To nominate family instead of solicitors

This.

So many things can go wrong if you nominate. Solicitor directly as the executors.

Name family as executors and let them choose which solicitors to use for any part of the probate process when the time comes.

The probate form is the easy bit!

The admin is the hardest part imo - getting all the bank accounts, investments, house valuations, transferring names and selling etc.

I used a solicitor to do the form with my mum then I went for a quote for my dads and they only did full administration because the probate bit “was just a form”. As I was the only beneficiary and it was only some shares that needed transferring I didn’t see the point and did it myself.

In OPs case I think a solicitor would be useful as that’s a lot of accounts and property.

So there’s potentially another child of your DF in the mix? Does the trust name the children, or state ‘my children’?
If everything’s going to your DM, then theres no rush is there? However, I’d say it’s going to be at least a year if there a missing child.

5 rental properties is in no way going to be a straightforward issue!!

It was such a bizarre situation . The secretary had found the record of it being held by them in supposed safe custody, she had a log number, but there was no record of it being released- the new owner was cross that she had given me that info and just said my mother must have asked for it back at some point, which made no sense. Bless the secretary - I sent her a bouquet as thanks for going over and beyond !

Two separate issues here. My sister and I were executors for our late mother. We did all the admin but used Fairwill who did the probate for a fixed fee of £495. Money well spent in our opinion.

Family member or friend is fine. But make sure that the person is likely to be capable and confident to do it, and willing. Don't just pick someone because they're your nearest relative if you think they don't have the skills.
We have administered a complex family estate, and did all the "leg work" ourselves, just using a solicitor at the end to check that there were no legal or taxation implications before the whole thing was finalised. It cost a couple of thousand, but was money well spent.... having a solicitor to do the whole thing would have been many, many thousands.

You do know that you could have asked the solicitor named as executor to renounce their role?

Good grief @Boutonnière that's shocking.

I agree and in my case, family members are executors, with their agreement.

I know I can @fourfootelevenandabit but these are all people who have asked and are trusting me to do as they wish. I’m not sure I would trust the alternatives. I used to work in the legal field and have contacts I can instruct if i need help when the time comes. I just hope they all space out any dying!

I’ve done three - my father’s (made straightforward by his excellent record keeping) my mother’s ( easy *as I had had LPOA for her and had been managing her finances) and a very complicated one for a long term family friend.

It just takes reasonable organisational skills, persistence and it helps if there are no awkward beneficiaries - it can take time to gather information from various institutions.

The * re my mother’s was because the preparing for probate was easy but the original will was left in the safe keeping of the solicitor who drew it up, though not named as executor. I had copy. Turned out firm had been taken over by another company and they had lost it. After a lot of tooling and froing, it was a v helpful secretary who found it eventually by having a really good search, lying in an open topped cardboard box in a corner of a disused attic, because she was so annoyed at new owners ‘so what’ attitude. So much for it being held in safe custody.

If you don't wish to be an executor of a person's estate, you can resign (i.e. by signing a deed of renunciation). If you have not 'intermeddled' in the estate, you can sign a legal document and lodge it with the Probate Registry.

My mother made my brothers & I her executors.

In the event a Solicitor did a lot of the work, IHT was involved.

BUT clearly it was a 'competitive' appointment and if he hadnt been up to speed or charged too much then we could have sacked him.

So I suggest appoint individuals as executer's even if the intention is that they appoint solicitors to do the work

My brother and I were named as executors of my late mother's will.

It was a straightforward estate and involved the selling of a small property, some savings and the distribution of a small number of bequests for which a deed of variation was required in order to fulfil our mother's written and verbal wishes that the money she was bequeathing, in her will, to each of her grandchildren should be tripled. This change to the will was approved by the two main beneficiaries (myself and my brother), did not legally require a solicitor's involvement and a template document which we both signed was sufficient to increase the amount distributed between the grandchildren.

I completed the probate forms and probate was obtained within three weeks. It wasn't difficult but it was a little time consuming.

In contrast, when my mother-in-law died the following year, she had named a solicitor and her daughter as executors.

The daughter let the solicitors undertake probate and they charged the estate £5000 for their services. There was no property to be sold as the house was being left entirely to my husband's sister; there was no residual estate left to be distributed (so my husband became what is known as a "disappointed beneficiary" and he received nothing at all) and the solicitors took a full year to wind up a very straightforward estate. This was in 2016 and they were charging over £200 an hour for the work they did. They did not even bother informing my husband when they had wound up the estate but he had been told earlier that he would be receiving nothing. They eventually sent him a copy of the estate accounts.

As a previous poster has said, the executors can choose to use a solicitor of their own choice for all or some of the work involved if they feel they cannot manage it themselves and this is chargeable to the estate.

For an uncomplicated, low value estate, I would not recommend making a bank or a solicitor the executors - they are likely to take a full year or more to settle the estate and will charge heavily for uncomplicated admin work.

Absolutely. But be wary if you ARE the organised one, I’m currently listed as an executor for at least 3 wills I know of 😩. Let’s hope everyone lives a good long time!

Well at least a solicitor would be more likely to actually administer the estate in the way that the deceased had specified.

There are always posts on MN saying "my relative has specified x,y and z in their will but we think it would be fairer if..." or, more often, "my relative has left me x in their will but (insert family member) says " waaaah, that's not faaaaiiirrrrrr, you need to just give some of that to me".

Fortunately I don't have a family that would do this, but it seems to crop up regularly on here.

Having come across all grumpy, condolences to anyone who is currently dealing with such a situation.

Probate should be applied for within six months. While there isn't a legal time frame it can cause issues. Is inheritance tax likely? Start a email trail. You can get the executor removed if they are stalling without good reason.

It s not just about the cost, it’s the check and balance, and the fact that solicitors do this as their day job and they should know how to navigate the process.

In always amazing people ask for a solicitor. In rl I've never known anyone not to use family.

My partner did my mums. He was £4 off the total, which the probate office corrected. Really straightforward

I have completed probate twice without any problems. The most difficult thing is getting all the information (house valuation, bank account balance, car valuation, etc) once you have this, the probate forms are fairly straightforward (if a little long)!

When my FIL wrote his will, he sent a draft copy for dh to look over, and the solicitors had put in a clause naming themselves as executors, without his agreement, and with no indication of what they would be charging.

If dh hadn’t picked it up, and pointed it out to FIL so he could make them remove it, they would have been able to charge whatever they had wanted to administer the estate. FIL and dh were furious.

I agree with the pps who are saying you don’t usually need a solicitor to administer an estate - we have done two - MIL’s and my mum’s, and it was not difficult.