Solicitor as executor of will?

S

seed

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My dad has made his will. He wanted my brother and i to be joint executors but since we are beneficiaries of his will, the solicitor has told him that that isn't possible. The solicitor instead has said that he will get one of his colleagues to undertake this role. This concerns me as I am sure that this will lead to uneccessary expense. For example, my Dad has a brother who could perform this task. What do you think?
 
It is preferable for a family member/ trusted friend to be the executor(s). If a solicitor or e.g. bank manager is the executor it wrests control over the estate from the family. There is no issue at all with a beneficiary being an executor. If that was the advice that was given then it is wrong. Is it possible that there is a confusion? i.e. that your father was told that a witness cannot be a beneficiary - that certainly is the case.

mf
 
Hello Seed,

Both you and your brother can be executors and beneficiaries of your father's estate.

Justsally
 
The only circumstances under which it is wiser to have the solicitor do it is if there is a possibility of any old debt (including the taxman) coming back in years to come after you have disbursed the money. The executors will be responsible for it whereas the solicitor will not.
 
It is much better to have a well organised beneficiary as the executor. I am sure that some solicitors have handled their execution duties efficiently, but there have been many cases where they seemed to lose interest and take ages. There was a case on Prime Time where a solcitor was reprimanded by the Law Society for taking years to pass on the funds.

You may need a solicitor for advice when acting as executor, but if they are slow to deal with it, then you can go elsewhere. I assume that you can't change an executor very easily

Brendan
 
Thanks for that info. Does anyone know if it costs a lot extra for a solicitor to be an executor? There are no tax issues etc. Is this guy trying to cash in?

Seed
 
was involved in a friends will where a solicitor was executor around 400k was involved including property stocks and shares, bank account the total fees were around 12k
 
My advice, based on my own experience, is to do it yourself - unless there are any legal or other complications.

My own solicitor has dragged out a very straightforward case to over 15 months now - and still not finished. Sadly 2 other relatives died in the meantime, both their cases were handled by the other relatives themselves, and were finished months ago. At minimal additional cost too.

Quoted cost from the solicitor is €12-15k. Based on the delays, and the preparatory work I've done for him - he should be paying me at this stage

Brendan's comment above is particularly relevan to me also.
 
Executor's fees used to be based on a percentage of the estate, plus a percentage of the income into the estate while it was being settled. I don't know if they've moved away from this structure.
 
The solicitor dealing with my parents estate charged a fixed fee not a %. It would depend on the complexity of the estate and time required to handle it. Shop around if you can.
 
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