How to get a solicitor to renounce his position as executor of a will?

[barefoot77]

What are the main channels to go through to try to get a solicitor (who is a joint executor of a will) to renounce his position? Do I have any legal right to force them to do this?
Any advice would be very much appreciated!

[Eve]

There are ways to get rid of an executor but it may be easier to advise if you put it more in context as to why you want them to renounce their position.

If it is a problem with the solicitor's conduct then can you speak to someone more senior at the law firm they work at or the SRA?

http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/consumers.page

[Hymie]

I doubt you will be able to get a solicitor to renounce a position of executor (joint or otherwise), it is money to them.

For this reason, I would advise against appointing a solicitor as executor of a will, unless you have no one else, or your affairs are complicated, or you know that there is going to be a big bust-up between your relatives over your will.

If your appointed executor(s) needs advice on an aspect of law, affecting your will, they can seek legal advice on this point.

Don�t forget, beneficiaries of a will can also be executors of that will.

[Barmaid]

There is no legal way you can force an executor to renounce. You can ask him, but he doesn't have to.

The ONLY time I have managed to do this was when a solr was appointed jointly with one of the residuary beneficiaries. The two execs had a massive falling out so I put it in front of the District Registrar and asked her to exercise her discretion and pass over the executors in favour of the residuary beneficiaries pursuant to s116 Supreme Court Act 1981.

[atatum]

There is no way to officially get an executor to renounce the role. A polite request might do the job, but the term �good will� when value businesses for sale came about by the way solicitor practices were valued, (then number of good wills in the safe that they will eventually by executors for).

Without the cooperation of the family it is however very hard for an executors to unravel the affairs of the deceased.

For many firms where a fixed percentage of the gross value of the estate has been pre-agreed by the deceased before death the lack of potential cooperation from family members may make it not worth the professional executors time and effort trying to unravel the affairs.

Sometimes a nicely worded letter signed by all potential beneficiaries asking the executor to renounce the role is enough to make them realise that they are not going to get the help they need.

When writing a Will always understand what basis the executor will be charging on.

Where possible secure a low caped rate. I say caped, this means a maximum percentage that will be charged for the work.

If the work only takes 20 hours, 20 hours will be charged at a pre agreed hour rate. I know these deals are offered as we have schemes when we write your will whereby for a small upfront fee you can get caped rates as low as 0.25% of the gross value of the estate.

This kind of caped rate can save �000's as I have seen high street banks charge up to 13% of the gross value of the estate.

www.gb-legal.com