Probate Granted - Solicitor requesting funds to be transfered to his a/c

Hi there,
I am just looking for some advice on the following.
I am acting Executor to a will and I received a letter recently from the solicitor stating that grant of probate has now come through.

He goes on to say that he would advise me to go ahead with setting up the necessary steps to dispose of the properties and to contact an auctioneer to discuss this.

He then goes on to say , can you please sign the payment authorisation form to transfer all the deceased monies to 'his' firms account. This is needed for withdrawl authorisation to start paying debts owed by the deceased, eg funeral costs, and other outstanding costs.

I understood that I was the responsible party to ensure that all outstanding costs are paid for and if that is the case, would it not make more sense to transfer the monies to my a/c ?

Is it normal practice to transfer the money to the solicitors a/c and for him to sanction payment to outstanding debts ??

Any advice, reassurance would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Walshey

I'm sure what the solicitor meant was to transfer funds to his firm's client account(s). If you wish to open an executor's account there are costs involved, including insurance. Only you can authorise the solicitor to pay any debts arising, using cheques drawn on the solicitor's client account.

Thanks mathepac,
Are you saying that for every cheque that he writes in relation to the deceased outstanding debts, I will need to signed off by me first ?

Whatever the actual process and paper-trail involved, ask to see and sign off on for example, an invoice from funeral director, bill from caterer, statement from utility company, ESB, Gas company, estate agent, advertiser, etc. Keep or request copies of each document and keep a running total of outlays for your own records.

As a by the way............

As practising solicitor in this area, I find that different cases can mean a different approach. I recently had a case where I handled only the sale proceeds and the executor, an accountant, dealt with everything else. Had I been handling the funds, I would have had to account for all funds and all disbursements.

Where there are a significant number of beneficiaries, plus or minus the opportunity for fall out, some executors prefer to have the solicitor handle the disbursements and produce the final account of money in and money out.

In the OP's case, it seems the solicitor and client may not have had the conversation about who does what and I suggest that s/he does that now.

mf

In my experience the norm is that all receipts and payments go through the solicitors client account, it is unusual for the executor to do so. I have only had one file ever in over 20 years where the Executor paid out the beneficiaries and even at that, we had prepared all the accounts, made all other payments and the net benefits were given to the executor to pay out.

While it is the norm for the solicitor to handle the funds, the Executor is ultimately in charge so can decide which way to go. I know if I were an executor and I were paying a solicitor to handle an estate I would let them at it, if they make a mistake they can be sued, a layer of protection for the executor!

thanks to all for your response and advice, it's my first time acting executor so I just wanted to make sure its part or normal procedure to handle payment of debt in this way through the solicitor client account.

Thanks all

I am just now finishing up an Administration of a family members estate in which there is 1 beneficiary and the law firm allow me to open an admin a/c in which funds from the estate were transferred and I used these to pay out on outstanding debt's. I was not the beneficiary in this case.