Wills - new lawyer charging elderly person for a new will

[NMFP]

My elderly mother has been persuaded by a relative to take her business to a new lawyer because she has moved house.

She really struggles to make decisions or to express her views - its the bossy relative who decided this is required and made the appointment. My mum simply would not be able to make an appointment on her own. I think the lawyer knows this.

One of the things the lawyer has done is to draw up a brand new will for her, as well as few other things which seem sensible. However, her existing will was very straightforward and the lawyer has drawn up a new one and I think is now the sole executor (it was previously her bank).

I haven't seen the new will yet but if there are no material changes I wondered if I should be querying this. I don't mind them being sole executor if that's what she wants but wouldn't a simple codicil do? Or can they not make a codicil to a will drawn up by a different lawyer?

I should explain that I am her Financial POA and will be accompanying her to her next appointment.

She could certainly have made a codicil if all that she was changing was the name of the executor. It doesn't matter that the original will was drawn up by a different solicitor.

Having said that, if she was making a lot of quite fiddly changes it may have been more cost effective for them just to draw up a will using one of their standard templates rather than spend ages changing the old one (and therefore the secretary typing the whole thing from scratch rather than cutting and pasting in a lot of their own standard clauses).

Why doesn't she want you to be one of her executors? The firm will charge quite a lot, some firms even still charge a percentage of the estate which can be a ridiculous amount of money.

I have offered to be her executor as I already look after her affairs and I have explained the expense to her. I'll mention it again at the next appointment.

It would certainly make sense for family to act as executors unless the estate is going to be unusually complex to administer.

I would be having a word with bossy relative about keeping you in the loop as well.

Thanks all.

'Bossy relative' is a whole other thread.

She used to let her late husband make the big decisions so this is hard for her, but she doesn't like taking advice because she worries about being thought stupid - especially if the advice is conflicting.

It sounds unnecessarily stressful for her.

It is.

I'm trying to help as much as I can but its very frustrating when she is being pressurised by others because, while I don't want to add to the pressure, I look after her affairs I do need to know what's going on, and I also want her to be happy with what I am doing.

Might be time to be firmer about boundaries with all the bossy relatives. Why are they stepping in, are they concerned or greedy or well meaning?

I think also you should talk to your mum about being the executor. We have just had experience of this and its very overly complicated if you have a third party involved, as well as expensive.

If it's going to be a simple estate with no shares, multimillion pound businesses or lots of property then there's no real need for a professional executor apart from them getting ££££ from it.

You could just go to another solicitor with her draw up a new one and keep it between the 2 of you. The old will will become void. Bossy relative will be none the wiser and grasping solicitors won't know either.

Ha perfect! :)

If you're made executor, you can always appoint a solicitor to act for you if you need help.

You may find you don't need help. Even if you do, you'll have the opportunity to shop around.