Please comment on the wording of this will and appointment of solicitors as executors

[MEgirl]

Please could someone advise re the following wording of a will. The appointed solicitors have done almost nothing to progress probate 5 months since the death and have told the widow that it will take up to 2 years.

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1. I DIRECT that this is my last Will for the disposition of all of my estate in England and Wales.
2. I APPOINT my Wife XXXXXX and the partners at the date of my death in the firm of XXXXX Solicitors of XXXXXX or the firm which at that date has succeeded to and carries on its practice and I DIRECT that only two of the partners shall prove this Will in addition to my said Wife AND I ALSO DIRECT that the said XXXX LLP shall be entitled to charge and be paid (without abatement) all usual professional or other charges for business done services rendered or time spent by them or their firm including acts which and Executor not engaged in any profession or business could have done personally.

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As the widow, can she fire the solicitors seeing as they are mentioned in the will. Is it even normal for solicitors to be mentioned in this way in modern wills. She is having a real to get them to do any work and is currently left with no money as she has no access to the estate.

No, she cannot fire them. They have accepted the appointment as executors and, presumably, started the process of administering the estate. If they are willing to give up the role, they can apply to the courts to have themselves removed as executors. If they are unwilling, the widow will need to apply to have them removed. To succeed, she would need to show that the proper administration of the estate or the welfare of beneficiaries is being adversely affected.

@MEgirl there is often a misunderstanding when solicitors are executors that they do everything. In reality the family often have do dig out all the paperwork and do a lot of the admin.

As @prh47bridge says she can ask the solicitors to renounce. The other option is to talk to the solicitors and offer as joint executor to do all the admin, forms etc. so all they have to do is check and sign. This may speed up the process but you still have to wait for the solicitors to check and sign the application.

You say it’s only 5 months since the husband sadly died, depending on the complexity of the estate it can take some time to get all the paperwork together but if there is IHT to be paid (not likely if estate left to the widow) there is a time limit which can help progress an estate.

Thanks for your replies.

The problem for this lady is that the solicitors don't seem to even have started work on the probate. She has had no requests for information relating to the late husband's estate. She has had no sight of an IHT 400.

She is concerned that she is being charged for meetings and nothing else has been done behind the scenes. She can't get them to make any progress.

When my husband died within a couple of days I received a long list of almost 40 questions from my solicitor so that she could gather the right information for the IHT 400. I had regular updates and invoices from the solicitor keeping me informed about the work being done. Is this not normal?

She has apparently been told that it could take up to two years for probate. Doesn't seem right. Even during Covid it only took 11 months for mine to go through and it was complex. The tax/estate returns have taken over two years so it is possible that she has mistaken something that has been said relating to that but all of that work for myself has been done after probate so I can't understand why her solicitors seem to be dragging their heels.

Myself and another friend are trying to help her out of the stalemate.

@MEgirl IANAL but I believe each solicitors firm should have a complaints procedure and if you exhaust this you can then complain to the SRA.

Having said that it feels far too early to be making a complaint.

Clearly no one knows how complex the estate is but if it is simple, I would start by having a meeting and asking if they will renounce being executors. If not, advise that as an executor and because I have all the paperwork I will fill in the probate forms so all they have to do is check them. They are likely to resist as it impacts on their charges. So then I would push for a time scale. Follow up with an email confirming they were asked them to step down etc. and what was agreed with time scales.

The difficulty is you are a 3rd party and not in the meetings but asking for advice.

At the moment it's taking the probate registry 16 weeks from the date of application to issue grants of probate (some are quicker but 16 weeks is what you're told to expect). If an IHT400 is going to be needed you have to allow another 4 weeks. That's just for the grant application. Things were actually quicker during covid. Two years from start to finish isn't unusual.

The problem here is not that she's waiting for probate to be granted but that the solicitors haven't even started the paperwork 5 months after the death despite being informed of the death the next day. 3 months after the death they had not even notified any banks or financial institutions. The solicitors have not requested any information from the widow in order to fill out the IHT 400 which as far as I understand has to be filled out even if no IHT is due.

The widow has requested updates and has been ignored or fobbed off with long waffly letters that contain no information.

This does not sound ok and must be sp frustrating.?I would encourage her to start work on it herself, as a joint executor, and try to get rid of them. Fwiw I was involved in a will with probate recently, took us 3 months to put iht400 etc together and 9 months to get probate. I did most of it.

@MEgirl you are missing the point, as joint executor your friend can notify the banks and financial institutions and forward copies of the death certificate and will, she can complete the IHT 400 etc.

All your friend has to do is copy the solicitors in on her correspondence as joint executors so they are aware of what she is doing.

As soon as she starts to do that the solicitors will spot they are losing billable work and will either step up or renounce.

Also forgot to mention that the widow did actually notify the banks herself after the solicitors failed to do so.

@aramox1 I'm sure that is the best way forward and we'll encourage her to do so.

We were getting the feeling that the solicitors are trying to milk the situation. They have told her something along the lines of her husband being their client and not her and that everything will be taken care of. She feels they are not looking out for her and as they are named in the will she can't appoint anyone else.

My understanding is that guidance from the SRA, who regulate solicitors, is that if the estate is capable of being administered by family members who were appointed executors then if requested, the solicitors should consider renouncing or having power reserve to them.