK and don't have any family here that could step in to do this.
Opinions greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Forgive the insensitivity of this question, but are you expecting to need an executor imminently?

Keep_pedalling

I would appoint him, he can always engage professional help if needed, and hopefully he will be a lot older when the time comes.

wobble_gobble

lisyloo said:

What would he need to do as executor.
There's quite a lot you could do in advance to help him.
Can you give us an idea of what assets you have e.g. properties? pensions? share investments? cash?
You could quite easily for example make a list of asset, pensions and insurances.
You could keep your cash below probate limits so he doesn't need probate to access them.
You could put him on your expression of wishes with any insurance policies or pensions.
Those things would all help a great deal.
Perhaps you can give a bit more detail so we can see how complicated your estate would be?
Having been through it several times, a prepaid and pre-organised funeral would help greatly (by pre-organised i mean wishes expressed for service, hymns etc.).

so i think it would all be fine if you made some preparations to make it much easier for him.

Hi. Useful advice thanks. It would be a mortgaged house, 3 pension pots, a stocks and share ISA, death in service life assurance from my employer and separate life assurance.

wobble_gobble

Marcon said:

wobble_gobble said:

Hi there. I am a single Dad and want to appoint my son as an executor. He is 18 so can legally be appointed. My only concern is that this is potentially too much of a burden for him as he is just starting university (I have discussed it with him though and he is ok with it)
I am not originally from the UK and don't have any family here that could step in to do this.
Opinions greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Forgive the insensitivity of this question, but are you expecting to need an executor imminently?

No not at all, but just being prepared as a worst case eventuality. Even if something happened 5 years from now I feel it would be quite a burden for a 23 year old, but there have been some useful comments posted already.

Keep_pedalling

wobble_gobble said:

lisyloo said:

What would he need to do as executor.
There's quite a lot you could do in advance to help him.
Can you give us an idea of what assets you have e.g. properties? pensions? share investments? cash?
You could quite easily for example make a list of asset, pensions and insurances.
You could keep your cash below probate limits so he doesn't need probate to access them.
You could put him on your expression of wishes with any insurance policies or pensions.
Those things would all help a great deal.
Perhaps you can give a bit more detail so we can see how complicated your estate would be?
Having been through it several times, a prepaid and pre-organised funeral would help greatly (by pre-organised i mean wishes expressed for service, hymns etc.).

so i think it would all be fine if you made some preparations to make it much easier for him.

Hi. Useful advice thanks. It would be a mortgaged house, 3 pension pots, a stocks and share ISA, death in service life assurance from my employer and separate life assurance.

The pension pots almost certainly fall outside your estate as will the death in service benefits and life insurence.

HillStreetBlues

Keep_pedalling said:

I would appoint him, he can always engage professional help if needed, and hopefully he will be a lot older when the time comes.

Totally agree, with above. Point him in the direction of this forum, there are many posters that will give him excellent advice if the worse happens.

RAS

Make sure you complete a nomination form for the death in service payment and similar for the other life insurance. Check how the different pension pots would operate if you die before retiring and you may also be able to nominate your son to receive any payments. 

It may be worth lodging your will with the HMCTS/probate registry. If you haven't got a will write one. You need to think about the disaster cases like son injured and unable to act, he pre-deceases you, has children, no children etc.

Marcon

wobble_gobble said:

Marcon said:

wobble_gobble said:

Hi there. I am a single Dad and want to appoint my son as an executor. He is 18 so can legally be appointed. My only concern is that this is potentially too much of a burden for him as he is just starting university (I have discussed it with him though and he is ok with it)
I am not originally from the UK and don't have any family here that could step in to do this.
Opinions greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Forgive the insensitivity of this question, but are you expecting to need an executor imminently?

No not at all, but just being prepared as a worst case eventuality. Even if something happened 5 years from now I feel it would be quite a burden for a 23 year old, but there have been some useful comments posted already.

Very pleased to hear it!

Make sure you have a clear, professionally drafted will and talk him through it so he knows what to expect and where to find information relating to your main assets, bank account(s) etc. Explain to him that your pension benefits are expected to fall outside the estate, as will any death in service benefit, but there could be a delay in dealing with these because the relevant trustees will need to take decisions about the recipient(s) because if payment is made at their discretion, they won't under current legislation be subject to tax.

Spendless

wobble_gobble said:

Marcon said:

wobble_gobble said:

Hi there. I am a single Dad and want to appoint my son as an executor. He is 18 so can legally be appointed. My only concern is that this is potentially too much of a burden for him as he is just starting university (I have discussed it with him though and he is ok with it)
I am not originally from the UK and don't have any family here that could step in to do this.
Opinions greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Forgive the insensitivity of this question, but are you expecting to need an executor imminently?

No not at all, but just being prepared as a worst case eventuality. Even if something happened 5 years from now I feel it would be quite a burden for a 23 year old, but there have been some useful comments posted already.

My 23yo gets married on Saturday, something I never anticipated when I waved him off to Uni at 18.  They start growing up a lot at this point. You've asked your son about it and he says he's ok with it, if he didn't want to do it I believe he could ask a solicitor to step in instead at this point (and pay for this service). I would put him down as executor.