Solicitor charging a fixed fee to act as executor. What does this normally cover ?

Fletchkov

My Auntie passed away  on Boxing Day leaving her estate to my brother, sister and me in her will as she  had no other relatives . 

Her solicitor was named as Executor on the will . 

We had to put her in a nursing home before she passed away , I was in control of all her finances and was in the process on making things simple so we could pay her nursing home fees. She had a few bank accounts and Isas and I was in the process of collating everything and filing it so I knew where I was with it . We were also going to sell her house once she was settled. She had only been in the nursing home a month when she died . I had already filed away everything I had on her finances, life insurances , an overseas bank account etc and it was all in order which took me a fair few months as she has it all over the place and had dementia . 

We took the file to the solicitor who was extremely appreciative of everything I had done as it would have been a job for them to do it all. We all decided to go with the solicitors fixed fee rather than hourly rate to do probate etc as it was fairly complicated given she also had an overseas bank account. The solicitor quoted 31k which seemed a lot but we thought as a very large well know solicitor in the area at least they knew what they were doing . 

4 months down the line we are not getting any updates , and the info we have managed to get has been very limited . I still go to the house to collect post etc and still seeing bills, bank account letters including the foreign one among other things . Surely by now the solicitor should have this all in order? Everything was in the file I gave them including utility stuff . 

They haven’t even sent it all off to probate yet , apparently waiting for one of the life insurances to give a final settlement before they can . 

Sorry about chapter and verse on the situation . What I’d really like to know is what exactly do they do for the money , and when it come to selling the house , will the selling fees etc come out of the fixed fee they are charging us or is that extra. Are phone calls, emails etc included ? I’m worried that not only are they dragging their heels with this , we will probably be done for other costs at the end of it. Any advice please ? 

DE_612183

What did it say in the contract?

As an executor I'd expect them to gather all the money in, apply for probate then once all the funds are available execute the will etc and deal with things like IHT.

Not being funny but did you mis-type £31,000 ?

Is the estate very big and complicated - because that is a hell of a lot of money for a job that a lot of people do themselves if they can...

Brie

DE_612183 said:

What did it say in the contract?

As an executor I'd expect them to gather all the money in, apply for probate then once all the funds are available execute the will etc and deal with things like IHT.

Not being funny but did you mis-type £31,000 ?

Is the estate very big and complicated - because that is a hell of a lot of money for a job that a lot of people do themselves if they can...

I agree it's a huge amount of money.  But if a solicitor is charging a huge hourly fee (I've heard £500 an hour plus) then you'd get to that quite quickly, particularly as they likely would be charging in 10 or 15 minute blocks.  So just to read an email is going to cost something like £125.  

I wonder what the contract says about taking the work back from the solicitor.  Would the full amount still be invoiced?

DullGreyGuy

Doesnt matter what it typically included but what has explicitly been agreed to be included. 

Fixed fee is normally moderately above what the typical case would cost on a T&M basis but you get the certainty of knowing upfront what the fee is and that you won't suddenly find it has run up to £45k. 

The downside of fixed fee is that they will only do precisely what they have said they will do and no more. If the scope hasn't been well defined it often leads to debates on if something is inside the agreed fee or an additional item that needs to be charged for. 

Whilst I am normally playing with clients money and not my own, I am not a fan of fixed fee irrespective of if we are talking solicitors, IT companies, architects or any other professional services. 

elsien

No one can answer questions about what is in the contract apart from the people who have a copy of it.
Why don’t you get it out and have a read to see what it covers? 

Although for that amount of money, I’d want them on speed dial.

Fletchkov

Actually that’s a good point. I need to look at the contract . At the time I was just about to have a very big operation and just needed someone else to handle all the stress of it so quite happy to have the solicitor take over . My sis and bro weren’t really in a position to do the more complex stuff either.
Her estate will probably end up being around 6-700k . It’s not hugely complicated as I had everything they needed in the file, right down to her national insurance numbers, life assurance details, Utility companies. 

I looked at what other Solicitors were charging for that size estate and although what they quoted was high , I did see similar and they were very reassuring (of course they were 😉) so we went ahead with it . Yes 31k not a mis type 

Fletchkov

Just checked out the contract . 31k is including Vat . It includes conveyancing and looks like it’s all the admin. Still as clear as mud really . 

kipperman

Fletchkov said:

Actually that’s a good point. I need to look at the contract . At the time I was just about to have a very big operation and just needed someone else to handle all the stress of it so quite happy to have the solicitor take over . My sis and bro weren’t really in a position to do the more complex stuff either.
Her estate will probably end up being around 6-700k . It’s not hugely complicated as I had everything they needed in the file, right down to her national insurance numbers, life assurance details, Utility companies. 

I looked at what other Solicitors were charging for that size estate and although what they quoted was high , I did see similar and they were very reassuring (of course they were 😉) so we went ahead with it . Yes 31k not a mis type 

We were quoted between 25k and 35k (+VAT) for an uncomplicated estate of roughly double that size. Which is why we DIY'ed, including dealing with confirmation in Scotland. Really just a learning curve, and support on this forum was fantastic.

poppystar

In your opening post you say that the solicitor was the executor so it’s a bit unclear why you are engaging them? If they are sole executor then they effectively have been given the power to do what is necessary and charge the estate for their role as executor. I’m not sure you could have taken the work elsewhere if you had wanted. Or are you all co executors? 

If the latter they should be keeping you in the loop. If the former they have no obligation to keep you informed of anything while they execute the estate.