Changing executor of will from a solicitor

Grassisgreen35

My grandmother for some reason put her Will solicitors as the executor of her will. We are obviously a bit suspicious of this as there is no details or estimate of what the costs will be for them to undertake this service other than a supplied list of hourly rates, she was very thorough with her admin and kept all the paperwork supplied and last updated her Will in 2018 which is still current (when she was 87 hence my suspiciousness). Anyway she has agreed that it should be changed to her two grandsons who are the main beneficiary’s of her estate, her estate is very simple so she will only have 1 savings account and 1 bank account when she dies as she is moving to assisted living. Can we just sort this out by a codicil (we will probably just buy a codicil template to make it more watertight) changing the executors to her grandsons getting it properly signed/witnessed and then sending a copy to the solicitors in question or do we need to actually involve the solicitors who store her will, or once this is done can we just send them a copy of the codicil so that they know they are no longer the executors? Obviously I know if we ask the question they will probably just make it into a really awkward expensive process and she has mobility issues so we really don’t want that.

Flugelhorn

solicitors are very keen to be made execs on wills - they tell you it will be very complicated for your nearest and dearest to handle the estate and wouldn't it be so much better if they did the job? 

we had the same, our children were just old enough to be execs but we had the heavy spiel - we declined and somehow the solicitor lost all interest in the will - never got beyond the draft stage, never responsed to calls and we went elsewhere 

having aid that - many solicitors are not actually keen on being execs on small estates - might be worth asking them what they would charge to change the execs - you can always say no if you don't like the amount 

Grassisgreen35

I think the issue is the solicitors will ask her to come into the office, she is not really mobile/well enough for that and I suspect then having two people visit to organise vs just buying a codicil template amending the executors & then sending them the revision will be quite a bit more expensive. Are the solicitors likely to challenge the codicil because they are so desperate to be the executors? I can see that they charged her for all previous wills & amendments so she didn’t get a free will service in exchange for executor or anything.  

Grassisgreen35

Obviously we would get 2 family friends to witness/sign this codicil with her.

Exodi

They also kind of act as an (expensive) mediator.

Look at it this way:

Grassisgreen35 said:

it should be changed to her two grandsons who are the main beneficiary’s of her estate

A situation like this can be highly volatile. This forum sees messy arguments over wills all the time because of dynamics like this. My colleagues wife and her brother had an extremely long and drawn out process over administering their deceased fathers estate because of arguments over the quick emptying accounts into their personal possession, claiming ownership of specific assets, even a two month long argument because the brother wanted to be reimbursed from the estate for travel expenses travelling to the grave.

I appreciate that this might not land as I hope on you, as you're coming at this from the position of one of the future beneficiaries rather than the testator, and it is your idea, and will undoubtedly tell me that "me and my brother wouldn't do that" but money changes people, and this forum sees drama like this day in and day out.

It's quite an odd post to read knowing she's still alive.

user1977

Grassisgreen35 said:

We are obviously a bit suspicious of this as there is no details or estimate of what the costs will be for them to undertake this service other than a supplied list of hourly rates, she was very thorough with her admin and kept all the paperwork supplied and last updated her Will in 2018 which is still current (when she was 87 hence my suspiciousness)....and she has mobility issues so we really don’t want that.

Solicitors don't know when you're going to die, so can hardly promise you any prices for dealing with your executry!

Don't know what you mean by 87 adding to your suspicion?

And by the nature of their business, they'll be used to clients who can't easily pop into their office.

Grassisgreen35

Basically her estate is low value already under 200k, we are not even anticipating there will be anything left after eventual care fees, infact in 3 years nearly all of it will be gone on care bills, but having an executor of the Will as a solicitor might not even leave her having any money left for a funeral I assume because this solicitor charges and hourly rate on time spent it just seems crazy to have a low value estate done through a solicitor. In fairness we are already her lasting power of attorneys and could already slowly take her money away, the reality is that we are from a poor working class family & literally everyone was desperate to send her into a care situation, that means they were fully expecting to receive basically nothing in inheritance.

Grassisgreen35

I should add her Will also gives funeral instructions which I presume the solicitor will also have to pick up. Although again I am not entirely clear how this works, will the solicitor actually organise the funeral or just pay the bills for it at some huge extra cost. She was obviously very optimistic when she wrote this Will and thought she would never have to leave her home and so would be giving an inheritance away, which is highly unlikely to be the reality now and probably won’t amount to more than 10k.

user1977

No, it doesn't need to be the solicitors who organise the funeral. Often nobody even reads the will before the funeral has been sorted. Funeral expenses come first out of the estate, not the executors' professional fees.

Tiglet2

Could your grandmother just write a new Will with her updated wishes?  There are solicitors who will come to her (whether that's at the assisted living place or her own home), if she is not able to visit their offices.

Exodi

Tiglet2 said:

Could your grandmother just write a new Will with her updated wishes?  There are solicitors who will come to her (whether that's at the assisted living place or her own home), if she is not able to visit their offices.

I would usually say that's opening the door for contestment (the situation of a 93 year old with an LPA in place changing her will on the behest of the future beneficiaries to reduce the estates future liabilities) and invites the possibility of challenge on multiple grounds, including: Lack of testamentary capacity and Undue influence (I'm not saying that any of these are the case!).

However, as the only change is executor (and I can't see either beneficiary protesting that the executor should be the solicitor charging a princely sum), I can't actually see that it matters if there's no challenge to contest it.

As Tiglet2 says, they can visit people. My stepdad had his will drafted, and later signed and witnessed, at his home.