Friend asked me to be Executor - Too much hassle?

[Walkingalot]

Hi.
A friend has asked me to be the executor of her will. She has 2 adult DC's, one of which she doesn't get on with and is refusing to pay back a loan. My friend wants to make sure her assets would be divided equally, minus half the unpaid loan amount. She doesn't want her DC's to be Exec's.

Would I be responsible for selling my friend's property/belongings/car - rehoming pets, settling unpaid debts - basically everything? Isn't it a tall order for someone who has no financial interest in this? Could I suggest she appoints a solicitor? But even then, who does the leg work in these situations, the beneficiaries? I assume the solicitor would take a fee for being Exec. Assets worth around £100K.

Any advice would be appreciated. TIA.

Hi, you can say yes, you can then employ a probate specialist, after her death, to deal with her estate on your behalf. Doing it this way, rather than stating a Solicitor now, allows you check different firms fees, at the time. They will take their free from the estate, you won't have to pay. You will literally have to sign a few pieces of paper and be kept in the loop the whole time. :-)

My mum asked me to be. We are very close. I know she's been to a solicitor to hopefully have it all set up properly. She's given me a big file with all the paperwork.

Of course I agreed. I have heard from other friends that it was a nightmare.

Dh and I have been executors for fairly straight forward estates. It's a pain in the arse. I have nominated my sister but will be changing my will next year and will look to amend it to state that she is to engage a solicitor to assist. Someone will still have to provide all the paperwork for insurance policies, bank accounts etc even if a solicitor is executor. We engaged solicitors but when it comes to clearing and preparing property for sale, maintenance of the property, selling a car, you are the one responsible. Your friend would need to ensure that all her paperwork is kept together in a folder, make sure her will is water tight to avoid conflict. All costs (house bills, solicitor, estate agent etc) will come out of the estate before the beneficiaries get their share. Personally I wouldn't thank anyone for the job again!

I’m using a company called Farewill for my dads Estate and it’s a fixed fee
I would have done it myself but it’s a full Inheritance tax form which is more complicated - well i think it is and I am not confident I could do it correctly .
But I did do my mums probate when she passed away and that was simple .

They have different fees depending on what level of help you require .
Solicitors can cost £££££ & banks often have fixed fee and percentage of the estate which can easily add up to several thousand pounds

So far the probate company I’ve been using have been very efficient with the paperwork and they have just sent all the stuff of for probate

It is the last service you can do for someone who has passed away.

As executor, you can appoint solicitors to do all the leg work. You can pick a firm who provide good service and if they don't do a good job can change them relatively easily.

They will report to you so that you have a reasonable idea of how long things are taking. While you have responsibility, it doesn't stretch beyond what the solicitors report to you.

All their costs will be met out of the estate. You can claim reasonable expenses, eg cost of postage if you send them documents

If the firm of solicitors are appointed in the will, the process of getting them ousted if they do a really bad job, taking forever, is much, much more complicated and costly. The will is likely to have been written a long time ahead so that it is difficult to know what will have happened to the firm in that time.

No one can force you to be executor. Even if you are appointed in the will you can renounce. It is however a big service you can render a friend, to oversee the distribution of their estate according to their wishes.

The one thing I would ask, in order to agree, is that they make it as easy as possible for you, including:-

Provide you with a copy of the will for your info and talk you through it, rather than tell you what it contains and then have you possibly be surprised when you do finally get it.

Make sure their affairs are in good order, so as a minimum one folder with all the information you need, including their accounts with numbers and identifiers, mortgages, loans, investments so you don't have to search this information out for your self.

Provide a letter (alongside the will) with expression of wishes, to cover any ideas they would like such type of funeral, order of service, flowers or not, catering for after the funeral etc, particular charity to benefit from clearing out the house, so it be is clear what they wanted. There are lots of decisions to be made, which are much easier to do, if you have some guidance. These are things that would not normally made it into the will but are so helpful to know in the emotionally charged time after a death.

Ensure her children also know the provisions of the will, expressions of interest and your role.

With all that in place and kept up to date, your actual work as executor is reduced to a minimum while still rendering that last service.

No don't. I think its quite cheeky of her to ask.

Personally, I would only agree if there was a solicitor also appointed as an executor alongside you.
If there are problems now with one of the children you can guarantee there will be much bigger problems with them when the time comes.

I have opted against using a friend as an executor as I expected there would be some expenses attached to the role that she would need to cover herself until my money was released. Considering probate can go on for months I thought it was not fair to put her on that position.