To not want to be executors of a will

[Evisam]

My DH's Godmother (his mum's best friend from school) is 78 years old. She has never married and has no family. DH's mum visits her in London every month as Godmother has been housebound for many years. Godmother's brother (also unmarried) was a neighbour of ours and passed away 10 years ago leaving Godmother his entire estate. Godmother had a solicitor update her will to take her brother off as the sole executor. She decided to ask us to be her next of kin and executors, as DH's mum is also 78 years old. At the time we agreed.

Godmother is going to leave her property to her carer (this will be life changing for her carer and a lovely gesture she sees her everyday). The rest is likely to be split equally between her church and animal charities. We are unlikely to be left anything, and to be honest, we do not need anything.

The estate is likely to be in excess of 800k. She is not leaving a property to a family member (there is none). As executors will we be expected to pay the inheritance tax bill out of our own money, even though we will not be inheriting?

Godmother lives 1 hour away. Do we really want to be clearing a house and sorting an estate of someone I barely know, but I am really fond of, especially when we work full time?

Can you relinquish being an executor and ask a solicitor to deal and sort the lot including the IHT bill?

Godmother is still with us. I am just dreading the day the call comes. Do I really want to organise a funeral for someone I have met about 10 times? Maybe her local church friends will help.

I’m no legal expert but I’m sure you can’t be forced to be an executor. I thought a solicitor could step in as such if there is no-one else . There must be many many elderly people who are now alone so there must be a protocol for this type of issue .

Does your DH feel the same as you? You could perhaps suggest that one of her church friends takes over as you’ve changed your mind and it would be a nice gesture for you to pay for that as you’re going back on a long established agreement.
I also think that you should have looked into this ten years ago before agreeing to be executor. It’s not very nice to agree to it and then back out ten years later when the lady is older.
Does it make a difference that you’re not going to inherit?

You don’t have to do it all, you can use the estate to pay a solicitor to do it.

And I think the IT should be paid from the estate.

You don't pay the IHT it is paid from the estate, you can pay a solicitor to do all the paperwork and a clearance company to do the house. It is a lot to take on having just done it. If you don't feel able hire a solicitor to do it all or they appoint a solicitor instead.

Being an executor can be an arduous and thankless task, so much more so if there’s nothing in it for you. Bluntly, I wouldn’t do it for non-family unless I expected to inherit.

Having worked in this field and having personally just gone through an extremely complex probate, I’d rather stick pins in my eyes.

Everything gets paid from the estate, including funeral costs. Funeral director can provide a letter for the bank holding her account so that the bank then pays the funeral director. Funeral director does all the arrangements for the funeral (she may already have a pre paid funeral plan?) it's helpful if all information is kept together and you know where it is. If she's a church person then she may have already discussed what she wants with the vicar etc, you can contact them after death and they would steer you through it, theres not a great deal of 'organising' to be done.
There's guidance online on how to stop being an executor if that's what you want to do

This is correct. You can hire others to do all the work and sort out the tax. Costs can come from the estate. if your dh is happy to do this, then you don’t need to do anything.

You definitely wouldn't need to pay the inheritance tax bill out of your own money! You would be responsible for making sure it is paid out of the estate funds though.

You could use estate funds to appoint a solicitor to carry out most of the executor duties on your behalf. You could also use estate funds to pay a company to clear the house if you don't want to clear it yourself.

I don't think it would be easy to relinquish the whole lot to a solicitor - there would still be admin and responsibility for you and your husband as the executors. Since you say that at the time you were asked you agreed to be named as executors, it would be good to honour that unless your personal circumstances have changed? How does your husband feel about it all - perhaps he can do the heavy lifting on this when the time comes since it is his godmother?

After researching the executor role in detail, I recently declined to be named as an executor for an aunt. She has her own children and was perfectly understanding that I decided to say no. I would feel morally obliged to agree to be an executor for my parents though if they asked, and I would have agreed to for my aunt if she didn’t have her own children.

You just say you decline and there is a form I think

My husband wanted nothing to do with his mother's will (long story) and although he was named as an executor told his brother he wasn't going to do it and that was that. He had one letter from someone (I don't remember who) but he put it through the shredder and never heard anything else.

Thank you for all your replies. It sounds like passing it over to her solicitor will be the best idea.

Thank you for the information about the funeral arrangements. I have never had to organise a funeral even though I have lost both parents. (Mum and brother sorted dad's - I did the probate. Mum gave her body to science and we just had a family celebration of her life).

Something else to be aware of- the charities are obliged to steward their resources effectively. That means they tend to harass the executor to do the job quickly. I mean, it’s their responsibility, but the executors are unpaid and have other things to do!

Inheritance tax comes out of the deceased estate before it is distributed, it will not affect you at all. It's just to make sure the money goes where the deceased wanted it to go.

If the Church and a charity are significant benefactors they will swoop down and take over. You will be pushed out. I found out that hard way.

If the carer is getting the property transferred to her, does the IT come out of the money left to the charities? Or would the carer have to pay some IT?

As executors will we be expected to pay the inheritance tax bill out of our own money, even though we will not be inheriting?

No

Your job is to gather all the asset and organise to pay off any money owed which would include taxes and then give the named people their share of the remaining assets/cash.

You can employ a legal professional to make sure the legal work and the tax filings are done correctly.

The assets would include the house and contents and cash so you would have to follow the will to decide how to manage the transfer and what costs would be involved.

The contents would be valued before they are disposed of either by selling or by house clearance.

If the Carer and Church and Animal charaties get shares its likely that the house and contents need to be sold (which will incur a cost paid from the proceeds) or disposed of (as a cost to the estate).
The estate will pay cost of holding the estate in good condition eg electric connection insurance

The estate arranges to file the listing of who gets what £ and what tax is due. The tax filing is checked as Revenue would not take the filing on Trust. Then the estate pays the funds over to the taxman and pays the balance to the people who are named in the will.

Godmother lives 1 hour away. Do we really want to be clearing a house and sorting an estate of someone I barely know, but I am really fond of, especially when we work full time?

You can arrange for this service to be done and bill the estate however if there was enough cash and the other parties were paid from bank accounts and the carer got the full value of the home and contents you would not have to arrange a house clearance.

organise a funeral for someone I have met about 10 times

As the estate (normally) pays for the funeral and there is no family having her list out what she wants is the best option. Note the contract and obligation to pay is a personal one with whoever organises the funeral however the expectation is that her estate will pay all reasonable costs.
You can get her friends/church involved or ask her to arrange her own service before she dies.
And a good funeral director can organise a generic service with very little input within an agreed budget.

Refusing the executorship (as in not getting involved as all) would be something which should be done after legal advice as the estate needs to be "settled" and some charities have a standing policy to sue estates to recover the money due to them.

Um, yes the the estate ‘pays’ the inheritance tax, and if there is enough cash in the bank accounts then the banks will pay the tax direct to the tax office on behalf of the executors ahead of probate being granted ( you get a reference number for the tax office). However if the assets of the estate are not in cash, but eg property or shares, then they can’t be sold until probate is granted and probate isn’t granted until the inheritance tax is paid. So sometimes executors have to get loans to pay the IT. once probate is granted them the estate can be liquidated and the loans/executors repaid - v quickly if its shares, but selling a house will obviously take longer.

NB you don’t have to pay out all the IT on property in one go, you can pay it over a number of years (I think 10) but you will be charged interest if you do so.

and you need to pay the IT within 6 months on the death - or an estimate of it, if you’ve not finished the IT forms

This has the potential to become quite messy.
The IHT should be paid from the cash and not the property but given the cash is going to named charities, it could become 'interesting'.
Charities will want to maximise the amount they get.
Either get a solicitor to handle everything at a cost to the estate or ask the charities to take over and deal.

Blimey, this sounds complicated and a lot of work. She has property, shares and cash. I feel stressed just reading @AnSolas post about being sued. I did not sign up for this. DH agrees.

We will speak to MIL (she thinks we are mad to be executors) and ask her to speak to Godmother in person.

@tesseractor "However if the assets of the estate are not in cash, but eg property or shares, then they can’t be sold until probate is granted and probate isn’t granted until the inheritance tax is paid. So sometimes executors have to get loans to pay the IT." This was my worry!

If you don't want to be the Executor you need to say so now. www.stephensons.co.uk/site/blog/inheritance-disputes/what-does-intermeddling-mean-as-an-executor

IHT can be paid in 10x yearly instalments.
First one is due within 6 months of losing someone
You pay the first one, liquidise the assets and then settle the IHT debt.

I thought that was for the IT due on property only, so that people can for example keep a house, as you can’t part sell a house, unlike shares and cash.

though it looks like you can apply to postpone it (and pay interest of course) but you have to have made efforts to pay as much as possible and it’s up to them whether or not they let you. I don’t know how easy it is or isn’t to get a delay agreed. I certainly know people who’ve used their own funds/ borrowed to pay it. But thinking about it, surely solicitors won’t do that so they must have ways to do it.

I was lucky, in that the estate I dealt with which had the most IT due on it, had a lot of cash ( from house sale after moving to a care home) so it could all be paid direct by the banks, but I know it may be an issue with the next estate I’m likely to have to sort out. I seem to have become the default executor in my family ….

All the lovely rules are here

https://www.gov.uk/paying-inheritance-tax/yearly-instalments

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