Lawyer requesting retainer from executore/beneficiary of Will - Advise please

[babbi]

Hi,

I would be really grateful if anyone could advise /offer opinions about this.
Group of elderly relatives 6 in total age range from 92 - 77 !! have all just been informed that they are beneficiaries in a siblings will. youngest ie 77 year old is executor.
He has asked the firm of solicitors engaged by the deceased to handle all paperwork on his behalf and obviously charge accordingly against the fairly substantial estate. All family members very happy to do this and understand that there is a cost for this. Solicitors advise settlement within 6 -8 weeks max all being well.
Today siblings were asked to forward £400 to solicitor as a retainer.
This has caused huge upset as this fee was not mentioned before. Also the solicitors have had a lot of on-going business for the last 3 years with the family and have had all bills paid immediately, family feel that they make good money from our business and could they not wait another few weeks and obtain their fees from the Estate.

Question is are we reasonable in refusing to pay the retainer ?

Pertinent points (I think) we can pay the £400 , that is not the issue.

The letter sent and the document of engagement ( ie contract between family and firm) contains 6 huge errors (now confirmed and conceded by law firm) ... eg value of Estate is 260 k out- and various others - in fact the errors are so large that the contract cannot be signed until they are corrected as it is basically invalid.
Perhaps we are taking exception to this so much as we are so unhappy by the service ie we feel we are being asked to pay for documents that are incorrect and useless. (This is the third set requiring correction ).

Would it be normal to ask beneficiaries of wills to pay a retainer ?
Should we pay in this case?

I would be very grateful for any input as I understand that bereaved families can look at things from an emotional point of view.

Meanwhile we await the 4th set of documents .....

Thanks very much in advance.

Bumping this for you ....
and adding a note that you should make very sure that the family are not being charged for the work which has gone into drawing up the three sets of documents which were not correct!
In your shoes, I would probably be confirming that the requested retainer is part of, rather than additional to, the final bill as quoted prior to engagement.

It's pretty normal for solicitors to ask for money on account of costs, if we take on new clients we're always supposed to get at least £1k on account which is applied against invoices, it's not in addition to other fees. We do give existing clients some leeway (unless they have a history of not paying or are in financial difficulties). Also if we have to incur disbursements we will usually ask for money up front.

In your case I'm not sure whether there would be any significant disbursements at this point (there will be inheritance tax in due course though) but it's not unreasonable for them to ask for money on account though perhaps a little insensitive to insist on it in the circumstances.

Hi,

Thanks to you both for taking the time to reply.
I have had it confirmed (albeit only verbally !!) that the retainer will be deducted from the final account so all in all it will be the same end result and we will make sure that all the repeat work is at their cost.

I suppose we are probably upset that their errors are such that we have lost all faith in their ability to do even the slightest thing correctly.... the request for the retainer was in fact one of the few things that was detailed correctly on the correspondence !! That is obviously annoying.. but still they are due to be paid so we will just forward the money and hopefully things will improve.

Much appreciate your input both of you.

Little oak tree you have hit the nail on the head- it is that lack of sensitivity around these elderly people that has caused the anger ...no one involved in the family really wants/needs the money that is on the way... they just want their brothers final admin to be dealt with in a timely and dignified manner.

Thanks very much one again .

It's the executors who are responsible for administering the estate (and paying legal bills), not the beneficiaries.

I am a probate lawyer and we would only ask for a retainer in probate cases if we thought the estate was going to be insolvent. Otherwise we get paid once the estate is in funds, ie once the grant of probate has been issued and we have liquidated assets. This can sometimes take a year but that is the nature of the work.

We do ask for retainers for other work, but with estate administration we know that all the funds are coming through our client account anyway so there is no question of us not getting paid. All the probate lawyers I know work like this. I would get yourselves a new solicitor.

Generally the only upfront disbursement in probate cases is the cost of applying for probate itself and funding inheritance tax if applicable; the deceased's bank will release the funds for those on request and the funeral bill can be settled directly through the bank too.

Sometimes there may be costs for obtaining additional copies of documents eg birth or marriage certificates or settling fees if the oath requires settling by the Probate Registry ( only applies in complicated estates) so the firm would be within their rights to request payment for those items upfront but the total would be less than £50 in the examples I have just given.

Thanks very much collaborate and poshfrock for taking the time to reply.

We have had a letter today stating that they will waive the request for the retainer and also reduce the hourly rate by 140 per hour !!

I think you are correct posh frock...time for another solicitor.... from shoddy admin to market trader bartering on price...it just seems less than professional...

Thanks once again..