Why should you appoint Professional Executors in your will?

Your Will is one of the most important legal documents that you will create in your life and it is important that the Will accurately reflects your wishes. However, it is equally important that you have Executors who are both trusted and capable in order to ensure these wishes are carried out.

What are Executors?

Executors are the people (or person) that you appoint in order to ensure that your Estate is administered correctly and in accordance with your wishes.

An Executor is a Trustee of your Estate and this Trustee relationship creates strict legal rules about how an Executor must act. The law imposes a large degree of liability to the Executor personally if these rules are not complied with.

In some circumstance, this can even mean that an Executor must personally meet the debts of an Estate.

You can appoint anyone you wish to be your Executors and, unlike witnesses to a Will, they may also be beneficiaries of your Estate.

So why is it prudent to use Professional Executors?

A Professional Executor is, as the name suggests, a professional that has been appointed to administer your Estate after you die. This is usually a firm of solicitors or accountants but can be a single solicitor or accountant.

Although a professional executor will charge to deal with the estate, the advantages of having a professional executor almost always outweigh the cost. Administering an Estate is often complicated. Even routine tasks such as communicating with the Department for Work and Pensions regarding state pensions or dealing with inheritance tax with HMRC, can quickly become legally complicated.

It is an unfortunate reality that administering estate is rarely straightforward!

Additionally, an Executor is free to refuse to act when the time comes. However, professional executors will rarely renounce the appointment due to their professional and ethical obligations to carry out the last wishes of their client. With professional executors, you have the peace of mind that your Estate is being administered as you wished and in accordance with law.

I often see family members who have attempted to administer estates themselves, only to realise that the task is more complicated than they envisaged and requesting our help.

Unfortunately, becoming involved at a late stage like this often results in more complication and cost as the previous activities of the family executor must be unravelled and perhaps even corrected.

This is without considering any potential liability that an Executor may encounter through claims against the Estate.

Finally, perhaps the most underrated aspect of having a professional executor, is having the Estate administered by a third party. Administering an estate is a complicated task that comes at some of the worst times in people’s lives. Many executors feel that they are not emotionally able to deal with the task.

A professional executor is, for lack of a better phrases, detached from the emotional aspects of the Estate and is apart from any family disagreements or arguments that may arise.

In short, a professional executor gives you:

• Expertise in administering estates and dealing with any unforeseen complications

• Access to other areas of legal expertise if necessary, such as litigation lawyers to defend claims

• A detached, professional view in administration that has no vested interest in the estate

• Peace of mind that your wishes will be carried out as you wanted