Solicitors as Executors

[thereisonlyoneofme]

I have a terminal illness and as I have no relatives I have instructed solicitors to deal with absolutely everything at the end.

Wondering how this works as obviously at the end either hospital or hospice would be involved. Can I be sure that the estate will be properly dealt with, as there some oversight in these cases.

Solicitors already instructed. Yes I am leaving to various charities, and having heard from a friend about the hassle and argueing among said charities in another case the solicitors can take the flak

I think this sounds like the absolute right thing to do in the circumstances. You cannot trust anyone 100% of course, but I think solicitors appointed as your executors would be high up on the list. It also works out less expensive as they will be administering it internally without the need for client meetings, letters etc. You could appoint a friend as an executor of you'd like some external input but there will be charged for meetings with them and so on to get them to sign things.

I'm sorry to hear of your illness. It sounds like your estate is going to go to some good causes. x

Aargh typos!

@thereisonlyoneofme

Solicitors already instructed. Yes I am leaving to various charities, and having heard from a friend about the hassle and argueing among said charities in another case the solicitors can take the flak

Sorry to hear about your illness.

I'm guessing that you mean you've instructed solicitors to draft the will? Which is good! Because it needs to be bombproof if the "residue" (everything left at the end) is going to charities. It is the charities' legal duty to ensure that they get what they're legally entitled to, in other words to maximise the residue. And that means looking for any little loopholes in the drafting that might make any of the other gifts void, and increase the residue. I'm guessing that's what your friend was talking about.

You're already doing a nice thing for the charities. I think it's fair enough for them to get solicitors' fees (as executors) deducted before the charities get their share. It's definitely not fair to lumber some poor friend with it!

Yes, they are also going to be responsible for sale of house, funeral etc ! as no one to do it. A friend of mine is executor for someone and the stress she has been under is dreadful which is why Im not asking any of mine to do it.

if you simplify your matters then executor is not that complicated - you estimate worth of estate, register it and sort any IHT then apply for probate, once that is granted you can do anything big like housesales but before that you can still pay for funeral and sorting household bills etc. Main thing is neat and tidy finances - make sure you have enough to pay for any funeral and or IHT if possible, in current accounts with the bank and just list everywhere you have accounts. In the last 10 months I have done MIL who just had cash in around 15 investments and bank accounts and did without probate but with Will and death certificate, and My Dad with Probate & Will and he was 4 days from completing on a housesale which was the most difficult thing to deal with.

No problem with solicitor being executor but they do need someone to push them along. Don't worry about the Charities wrangling over monies left to them - they only do that if there is any unclarity or if specific amounts were left and there is not enough to cover them all - so answer is leave them % and then whatever is left just gets divided up.

I'm in a similar situation, OP. Will you be minimising what needs to be done in some way?

So sorry OP.

As part of tidying up your affairs, would it be worth setting up both health and finance power of attorneys, if you can find anyone appropriate to be attorneys? You would need to be able to trust them implicitly that they would do the right thing for you.

You may not need them of course.

All the best. X

Hi, thanks for replies. No did discuss POT with solicitors and they were of the opinion that would o nly be required if I thought I could not conduct my affairs.
"Questchun* I have consolidated as much of my finances as possible, and made lists of where stuff is etc. My biggest worry is my dog, Ive made arrangements with a charity but not really happy about her having to go into a kennels as she had a very bad start in life as a breeding bitch. Though Ihad that all sorted with a friend with a country home, but she has backed out due to her own new commitments !