what are the costs an executor can claim for executing a will?
My sister and I inherited jointly my parents house and some savings and are both executors. I live abroad but have spent 2 months in England helping to sort out their things, but my sister being an accountant has dealt with most of the paperwork, banks and probate, She has asked me for £7000 to cover her costs. I think this is outrageously excessive compared to the size of the estate? I thought £200 would be fair?
Law & Ethics - 8 Answers
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Answer 1 :
that sounds a bit cheeky to me.. but, apparently banks can still charge a percentage of the estate, and solicitors currently charge per hour at approx. £170. So I guess you could calculate the costs that way though on her work per hour. but just because she happens to be an accuntant i think its wrong. she could still do those jobs without being an accountant. i still think her charging for her work on HER INHERITENCE is a bit weird because she would have to do it for herself anyway if she inherited all of it. people can be so greedy i hate it. Surely she should claim money from the estate and not YOU. However, it looks like you will have to sort this out legally and it may be worthwhile to consult a solicitor about this. Did you do equal work that you could charge for your services of being executor? so potentially you could say your work was worth X, mine was worth Y, so you settle the difference? I dont know about you, but I would personally rather be pushing paperwork than emptying out an old house full of belongings and i think your work should be valued too if you sort it out. Otherwise, you could call a solicitor and tell them the amount of work your sister did and ask roughly how long it would take and a fair price. I still think its INCREDIBLY obnoxious since she benefited from the work and would have to do it ANYWAY or pay someone else to do it. things like this really pisses me off, people get soo greedy when people die. :-( the court also has to approve the costs she sets out but they may not really give a damn what she claims.
Answer 2 :
Maybe your sister should get something extra for the work she has done ..but 7000 pounds seems an awful lot..maybe you should ask a solicitor what they would charge to do the same work...I dealt with my mothers estate, the paper work,the probate, and all her the bank business..I didn't ask for anything from my brothers who also inherited from my mothers estate.. also try not to get into an argument over this..just ask how she came up with this figures.
Answer 3 :
If she's charging this much she must justify it to you by means of written accounts (given her profession, I'm surprised she's not done this already). We have just executed the wills of my in-laws and the costs did not even approach £7000. We charged the other beneficiaries the usual for postage, telephone, travel, and the settlement of outstanding bills. It sounds like she's charging for her salary for days off to deal with the will. Look into this before it becomes a bone of contention between you, you've lost your parents, you don't want to lose each other too. Best of luck.
Answer 4 :
Well, I do know that one Bank charges 4.5% for the first £100,000, then 3.5% for the next £400,000, then 1.5% of the balance, £300 for each beneficiary and £50 for each asset over £50. So, if the estate was only worth £200, 000 say, it would have cost over £8,000 with that Bank and I'd imagine that most would be much the same. That might give you some idea. Nonetheless, it's a lot to "charge" within the family. Doubtless she can enumerate her costs for you . . .
Answer 5 :
A executor (or in this case executrix) is usually only entitled to out of pocket expenses.Professional executors can charge their normal professional fees if the will contains a charging clause expressly authorising this.Professional executors typically charge 2 or 3 % of the estates value but may charge more or may bill their normal hourly rate for the work done.Whether £7K is reasonable or not depends on the estate value, the number of hours involved and the hourly charging rate.
Answer 6 :
Assuming you are joint beneficiaries so are jointly paying her to do it out of the estate she is basically charging you £7k! Unless the will specifically states that the executors will be paid or are professionals dealing with someone elses estate an executor can only claim expenses incurred. £7k is a lot of stamps and phone calls! Ask her for a complete breakdown of the costs.
Answer 7 :
Refers to UK What costs? Getting probate grants would be less than £200. You can dispute her charges . _____________ Executors who are not trust corporations or professional trustees may charge only if the will contains a paragraph which expressly authorises the payment. They may however, claim out of pocket expenses in any event. Ask for a breakdown of the charges, she must have an expensive phone company. She needs to produce a set of accounts itemising where the money is going. See needs to provide a complete breakdown of this bill, stating what each charge is for, it will then become apparent what to dispute, she can not charge your the price a Solicitor would as she is not a Solicitor its only out of pocket expenses, such as stamps and phone calls that would be incurred nothing for her time.
Answer 8 :
**You have not specified how large the estate is, what the assets held by the estate are, and how complicated the liquidation of assets would be. You indicated that it was about two months of work, but you had not indicated whether your sister was able to work at her profession during the time of the administration of the estate. A lot depends on the facts of the estate, and we do not have really enough information to give a good response.** In Pennsylvania, courts applying the decision in Johnson Estate, 4 Fid.Rep.2d 6, 8 (O.C. Del. Co. 1983), have generally approved executors fees based on a sliding scale, with 5% of the value of the probate estate value less than $100,000, 4% on the next $100,000 of value, 3% of the value $200,000 to $1,000,000, 2% of the value between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000, etc. There is an increasing trend in the United States to charge attorneys fees and executors fees based on an hourly basis. In that regard, meticulous time sheets (time records) are kept. The general idea is that for many estates, it is unreasonable to charge a percentage rate when there is not a lot of work to do in the estate. For instance, if all of a person's wealth were in bank accounts, there would be less work than there would be if there were a closely-held business to manage until it could be sold. In my experience, many people waive charging an executor's fee because they would have to pay income taxes on the executor's fee, while if they did not charge such fees, it might mean that the estate would not be reduced by that amount and the inheritance taxes charged on that portion of the estate would be much less than the income taxes.
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