To nominate family instead of solicitors

[RelativePitch]

To be main executor and administrator of your estate.
Now obviously you should always use a solicitor for estate planning and Wills. There is no way round that.
But in terms of administrating the Will, may I suggest that if you have a relatively organised spouse, child or children with a couple of brain cells knocking about they would be so much better doing it themselves. Much faster and free of charge.
My DF passed away in November and the solicitor still hasn't got the paperwork ready to send off to Probate. 6 bank accounts and 5 rental properties. All straight forwards.
I'm frequently in touch with the banks and all the delay lies with the solicitor. £8k so far in bills and no end in sight.
AIBU to think family could do this themselves?

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 !

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

@Spirallingdownwards my DM is sole beneficiary of everything and the properties are being left as rentals. She's not allowed to sell them as they are in trust for the 5 children, possibly 6 if the lovechild comes forwards and makes a claim within the 6 months after probate. The trust bit I agree may be more complicated when my DM dies, but this bit where she is sole beneficiary should have been quicker? I think?

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.

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.

@Soontobe60 we are all named in the trust. Not the lovechild. We just know that he had a son back in the mid 60s when he was married to his first wife with the mother's help. My DF never had a relationship with him. He will be able to put in a claim (1975 inheritance act) even if he doesn't have a strong claim, it's generally cheaper to reach a compromise than to allow it to get to court. That could get tricky.

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.